[OpenTRV-interest] Adaptive comfort (and stuff)

[Simon Hobson]

Chris Skerry <chris_skerry at icloud.com> wrote:

> 1.  Everything WiFi linked to the cloud 

Sorry, you've just lost me as a potential customer for the system. I *WON'T* go down the route of "all in the cloud" for several reasons - some of them relating to privacy (why did Google buy Nest ? Hint - Google's business is knowing everything about you and selling you to advertisers), and some do do with reliability (ask Zune or Revolv users how long term support for them worked out).


Lisa Ann Pasquale <lisa.pasquale at six-cylinder.co.uk> wrote:

> As mentioned, though, I wouldn't link the RH sensor to the heating. The RH would link it to the ventilation (MEV, in my case) through humidistats, which is a separate system to the TRVs and heating. Whilst linked to thermal comfort, it's far more efficient and effective to control ventilation off RH data, not heating. 

Again, it was not about controlling RH through heating, but to adjust (slightly) the heating according to RH and it's effects on perception of temperature. Not many houses have controllable ventilation anyway - I'm toying with the idea of making (can't afford to buy one) a unit for whole-house MVHR, but given what I've got on at the moment it's going to be a loooong time before I get round to it.



Damon Hart-Davis <dhd at exnet.com> wrote:

> This may be the moment to whisper quietly that we are working up to a small reward/product crowdfunding campaign in the autumn to be able to put kit into consumer hands.

I nearly tacked on earlier a little "how's things doing" note. Great news.

> Lots of detail to be sorted yet, but if people would indicate here (or to Victor [victor at opentrv dot uk] directly) if they’d like to be notified in the run-up to the campaign, that would be handy.

Count me in. Based on the indications you've given in the past (cost & out of the box features), I reckon I'll be up for a system (and to that end, providing up-front support) when you get to that stage.
(I've BCC'd Victor)


> A little update then:
> 
> 1) We have a couple of hundred of the current unit (DORM1/TRV1) on trial at the moment, in social housing.
> 
> 2) We will be building a bunch more TRV1s next week ready for some more trial work.
> 
> 3) We are planning on updating for the crowdfunding, with the imaginative project title of “TRV2”.  B^>
> 
> 4) We are working on branding (and probably a new Web site) for TRV2.

You've been busy then.

> 5) We ‘won’ a pitch vote last night at 3Cs: http://www.3cscommunity.com/Next_Meeting_41.html

Well done :-)



graham pitt <gpitt41 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Out of interest, what is the backend written in for managing and scheduling all the trv's? Personally I would sooner something that is installed in the home rather than cloud management, but I understand that's not trendy these days.
> 
> And what is the plan for integrating with the boiler? I guess for a simple installation you could continue to use the house thermostat for the main boiler control but for ideal results you would perhaps want some live comms of current and target temperature in a room and to fire the boiler when any of those targets arent met. You would then be able to understand which rooms are causing the boiler to fire and costing you money.

AIUI from comments made earlier, there is no backend unless you want one. The TRVs themselves do all the work, and communicate (via low power wireless) to a relay box which you wire to the boiler.
So when one or more TRVs signal that heat is needed, the relay box will turn on the boiler, and when all the TRVs are satisfied that no more heat is needed, the boiler turns off again.
So no "zoning", no compromising on where to put the stats, no "uncontrolled" rad, basically none of the compromises made by almost all other systems (including the "one stat to rule them all" Nest).

So installation is basically :
Pair all devices - I assume
Fit TRV heads on rads
Disconnect room stat & timer (if fitted) and wire the relay board to the heating demand terminals in the existing boiler/system.
Adjust each TRV to your preferred temperature.
Done :-)

Optional, add a gateway to connect the system you your network, and start hacking on the data and/or the devices themselves.

Ongoing tasks :
Change the batteries every year or two
Tell all your friends about OpenTRV ;-)