Opinions on Honeywell CM zone?

[Kostas Kavoussanakis]

The lounge in my detached house has three external walls and lots of windows; as a result it's hard to heat and even harder to keep warm. I have a Y-plan system with a programmable stat in the hall.

I have been toying with the idea of adding a zone for the two radiators in the loubge and never thought it practical (too far from the boiler, lounge four steps down from the rest of the house, hardwood floors and no hatches other than one close to the boiler). However, a casual search pointed me to the Honeywell CM zone system:

experiences from the group? How well does the wireless system work (I have a wireless router and a wireless phone, and there are three internal walls between the boiler and the radiators)? The hardware is pretty pricey, how expensive is installation?

Many thanks in advance,

Kostas

[Tim Watts]

Kostas Kavoussanakis ( [e-mail]) wibbled on Sunday 09 January 2011 16:32:

I did contemplate those. There is an internet shop in Austria IIRC that sells them (including posting to the UK) for a *lot* less than they can generally be obtained here. I'll look it up later.

There is also a specialist forum somewhere if memory serves.

The only disadvantage I can see is the prootocol is not open, so interfacing a computer to it would require one of Honeywell's expensive doodahs.

If you download and read the manuals (available from Honeywell's Hungarian site (in English) last time I checked, there is some scope to get imaginative with how you group controllers and rads if you want a lot of zones.

I did see a Honeywell document that described the wireless protocol as operating in a "retransmit state frequently" rather than "transmit state change once" mode which was marketed as being self healing in the case of a missed reception - I do not think the protocol is duplex with ACKs so this is at least well thought out.

So as long as you can get a signal most ofthe time they should work even if the odd message gets swamped out by something else.

[Kostas Kavoussanakis]

Thanks, most excellent answer. The link to the Austrian site may come in handy. I haven't thought it through, but I think I may be able to live with the 2 control units and 2 HR80UK in the lounge, then leave the rest of the house controlled from the CM907 and the standard TRVs.

Re Hungary, the UK Honeywell site has info:

am guessing that "retransmit state frequently" will not be kind to the batteries; I am wondering if rechargables will work well enough. Also, in my question re interference, I was thinking more about the placement of the control units.

Cheers, Kostas

[Tim Watts]

Kostas Kavoussanakis ( [e-mail]) wibbled on Sunday 09 January 2011 20:22:

Here you go:

the pound is so bolloxed since I last checked, you seem to be able to get them here for less!

eg:

> There is also a specialist forum somewhere if memory serves.

Can't remember if this is the one I looked at - it's not CM-Zone but it seems to have good coverage:

They claim a year or two. The transmit interval is measured in minutes rather than seconds and the message is almost certainly very short.

I wouldn't bank on rechargeables - I have had so many things object to 1.2V per cell rather than 1.5V that I gave up bothering...

Jumbo pack of alkalines from somewhere sensible is probably the best bet.

Cheers

Tim

[Kostas Kavoussanakis]

You can say that again. 1 x stat, 1 x relay, 6 x heads, 935 Euro!

I am warming to it, if the pun is pardoned, though convincing HRH The Purser may be a different matter. Do I need an installer? The installation instructions read:

"For existing ?Y Plan? remove only Room Thermostat connections from Junction Box Terminals and replace with Connections to HC60NG."

old RT used to have three cables, of which I only used 2 when I replaced it with the CM907. Am I just fitting these 3 cables to the appropriate terminals of the HC60NG, or do I need to reposition them in the Junction Box?

Cheers,

Kostas

p.s.: My findings with rechargables are quite the opposite to yours, even for cheap children's toys. I hate the wastage (and leaks...) of alkalines. I have also a preference for Lithiums when rechargeables won't do and I consider 7dayshop a friend in that respect (and good old Superia).

[Tim Streater]

[Kostas Kavoussanakis]

Ah, yes, sorry. Not much I can do about that. :-)

Loads of manuals and brochures on the site, though, I found it well worth the little pain (and zero cost) of registering. YMMV.

Kostas

[Tim Streater]

Ah rite, I expect I'll do that. This thread has been useful to me as, not knowing any better, I kept imagining that having various zones meant laying lots of new pipes, each set controlled by another valve of the type that determines whether hot water goes to the CH/HW/both.

Now I see there's a proper solution where the *rads* control the boiler directly, which is what we've needed all along. So ta.

[chris French]

In message , Tim Streater writes

There is also the Househeat system:

[Tim Watts]

chris French ( [e-mail]) wibbled on Sunday 16 January 2011 22:21:

That's very interesting (especially the prices) - anyone have any experience?

[Tim Watts]

chris French ( [e-mail]) wibbled on Sunday 16 January 2011 22:21:

Though I see a pathetic amount of info - poor images and no manuals or technical data. In fact no data at all.

[Tim Streater]

Really? You astonish me! :-)

Turns out I'd already registered as I was looking for doccy for ordinary wired Honeywell controllers last year.

Well - their site is a pain. For starters it only recognises my password about one time in six. Also, where ever I go or want to go, it either takes me back to the login page or to a search results page saying one document found, which is an 8 or so minute video at a very low level.

I managed to find some manuals on the cm-zone, in the installers section, but have had no luck at all on the main Honeywell site.

[Tim Watts]

Tim Watts ( [e-mail]) wibbled on Sunday 16 January 2011 22:57:

I emailed David at that company and pointed out the lack of manuals etc.

He said "they come with the order".

I emailed back and said I'd like to read up on the system before ordering as there is absolutely no technical data on site.

He said to phone him 10-11am today and he would explain how they were betetr than Honeywell.

I did and got and answerphone - bearing in mind I'm at work so can't ring again...

I emailed back - nothing yet.

The registered address:

2a Tudor Road, Hampton, Middlesex

Looks pretty residential and the registrant of housetechsolutions.co.uk is:

Registrant: Almax ApS

Registrant type: Non-UK Corporation

Registrant's address: H Rasmussens Vej 8 Odense C 5000 Denmark

They are:

ran that through Google Translate and it makes bout as much sense in English as it does in Danish - though they do mutter something about "heating".

All looks too woolly and vague for my tastes...

Tim

[Alan Braggins]

implies that an earlier version of their website did have some technical data available, but archive.org says robots.txt blocked that site.

and might be copies of some of those manuals. No manual for the boiler conection though:

[Tim Watts]

Alan Braggins ( [e-mail]) wibbled on Monday 17 January

2011 16:29:

answers a lot of technical questions, and

which are very revealing.

Seems to support lots of zones (8) but only 2 temperatures per zone (basically "on" and "off").

I do not know why David can't publish these - although I did get hold of him eventually and he was absolutely perfectly helpful, these documents answered many many more questions than I had time to put to him.

Although they claim lots of big customers, the operation (in the UK at least) seems very small and wibbly - I suspect the Chinese are doing most of the work...

Cheers,

Tim

[Kostas Kavoussanakis]

What, other than the above, are you looking for? Is that any good?

[Tim Streater]

That takes me to the login page again, and on logging in, to a pointer to the 8-minute video on Utube. Again.

I'd like to browse their manuals (e.g., not sure the CM67 is their latest offering). I'm sure I did that last year as I found manuals about the ST9400C, for example. Hmmm, perhaps I should register again with a different email.

[Tim Watts]

Tim Streater ( [e-mail]) wibbled on Monday 17 January 2011

23:18:

Check your email...

[Tim Streater]

Yes - thanks - that's very helpful. Something for me to get my teeth into!

[Kostas Kavoussanakis]

Thanks in advance for your help,

Kostas