[OpenTRV-dev] Radiator controls

[Bruno Girin]

Hi all,

Following a discussion that Damon and I were having on Sunday while
installing a boiler control at my place and quaffing fizz, I've taken
pictures of the radiator controls at my mum's (see attached): she has
electric radiators each with individual controls so in practice it provides
soft zoning as we want to do. The controls are slightly different depending
on the radiator but they are all roughly the same:

- A slider / wheel with 4 settings:
1. Auto / prog: controlled by external programmer,
2. Comfort: warm setting for rooms that need a higher temperature,
3. Eco: slightly cooler,
4. Anti-freeze: keep the room at ~5°C to prevent freezing;

- A numbered wheel a bit like mechanical TRVs that allow fine adjustment of
the temperature.


So for OpenTRV, we could have something like this:
- A base temperature set by programming (with a sensible default),
- 4 modes:
1. Anti-freeze: fixed temp ~5°C
2. Eco: target temp = base temp
3. Comfort: target temp = base temp + 3/4°C
4. Boost: eco/comfort temp + 3/4°C for a limited amount of time

Then changing settings could be done 2 ways:
Option 1: like today the 1/2/3 flash with a single Mode button,
Option 2: a slider switch for Eco/Comfort + "heat on/off" button: when on
"heat off" use setting 1, when on "heat on" use the Eco or Comfort mode
depending on the other switch.

The idea of option 2 is that you can set the eco/comfort switch room by
room and leave it there; then you just have to set heat on or off.

Finally have a the "learn" button that learns when you set heat on or off
by updating an internal "program"; and the "boost" button that sets mode 4
for a limited amount of time.

In terms of placement, you could have the eco/comfort switch slightly out
of the way because you'd hardly ever use it and then the 3 other buttons on
the front plate with 2 small buttons for "heat on/off" and "learn" and a
Big Red Button for "boost".

Of course, this would be a future release :-)

If we ever add an optional base station, you could have each TRV store its
own program, the central station store a copy of all programs and the two
sync whenever any program is changed either at the base station or at the
TRV through "heat on/off" and "learn". That way, each TRV can still operate
on its own but also be programmed centrally.

Thoughts?

Bruno
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