Remote Automated heating on/off

I designed and built my own system over 10 years ago. At the time, I recall thinking that everyone's heating would be controlled this way in a few years time. How wrong I was - although some products have appeared on the market, their use is seen as geeky, and basically nothing has changed for decades with what you find installed even on new installations.

interlinked ones, but these look cool! Thanks for that!

Oooh, I hadn't spotted the WiFi enabled ones, I have one of their non-networked models, and semi-regret not going for the networked one originally.

Dad was asking about programmable stats the other week, I might pass mine onto him and upgrade mine ...

The Nest [1], by the man behind the iPod, looks nice. It requires a 24v control system as is common in the USA, and the first batch sold out very quickly. So would require some effort (probably re-wiring stat location and a small control board) and patience.

It builds a profile automatically based on your use; compensates for warm-up time; notices when you are away; compensates for weather (by geeky internet nowcast rather than external sensor) and lots more. Oh and you can monitor/control from your iPhone. No control for your lights though.

Cheers Andy

This is the cheapest internet power controller I've seen - it needs a Windows PC with USB at 'base'; I don't know t browser requirerements for the 'remote' end

if you dont want a computer running then you need something more expensive like

Alternatively there are little computery things called thin clients that go for next to nothing (some < £15) on eBay and can be given a dose of Linux or run on the original Windows CE or linux based OS it came with.

With some programming ability and a solid state relay or similar driven from the parallel port, ye could set up any kind of remote network controlled heating system. As well as ethernet, they have USB ports so could interface with the internet power controller above.

thanks that looks very interesting

That's excellent, just what I had in mind. Thanks!

Rob

I noticed their iphone app only seems to be able to address 1 unit - I've emailed them to check that and ask if they are expecting to add abilitiy to control an arbitrary number of units.

The web site says they've got an android version one in the pipeline for this year, and a version that can control multiple stats, should just boil down to a range of port numbers

Wonder if the app always uses the external ADSL address, even when it's on internal WiFi?

Ah good - I'm going to Android when my iPhone contract is up next year.

Indeed.

Mine had an option of using a local address or a remote.