[OpenTRV-interest] Adaptive comfort (and stuff)

[Simon Hobson]

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

> However, depending on our radio selection you may be able to simply swap in a US-ready module for example.  Don’t hold your breath, but it’s not impossible.
> 
> Also, if you are *really* hands on, the code is open and it should be possible to tweak the radio code to work in US bands, but clearly we cannot officially sell that.  You’d be doing it under whatever local ‘tinkering’/‘reseatch’/‘engineering’ rules apply.

Just a thought, for those of us where it isn't too much of a problem, is a hardwired connection feasible ?
I imagine ethernet & an IP stack would probably be too much overhead for what is I assume a fairly low power and resource limited controller, but I assume there must be wired equivalents to some of the low power/low datarate wireless protocols.

The cable could also carry power, thus eliminating batteries as well.

Probably a bit of a niche corner of the potential userbase given that most people "don't like wires".



graham pitt <gpitt41 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Okay it's interesting. For me much of the value would be in having a management hub. It gives me the main use cases I'm looking for and for me is the real selling point of a smart Trv. Without it I expect it'll be a bit like my current trv's when I don't monitor or adjust them and just rely on the central thermostat.
> 
> If the system is a closed loop then how do you integrate with it? How can I pull stats from the trv's about temperature, state, etc and push new configuration to it from, say, a web backend? And will I be able to pull any stats from the relay or is it not much more than a relay?

Damon is better placed to expand on that. But, the system doesn't preclude "higher level" interfaces, and it's all open for you to tinker with. There's probably nothing to stop you (assuming sufficient coding skills) changing them to "dumb" devices and centrally managing them. Just be aware that (if I understand things correctly) the wireless protocol (and energy constraints) mean that the TRVs only communicate with the base every 2 minutes - the protocol would be something you'll have to learn about if you decide to go down that route.
What the project already does have is the means to log data (there's some graphs on their site). I think the idea for the likes of social housing is that the systems will run autonomously but with centralised reporting so that the housing association can detect faults (tenants not noticing or reporting faults until they become "really bad" is a common problem in rented accommodation) or alert tenants if they could be running their heating more efficiently.