Climote in parents house having an issue.

Jofspring

My parents had a climote installed in their house. They had a standard 3 zone system already, upstairs, downstairs and hot water. They had a thermostat downstairs and a thermostat upstairs.

My parents have told me that when they got climote installed the guy installing it said he had disconnected the thermostats they had and they were now obsolete. Strange I thought.

They have told me that when the room the climote is in (the utility) gets hot it will turn off the heat all over the house, even if the rest of the house is still cold. They said they rang customer care and were told when the room climote base is in reaches the temp they have selected it turns off the heat all over the house. Not ideal considering the utility is tiny and heats right up in about half an hour. They asked could they not leave the heat on upstairs and off downstairs and vice versa and the guy said ya just set the upstairs temperature to what you would like upstairs to be and it would stay on even if it turned off downstairs. The problem is how does the climote know what the temp is upstairs if there is no thermostat feeding back that info?

They seem to be consistently having the same problem of the climote just turning off the heating everywhere when the utility room gets hot so can't use the zones at all and just either have the heat fully on upstairs and downstairs or have it off everywhere.

They got climote installed without me knowing so I haven't a clue how the system works and am relying on second hand info from my parents.

Can anyone tell me how to solve this for them and how can climote tell the temperature in different zones without a thermostat?

Should they just get rid of it?

Sorry for the long winded story.

P.S. they told me they were getting Nest in and I said go for it. It was only after install they told me it was climote which I had never heard of.

croo

as i mentioned in another thread, I moved house last year and the new place has a climote installed. So, like you, I was in the dark as to how it works. I did find a manual online from which I determined.

There are three zones - but just the first zone can be linked to a thermostat which is in the climote hub. For the other zones it just turns on/off as per the timer. By default the zone 1 has the thermostat enabled but it can also be disabled at install. From the manual in the link it looks like you can disable the thermostat post install too in "Installer Settings" menu "Commission Device" option.

All this with the caveat that I was not here to see the install nor have had an opportunity to talk about it with anyone. Just a manual [which might not be accurate or current] and opportunity to play with it!

My setup is 2 zones - Heating & water so I've not had any experience with multiple heating zones but, from the manual, it reads like it should not turnoff ALL zones when the utility rooms heats up - just the first zone. Might the whole house be in one heating zone? The climote does indicate 2 house heating zones plus water but if there is only 1 zone it still displays all zones and allows you to set timers! It has a button that allows you to "boost" a zone ... that is, it switches on that zone on regardless of timers (thermostat is still effective mind) - try "boosting" the 2nd zone to see if the upstairs rads heat up - the 2nd zone shouldn't be effected by the thermostat in the hub.

I think disabling the hub thermostat would be your best bet ... can you re-enable the individual radiator thermostats or did the installer remove them?

djdunny

OP did the installer provide your parents with 2 wireless thermostats? I got 2 from my guys and because they are wireless they can be positioned in different areas around the house, depending on your needs.

The hub then pulls the temp readings from these thermostats and will switch on/off as per the temperature set on the hub.

raxy

I got 2 wireless thermostats as well. I asked how much wireless thermostats would be & the installer laughed & said free but they're told not go give them out if they can.
They seem to work independently so sound like the instructions above are old.
It is still connected to my old thermostats too because if I turn off the wired thermostats the heating won't come on.

Sleeper12

I got one wireless thermostat with my Climote. Its in the hall & the hall never gets up to temperature but I have thermostatic valves on all my rads. Each radiator & each room has its own temperature.

Jofspring

Was just on the phone to my parents there. They said the lad that installed the climote said you can get thermostats but they are not needed. He said he usually would have some in the van but is all out so ring them up and they'll send them out. When they rang customer care then they said they don't do thermostats and didn't know what the installer was talking about. They said just set the temp on the unit and it will turn off upstairs when it gets hot enough. They seem to be all over the shop. It seems very straight forward logic to me, if you want the system to know the temp upstairs it needs a thermostat to tell it.

She is going to ring again today and demand thermostats or get the system removed.

Sleeper12

I didn't think that the Climote unit has a built in thermostat. I could be wrong. I thought you needed at least one thermostat.

I'd imagine plumbing or electrical forum can confirm this one way or the other

raxy

Jofspring wrote: »

She is going to ring again today and demand thermostats or get the system removed.

Did they have thermostats for their old system? When I was talking to the installer he said if the old system has thermostats wired they don't give out wireless unless asked for. I got mine through airtricity, not sure if that changes anything.
Does their app tell them the current temperature in each zone?

Jofspring

Off the phone to Climote and they said she didn't get the wireless thermostats because she already has thermostats in the house. If she wants wireless ones they are €44 and to get them off Electric Ireland.

She said the problem is the installer said he disconnected the old thermostats and said they are obselete. The lad on the phone said no he shouldn't have disconnected them and they should be working. I got her to turn them to zero and then turn on the heating. Heating didn't come on because they were set to zero. Then got her to put up the stats to 22 and the heating kicked in. It turns out the stats have not been disconnected all along and she could have been using them. The installer hadn't disconnected them at all but climote had overrode them remotely last year because they thought they were disconnected.

A lot of confusion caused for no reason whatsoever. If the installer had just told them the stats were still working it would have avoided a lot of hassle.

Cheers lads.