Retrofitting Z-Wave/Smartthings-capable heating control to existing hydronic/wet UFH

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Hi,

I’ve been hunting around for a solution to make my existing Polypipe UFH system ‘smart’. The wired controllers it originally came with are starting fail and remarkably the UI development of possible replacements has not moved on one bit in the intervening 8 years.

I have two manifolds, controlling 6 zones. I have looked at GeniusHub, but it strikes me that it introduces yet another management layer - and their solution requires 4x electric switches next to the wiring centre for which I do not have room.

Given the original controllers “just” open or close a circuit to the wiring centre according to a programme and temperature, I assume the layer that is missing is a wireless protocol layer to interact with Z-Wave/zigbee etc.

Is the forum aware of Smartthings-capable thermostats that can switch an existing wiring centre? Oh and it needs to be wall surface mounted as the original controllers do not have pattresses/recesses, nor a power supply - they are battery operated so any replacements need to be battery powered also.

Grateful for any suggestions, or alternative solutions

Many thanks in advance

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Did you have any luck with this?

3

I did a lot of digging around, and the best I came up with (following some help from Vesternet) was: Z-Wave Secure SRT323 Room Thermostat with LCD display. Not the most aesthetically pleasing, but functional. The unit itself has no programming logic to fall back on, but that may be overkill. It is just about cheap enough to have one in each room, or zone.

I’ve put my project on hold, because I wanted to combine the heating activation with presence, which I don’t think anybody has an effective solution for at a room level. Otherwise I am just moving an existing on/off programme from the room controller to a Smartthing hub - so there is no actual efficiency gain (though ease of programming would be 10x better).