Digital timer for Heating zones

limerickbuild

My electrician has put in 3 standard timer clocks in for my Upstairs & Downstairs heating and Boiler/Hotwater, and now my plumber is asking why i didn't put in a digital 1 screen for all 3 zones.

also why would the boiler be on same clock as hotwater?

I have condensed oil boiler & Solar to heat water.
Of course the solar i hope will do the start/all heating of water at times during hte year, then the oil will be kicking in to boost up temp and as required for rad heating.

Is the 3 timers the best way to leave it or what is the benefit/gain from putting in the digital?

youtheman

If you only have one source of heat (i.e. a gas or oil bolier), then you only need one timer. You can have several zones, each with their own thermostat. So the logic is that the timer has to be 'on' and any one of the thermostats below the set point for the system to switch on. So you can get a single 'black box' with a single timer and 1,2 or 3 (or more) zones, each zone has an input for a thermostat and an output for an zone valve (i.e actuated valve to control the hot water to a zone).

You seem to suggest that you have two sources of heat, i.e. oil and solar. But my understanding of the solar system is that it works on a temperature difference between the coolant in the solar panel and the water in the cylinder. So I can't see why you would need a timer on the solar side of the system.

Sorry if I can't give you a definitive answer to your question. But I would tend to agree with the plumber over the electrician. If I was you I would ask your electrician to draw you out a control schematic explaining how he intends the system to work.

fishdog

I would agree with youtheman.

If I was you I would ask your electrician to draw you out a control schematic explaining how he intends the system to work.

Yes, good idea. Then if you posted it here you could get a more detailed answer.

Andrea B.

Might sparky have been wiring timers give respective zones time controls so that stat circuits are forced open when heat is not required in the zone?

youtheman, I'm not familiar with the single box with multizone, but will it give seperate time control for each zone also? If so, the the original posters sparks has probably overengineered things.

ircoha

limerickbuild wrote: »

1 My electrician has put in 3 standard timer clocks in for my Upstairs & Downstairs heating and Boiler/Hotwater, and now my plumber is asking why i didn't put in a digital 1 screen for all 3 zones.

2 also why would the boiler be on same clock as hotwater?

I have condensed oil boiler & Solar to heat water.
Of course the solar i hope will do the start/all heating of water at times during hte year, then the oil will be kicking in to boost up temp and as required for rad heating.

3 Is the 3 timers the best way to leave it or what is the benefit/gain from putting in the digital?

Re 1 why should it matter to the plumber whether u have a single 3 zone clock or 3 separate clocks? It should make no odds to him.

Re 2, Are you sure it is this way? the proper way in my opinion is that the boiler is on all 3 clocks so if any one zone calls for heat via the clock, the boiler comes on. Maybe what he has done is rely on the HW tank stat to control the HW zone and in effect when either of the other 2 zones come on, the HW circuit does too and the tank stat shuts it down if water hot enough.

I disagree with youtheman: proper zoning requires a separate timer on each zone, the single clock multistat idea means that all zones below stat temp will come on so it means adjusting the stats.

For what it is worth my normal set up is 4 zones, 5 clocks, [ HW/bedrooms/bathrooms/ ground floor] 5th clock for bronze pump on hot water circuit with each rad plumbed back to the system manifolds, with a room stat in each room, not bathrooms, wired to a minivalve on each circuit with an array of switches to control each room from a central location. Am working on a mobile fone controlled model.

Re 3 unless the clocks are those awful plastic dial ones I would leave them

fishdog

Re 1 why should it matter to the plumber whether u have a single 3 zone clock or 3 separate clocks? It should make no odds to him.

Perhaps he just wants to see it done right!

2 also why would the boiler be on same clock as hotwater?

I would assume that this is the immersion that the OP is talking about here.

the proper way in my opinion is that the boiler is on all 3 clocks so if any one zone calls for heat via the clock, the boiler comes on.

I would agree, however this can be done with 1 clock that has three channels!

For what it is worth my normal set up is 4 zones, 5 clocks

This could be done with 1 clock with 4 zones. Each channel can control a seperate zone.

3 Is the 3 timers the best way to leave it or what is the benefit/gain from putting in the digital?

Digital looks better! You also get the addition of a "boost" button! Digital also has a memory that will not forget the current time in te event of power failure. Once digital is set up it is easy to use.

bauderline

I would agree, however this can be done with 1 clock that has three channels!

This could be done with 1 clock with 4 zones. Each channel can control a seperate zone.

Fishdog,

I am looking for the sort of granular control that irocha outlined in his post, in your post you mention devices that provide the above features can you maybe put forward the names of any products that provide such features ?

The digital timer I installed on my oil boiler at home has separate timers for the HW / CH which is fine. But can you get a unit that has a separate on/off timer for each zone ? Say bedrooms, living area, basement, hot water ? Then I would like to control each room independantly using a simple digital room stat ?

Is this a feasible and sensible approach ?

I have this in mind for a new house I am building...

Best regard, Baud.

davidoco

limerickbuild wrote: »

My electrician has put in 3 standard timer clocks in for my Upstairs & Downstairs heating and Boiler/Hotwater, and now my plumber is asking why i didn't put in a digital 1 screen for all 3 zones.

also why would the boiler be on same clock as hotwater?

Is the 3 timers the best way to leave it or what is the benefit/gain from putting in the digital?

Why or why did he put in three clocks? I've seen four and five Flash dial clocks where the user had one to run the boiler (which did unregulated hot water) and three more one for each zone!

He could have just put in a ChannelPlus H37XL from http://www.horstmann.co.uk/central-heating.php which gives control of two zones (upstairs/downstairs) and your hot water from one neat clock with boost and advance. About €100 for the H37XL but each of those clocks cost him €40 or €50 euro.

also why would the boiler be on same clock as hotwater?
Because when you turn on the boiler you need some flow through the system and this is the way they do it, so if your boiler is on you are heating hot water. This is important as you may turn on your boiler clock but not have your zone clock turned on.


Is the 3 timers the best way to leave it or what is the benefit/gain from putting in the digital?

Three fused plugs would be better than a x number of single timers IMO :mad:.

A diagram is always good for the electrician. Here's one I plagiarised from the Horstmann install manual for someone with upstairs/downstairs zones and hot water.

limerickbuild

met with electrician and have decided to leave as is for next month or so, and if its annoying to change 3 timer clocks to suit the way i want to run heating then he will change to the digital option.

Thanks for all the feedback and information.
I'm so much wiser now for the next build

TKK

A bypass valve is your friend when setting up completely independent zones. Some boilers have these built in.

I've just (last night) completed a reconfiguration of my heating system. I now have three zones HW, upstairs CH and downstairs CH. The CH zones are controlled by programmable room thermostats linked to zone valves and back to the boiler. The HW zone is on a digital timeswitch linked to a cylinder stat which is linked to a zone valve and back to the boiler.

As the existing manual room thermostats were borked and I had to replace them anyway I decided to do a proper job on it (I had also been previously looking at changing the timer to a digital too).

I'm hoping that overall the heating system will now run more efficiently. For e.g. last night after finishing the wiring of the zone valves, cylinder stat and timeswitch in the hotpress I installed the new programmable thermostats and found that the two heating zones were already at the required temperature yet the heating had not been on since the night before. With the old setup the heating would have been on all evening regardless whereas with the new setup it wouldn't have been turning the boiler on at all.