I am looking for an ST able thermostat that can control floor heating. My system is on 110v uses about 815w at max and draws about 7A. I have a two wire floor sensor that i would need to hook up to it. Anyone have any ideas ?
I saw a topic where someone used a smart switch to turn on their “dumb” tstat however i want the functionality that some of the other thermostats bring. I figured if i could find a way to send the floor sensor data to ST then i could use it to turn on a smart switch based on Heat Set Point. I figured maybe i can tap into a multi purpose sensor and attach my probe to it ?! Just spitballing here really, but any help would be appreciated.
Sinope tstat would work, but that would require their gateway and as i understand coms from that to ST are still in devlopment via an API and not quite 100%. Tstat is 175$ gateway is 90$ thats a 260$ tstat to warm up 100sqft of bathroom floor.
EDIT:
I would be able to justify the cost if i could replace my gas fireplace tstat with a sinope as well as a heat pump and/or ac controller. Basically if i could make sinope control all of the things it would make sense, but even then id be stuck with the whole neviweb protocol when everyone is out developing z-wave,zigbee or ifttt …
The market for it is there. I have several floor installer friends that put in an electric floor heating system every week for someone. Bathrooms, kitchen, entryway you name it.
I have sinope with 2 in floor thermostats and 10 baseboard thermostats and it’s working great with the community DTH. It’s definitely not cost effective in your case for sure. Sorry about the Heatit post. I didn’t know they dont make 110v in floor Thermostat. Kind of strange since most in-floor makers do make both voltage.
RBoy
(www.rboyapps.com - Making SmartThings Easy!)
7
You should look at apps that use remote temperature sensors to control your floor heater.
Here’s an example of one of the apps we wrote up on popular request to remotely manage homes using heaters, fans, humidifiers etc (those without thermostats). You could use the heater switches to turn on/off your floor heater. As you said you would need to purchase a temperature sensor which can be paired with ST and use that in the app to detect the floor temperature.
@celblazer That is exactly what i originally wanted to do, but after reading stuff online i scared myself. How would the aforementioned be connected together ? Going to try and figure out a diagram for the connections on my own in the meantime
@RBoy the temp sensor you suggested would not work in my case as i need something to pickup the temp from the tiles (preferably using the tiled in sensors that i already have in place). so i would technically need a sensor to touch the tiles and tell ST their temp then ST would trigger an on/off switch based on previously set points.
The heatit tstat would be exactly what i need, but in the 110v version which they don’t have
RBoy
(www.rboyapps.com - Making SmartThings Easy!)
13
So couple of things:
You can put the temperature sensor on the floor, it isn’t perfect but may do the job (it’s essentially a hack)
We’re working with manufacturers on some new devices that will be launched within the next few quarters from which will meet your need to contact temperature sensors/thin strip sensors but can’t give more details due to a NDA. Just keep a watch on the market.
For the heatit tstat, just buy a 220 to 110 converter from Amazon or local hardware store, pretty cheap.
@celblazer the sensor comes to bite me in the rear end. did a bit of research found this Aube Technologies RC840T-120 which is power and relay all in one. however i cant think of ST Tstat that would take the input from my preinstalled floor sensors.
@RBoy without trying to sound very picky about this whole setup here it goes:
an ambient temp sensor would have a very skewed reading for the floor temp, also due to code regulation the heating wire is not anywhere near water features or the wall which means id have a big white sensor in front of the toilet or somewhere in plain sight
OMG OMG ill sign the NDA as long as you tell me. promise i wount tell anyone (to be read in Stewie’s voice from Family Guy)
the size of one of those converters alone would make the install prohibitive not to mention to possible code violation. all those factors aside means i would somehow have to turn my current 110v wire coming from the elec panel into a 220v, then plug in the heatit TSTAT, attach a converter to the output load leads of the converter to my heating wire in the floor. all while trying to fit a square box into a rectangle
You could overheat your floor heater wire by not using the in-floor temp sensor. You could have max power going to the heater wire while the external sensor is at room ambient temp. ST to control temp is not recommended due to stability so I would definitely avoid this unless you are comfortable. What I would do is leave your old Tstat in place and wire the ST sensor in series.
Heatit is whats needed. Just need a manufacturer to make a version that is for the US. I know my Schulter floor system thermostat has GFCI built in along with other safety features.
@Navat604 i agree about overheating and dont wish to do that. however i currently dont have any thermostat as my previous one broke. can you think of a solution where i would use a dumb tstat and something to communicate to ST ?
@TN_Oldman i agree with you! HeatIt is exactly what i need but in the 110v version for the US.
@JaneL yes that was your post i saw but i wanted more functionality then just on/off…
@Navat604 yes that GE switch would pose an issue seeing that my system uses 815W
Any of you guys know of an arduino type project i could implent to transmit my floor temp to ST ? I could then use ST to turn on a smart switch that is rated for my 800W setup…
