EPH Ember

Clareman

I just spotted this thread on the main page. My parents have this system in their house and I have to say I find it brilliant and extremely easy to use. Their house is split into 3 zones and hot water, the interface/app is simple to use and this is ideal for my parents as they are completely useless when it comes to technology, it's gotten to the stage when they are coming home from places that my mother opens the app to put the heat on boost so the house is warm when they come home.

mneylon

john_doe. wrote: »

Thanks for that .

How do you find the system otherwise?

It's perfectly fine.
I would prefer that they either offered more options via the app or let 3rd party systems like the Smart Things interface with it, but it works very well within its limits
I've had one or two issues over the past 18 months where it lost its 'net connection, but once you've gone through the reconnection process once it's relatively easy to do it

Clareman

Blacknight wrote: »

It's perfectly fine.
I would prefer that they either offered more options via the app or let 3rd party systems like the Smart Things interface with it, but it works very well within its limits
I've had one or two issues over the past 18 months where it lost its 'net connection, but once you've gone through the reconnection process once it's relatively easy to do it

I'd second that.

I'd probably sum it up as if you want something simple to use without many bells & whistles go for the Ember, if you are looking for a IoT type of device with loads of options go for a Hive or something similar.

john_doe.

Clareman wrote: »

I'd second that.

I'd probably sum it up as if you want something simple to use without many bells & whistles go for the Ember, if you are looking for a IoT type of device with loads of options go for a Hive or something similar.

Thanks I wonder do they have anything on the roadmap for the app. It's difficult to find info on it from Ember.

I'm down to basically ember , tado or someone custom.

Advantages of Ember are i can actually get someone to install it and it seems to be a simple design with an old style controller still usable if internet is down with local support

Tado looks to be the more feature rich system but I can't even get an installer for it and I wonder how I will maintain it once installed.

matrim

john_doe. wrote: »

Thanks I wonder do they have anything on the roadmap for the app. It's difficult to find info on it from Ember.

I'm down to basically ember , tado or someone custom.

Advantages of Ember are i can actually get someone to install it and it seems to be a simple design with an old style controller still usable if internet is down with local support

Tado looks to be the more feature rich system but I can't even get an installer for it and I wonder how I will maintain it once installed.

I contacted them about 6 months ago asking if they were considering adding TRV support and they said "not for the forseeable future". Looking at the API / App, it seems to be outsourced to a third party so I wouldn't hold my breath for any updates to functionality.

As others have said, if you want a decent simple app functionality the ember is fine. But if you want more control I'd consider the tado. I'm regretting not getting my plumber to add a tado.

john_doe.

matrim wrote: »

I contacted them about 6 months ago asking if they were considering adding TRV support and they said "not for the forseeable future". Looking at the API / App, it seems to be outsourced to a third party so I wouldn't hold my breath for any updates to functionality.

As others have said, if you want a decent simple app functionality the ember is fine. But if you want more control I'd consider the tado. I'm regretting not getting my plumber to add a tado.

Thanks that's what I was thinking , struggling to find a plumber I'm Cork to fit a Tado however.

mneylon

john_doe. wrote: »

Tado looks to be the more feature rich system but I can't even get an installer for it and I wonder how I will maintain it once installed.

And that's why I ended up with the Ember. The plumber I was using was a total convert to it and as far as I could tell didn't know anything about any other IoT system.

I've had some interactions with the company directly and while they were very pleasant and all that they've obviously got no plans to add anything meaningful in terms of functionality.

captainshamroc

A friend (Cork based) got Ember installed last year and while they considered it expensive (boiler changed also explains that) they are delighted with the results. Standard 3 bed semi with two heating zones and hot water.
Unfortunately not an option for me. Old 3 story house with only one heating zone so I'm going to have to go the TRV route.

john_doe.

captainshamroc wrote: »

A friend (Cork based) got Ember installed last year and while they considered it expensive (boiler changed also explains that) they are delighted with the results. Standard 3 bed semi with two heating zones and hot water.
Unfortunately not an option for me. Old 3 story house with only one heating zone so I'm going to have to go the TRV route.

Have you any TRVs in mind
I was looking at the fibaro trv. From what I am reading about smart trvs they are a nightmare to keep batteries charged with most requiring battery charges once a month.

https://www.uk-automation.co.uk/fibaro-radiator-thermostat-head-trv/


The Ember EPH offers control from phone, but without two key features for me :
Ability to zone to a room level and control with trvs
Set different temperatures per day.

Is anyone using the Ember EPH as the control for hot water and main zones but then using smart trvs to limit the heat in rooms via a different app and control mechanism?

mneylon

john_doe. wrote: »

Is anyone using the Ember EPH as the control for hot water and main zones but then using smart trvs to limit the heat in rooms via a different app and control mechanism?

I was planning on doing this, but need to find a sane solution for it. I had found one crowd on Kickstarter that looked like they would work, but unfortunately they killed off their project and refunded all the backers (not a bad thing!)

matrim

I installed a smart TRV in my kitchen but it just changes the output that the TRV is set too and doesn't talk back to fire the boiler if it goes below a set temperature.

I've both Ember and the TRV hooked up to home assistant for some monitoring / control from there. I mostly use that to set the EPH to different temperatures at different times of the day. But plan to look at using it to change modes too.

Pique

I was looking at the Netatmo ones previously. I previously had the Netatmo thermostat thingy but since Ember was installed I'm looking for good and cheap (yeah yeah I know) TRVs.

If you had Ember set to 21C and the TRVs set to 19C, what would happen? The boiler will keep firing in an attempt to get to 21C but the rads will be closed off, so will the excess go to the HW until that stat trips? Will the Boiler continuously run to achieve the Ember target temp?

Seems to me that could cause trouble. IDK. I suppose you could put the Ember stat in the coldest room of the zone and have it set to 21C in there, with TRVs in the warmer rooms of that zone (which might be 23C when the other room reaches 21C) to control the temp there.

Axamentia

Also in the same boat we have all EPH set in the house, so just buying the email gateway will get me improved functionality.

Might pair with the Home assistant, but really interested in finding a way to make API calls so we can regulate nursery temp.

matrim

Axamentia wrote: »

Also in the same boat we have all EPH set in the house, so just buying the email gateway will get me improved functionality.

Might pair with the Home assistant, but really interested in finding a way to make API calls so we can regulate nursery temp.

https://github.com/ttroy50/pyephember

That is the library that the home assistant plugin uses. There are docs that describe the API in case you want to use another language

Axamentia

Great thanks!

Standard Toaster

Axamentia wrote: »

Also in the same boat we have all EPH set in the house, so just buying the email gateway will get me improved functionality.

Might pair with the Home assistant, but really interested in finding a way to make API calls so we can regulate nursery temp.

Just make sure you have a "RF" model stat, these are the ones that will work with the gateway.

Axamentia

I presume we have the RF model, we have wireless thermostats we can place in other rooms and control the 3 zones.

Correction: Wireless Gateway not Email gateway XD

Pique

"Might pair with the Home assistant, but really interested in finding a way to make API calls so we can regulate nursery temp."

The GH link won't allow you to do anything more than the phone app does, and neither will allow you to regulate a single room without TRVs. If you place the stat in the nursery and monitor it then it's your easiest option atm.

john_doe.

matrim wrote: »

I installed a smart TRV in my kitchen but it just changes the output that the TRV is set too and doesn't talk back to fire the boiler if it goes below a set temperature.

I've both Ember and the TRV hooked up to home assistant for some monitoring / control from there. I mostly use that to set the EPH to different temperatures at different times of the day. But plan to look at using it to change modes too.

Thanks , so basically the ember is switching the boiler to on based off a thermostat you have located somewhere and the TRV is acting like a flow control where you can limit the output to a radiator.

I can see logic in this , for example let's say there are two rooms you occupy most of the time locate the stats in those and let them fire the boiler as needed based off the temperature you want.

Now there are 3 other rooms you occupy seldomly. Fit these with TRVs that you can control with an app. Set them to minimal heat output.This saves going around to those individual TRvs and manually turning them down if the room is not in use.

Is this what you mean?
I thought the ember didn't allow different temps at different times of day- or does home assistance get around this ?

Also what do you mean by changing modes?

Boro

Just got my boiler replaced and ended up with the gw01. I haven't plugged in the gateway yet. Are these things secure?

john_doe.

matrim wrote: »

I installed a smart TRV in my kitchen but it just changes the output that the TRV is set too and doesn't talk back to fire the boiler if it goes below a set temperature.

I've both Ember and the TRV hooked up to home assistant for some monitoring / control from there. I mostly use that to set the EPH to different temperatures at different times of the day. But plan to look at using it to change modes too.

What trv you using ?

sightband

Hi,

All new to this...we bought a new house and the boiler has the following control panel.

Any idea if the ember gateway is compatible and how much they are?

Thanks.

Standard Toaster

Negitive, you need the *-RF series to work with the gateway.

Your one with gateway compatibility :
https://www.ephcontrols.com/section/3-zone-programmer/

They look the same.

sightband

Standard Toaster wrote: »

Negitive, you need the *-RF series to work with the gateway.

Your one with gateway compatibility :
https://www.ephcontrols.com/section/3-zone-programmer/

They look the same.

Thanks

Standard Toaster

sightband wrote: »

Thanks

I'm in the same boat. Looking to diy replace my R47....vs upgrade to an RF model. Maybe also include smart trvs.

Haven't researched enough yet to make a decision.

sightband

Standard Toaster wrote: »

I'm in the same boat. Looking to diy replace my R47....vs upgrade to an RF model. Maybe also include smart trvs.

Haven't researched enough yet to make a decision.

would appreciate if you could pass on whatever decision you make. have absolutely no knowledge about this.

is there any way of getting a installer in to replace the unit and give some kind of trade in discount on it i wonder.

Standard Toaster

Sure will do.
The cheapest place i found online for the EPH stuff was eurosales.ie
The gateway was €91 +vat and the R47-RF was €189 +vat. That was a year ago mind, never pulled the trigger on them.

House has 4 heating zones. I've a Henley Druid 25kW stove with back boiler, a Firebird C26 oil boiler, 30tube solar for hotwater and triple coil tank. Looking to get a setup factoring in all of the above. (if possible!)
I think smart trvs on the rads will help alot.

I'll keep you posted

s8n

I'm having a new system installed and eager to know if users on here recommend this or nest

KingCong

s8n wrote: »

I'm having a new system installed and eager to know if users on here recommend this or nest

I have EPH and wouldn't recommend it, see my post on this thread for some reasons why: https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057912428

s8n

KingCong wrote: »

I have EPH and wouldn't recommend it, see my post on this thread for some reasons why: https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057912428

Thanks. Its pushed me towards nest (Alexa integration also a big requirement)

Pique

Totally agree with 3 of your points. Different temps across the different times of the day, smart TRVs and reporting.

The IFTTT or Google home / Alexa support doesn't concern me too much but lots of people have them (I don't).

The thing is, if they opened their API and made some small changes then 2 of the first 3 above (duff temps and reporting) could easily be added. Hell a coder user could do it easy enough with their cooperation.

Maybe they would be open to considering this approach.

matrim

Pique wrote: »

Totally agree with 3 of your points. Different temps across the different times of the day, smart TRVs and reporting.

The IFTTT or Google home / Alexa support doesn't concern me too much but lots of people have them (I don't).

The thing is, if they opened their API and made some small changes then 2 of the first 3 above (duff temps and reporting) could easily be added. Hell a coder user could do it easy enough with their cooperation.

Maybe they would be open to considering this approach.

If you have home assistant you can get some of them already.

Which is useful if you already have the system and don't want to change. If you are looking for a new install I wouldn't let that be a decider

Pique

matrim wrote: »

Pique wrote: »

Totally agree with 3 of your points. Different temps across the different times of the day, smart TRVs and reporting.

The IFTTT or Google home / Alexa support doesn't concern me too much but lots of people have them (I don't).

The thing is, if they opened their API and made some small changes then 2 of the first 3 above (duff temps and reporting) could easily be added. Hell a coder user could do it easy enough with their cooperation.

Maybe they would be open to considering this approach.

If you have home assistant you can get some of them already.

Explain? I have it but would love variable temps and reporting. Smart TRVs are on the list too when a decent brand is reasonably priced (which I haven't seen yet).

Pique

matrim wrote: »

Pique wrote: »

Totally agree with 3 of your points. Different temps across the different times of the day, smart TRVs and reporting.

The IFTTT or Google home / Alexa support doesn't concern me too much but lots of people have them (I don't).

The thing is, if they opened their API and made some small changes then 2 of the first 3 above (duff temps and reporting) could easily be added. Hell a coder user could do it easy enough with their cooperation.

Maybe they would be open to considering this approach.

If you have home assistant you can get some of them already.

Explain? I have it but would love variable temps and reporting. Smart TRVs are on the list too when a decent brand is reasonably priced (which I haven't seen yet).

matrim

Pique wrote: »

Explain? I have it but would love variable temps and reporting. Smart TRVs are on the list too when a decent brand is reasonably priced (which I haven't seen yet).

I traced their API and wrote a python library that can interact with it. I've added it to home assistant so that you can use that platform to monitor and manage the system. You can also hook home-assistant up to google home / alexa / IFTTT to get some control from those too.

https://www.home-assistant.io/components/climate.ephember/

This shows my heating for today



If you wanted to avoid home assistant you could use the python library directly to write a small program that changed temps based on a cron job.

Pique

Ooh. Interesting.

john_doe.

matrim wrote: »

I traced their API and wrote a python library that can interact with it. I've added it to home assistant so that you can use that platform to monitor and manage the system. You can also hook home-assistant up to google home / alexa / IFTTT to get some control from those too.

https://www.home-assistant.io/components/climate.ephember/

This shows my heating for today



If you wanted to avoid home assistant you could use the python library directly to write a small program that changed temps based on a cron job.

Did you ever think about contacting them?
I'm going to get it installed soon as I've considered all the other options and going with EPH from a support/installer point view .
The Geofence I think is overkill - I don't need it.

What you have there overcomes the limitations of Ember for me.

Maybe they should hire you for some contract work :-)

matrim

john_doe. wrote: »

Did you ever think about contacting them?
I'm going to get it installed soon as I've considered all the other options and going with EPH from a support/installer point view .
The Geofence I think is overkill - I don't need it.

What you have there overcomes the limitations of Ember for me.

Maybe they should hire you for some contract work :-)

I sent them a couple of questions about echo system stuff (e.g. TRVs) but didn't mention the library, mainly in case they decide to get upset and change it.

For TRVs they pretty much said it won't happen. I'd be surprised if they every got much more in their current system. It seems like they just got what is supported in hardware and made it software. Their hardware doesn't support multiple temps so it would have to be controlled by their external software so would only be for the limited number of customers with the gateway.

Plus, looking their code, it seems like some of the stuff is coming from an italian company, who outsource to a chinese company and the API is a bit of a mess. I wouldn't be hopeful of them taking adding many advanced features.

So, if you are happy with a basic system then go for it. But if you actually want more advanced features, then i'd say take a bit of time to get a better system.

john_doe.

matrim wrote: »

I sent them a couple of questions about echo system stuff (e.g. TRVs) but didn't mention the library, mainly in case they decide to get upset and change it.

For TRVs they pretty much said it won't happen. I'd be surprised if they every got much more in their current system. It seems like they just got what is supported in hardware and made it software. Their hardware doesn't support multiple temps so it would have to be controlled by their external software so would only be for the limited number of customers with the gateway.

Plus, looking their code, it seems like some of the stuff is coming from an italian company, who outsource to a chinese company and the API is a bit of a mess. I wouldn't be hopeful of them taking adding many advanced features.

So, if you are happy with a basic system then go for it. But if you actually want more advanced features, then i'd say take a bit of time to get a better system.

Thanks are you sticking with the EPH?
I could take in back Into Home assistant , I was setting up an oilpal today to monitor oil usage and was looking to see can that also be pulled into Home assistant.

I'm not pushed on advanced features , I think a lot of them are gimmicky enough and not convinced technology is quite strong enough yet.

Something with easy control via phone I think will do me for now.

matrim

john_doe. wrote: »

Thanks are you sticking with the EPH?
I could take in back Into Home assistant , I was setting up an oilpal today to monitor oil usage and was looking to see can that also be pulled into Home assistant.

I'm not pushed on advanced features , I think a lot of them are gimmicky enough and not convinced technology is quite strong enough yet.

Something with easy control via phone I think will do me for now.

I'll stick with it for now as I only got it installed a year ago and don't want to fork out for another system. As a basic system it is reliable and does the job. The main reason I would upgrade would be for integrated trvs

micratoyota

I am in the middle of changing my boiler and fitter recommended that i get the Gateway Eph. Ember and he is only charging me €150 which he says is the cost of it. Is this correct.???

Pique

I paid 100 + 23% VAT a year ago from Heiton Buckley. Ring them tomorrow and ask for a stockist near you. Then ring the stockist and ask the price.

Standard Toaster

micratoyota wrote: »

I am in the middle of changing my boiler and fitter recommended that i get the Gateway Eph. Ember and he is only charging me €150 which he says is the cost of it. Is this correct.???

Eurosales.ie had it for @ €91 +vat this time last year (I never bought in the end)

Skippy along

Anybody having problems connecting to EPH server seems to be down for me at the moment

dar_cool

To control your heating ? Working fine for me here

Skippy along

I control my zones while I'm out through their online phone app... Well i use to anyway.. Not being able to go online since Tuesday

matrim

It was offline for me last night but it's working today

Skippy along

Thanks did you reset anything or did it come back by itself?

matrim

Skippy along wrote: »

Thanks did you reset anything or did it come back by itself?

It came back by itself

Ziboo

Their server was down last night. (First time I have encountered this issue).

I spent a long time checking at my side and re setup my gateway and thermostats in case it was at my side, then sent them a message on the website.
It was back working this morning and I received a reply to my query confirming that their server went down last night.