X10 Community Forum

💬General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Knightrider on July 17, 2008, 09:32:34 PM

Title: X10 HVAC integration
Post by: Knightrider on July 17, 2008, 09:32:34 PM
Just wondering. How many of us use x10 to run HVAC controls?  I know there are a few (myself and KDR and Boiler I  think).
How did you do it and what does it control?
Title: Re: X10 HVAC integration
Post by: dave w on July 18, 2008, 11:50:33 AM
Don't any more but used to use three appliance modules driving 120V coil relays to control HVAC
#1 turned the entire system ON and OFF (just interrupted the thermostat COMMON line).
#2 controlled the FAN.
#3 switched between the main thermostat and a set back thermostat.

Was a nice "poor mans" system.
Title: Re: X10 HVAC integration
Post by: Knightrider on July 18, 2008, 09:36:06 PM
     I, too, have a poor man's approach. I have radiant heat in my floors as well as an oil fired furnace and electric heaters.  I use an outdoor wood burner to pipe hot water into the house. My thermostat is from ramsey electronics (will insert model number) and has 4 outputs which attach to four powerflash units.
     When the temperature hits 68 degrees, the pump to supply water to the floor (zone 1) kicks on. I have it wired to an appliance module.
     When the temperature drops to 65 degrees, a second pump (zone 2) kicks on that supplies water to a plenum above my furnace and the furnace fan kicks on.
     When the temperature drops to 63 degrees, a UM506 trips the furnace.
I have a reed switched attached to the meter on my fuel tank, and when the level gets low, the furnace does not kick on, but the electric heaters get switched on as well.  X10 wavplayer announces that "We are out of fuel oil" and "emergency electric heat engaged"

    I also have two other zones on the water system hooked to simple thermostats that call water to my upstairs and the master bedroom (zones 3 and 4)


    In the future, I plan to add monitoring to the wood burner to tell me when it needs restoked and a freeze alert on the water system to the outside to circulate water and prevent a burst pipe.
   Also I am currently working on a system that pipes water to my attic (tin roof) that draws heat from up there and pipes it to my house or pool (depending on where I need heat)
Title: Re: X10 HVAC integration
Post by: Knightrider on July 18, 2008, 10:16:54 PM
I should also note that -Bill- (of wgjohns.com) has written a nifty little application called "Bill's X10 Manual Control" that will log specified module's activities.  I use an instance of this (I use several instances for different things)  to log my HVAC activity and can compute my heating oil consumption on a monthly basis.  Really neat little program that writes the activity to a wordpad file that I can read across my network.
I can't believe that Bill hasn't put this program on his website, but I'm sure that if you PM'ed him, he'd fix you right up.
Title: Re: X10 HVAC integration
Post by: KDR on July 19, 2008, 06:33:41 AM
Right now my HVAC integration covers controlling the air flow to rooms by dampers installed in the heat ducts. I also have installed 250 CFM booster fans in front of each damper.

I have a complete set of macros written to cover the control of dampers and fans and currently it is based on time of day since some rooms aren't used at certain times and doors are closed.

The next step is to add temperature control to a couple of rooms and take them off the time of day schedule. I plan on mounting a small digital battery operated thermostat to a powerflash unit, set the temp and plug it into that room. The powerflash will trigger the appropriate macro to boost the heat/ac or shut it down for that room, based on room temperature.

I am shopping for the right size and cost digital thermostat right now and have my eye on a nice battery operated Honywell that is accurate to +/- 1 deg.

(http://www.bdshost.com/X10/lpup.gif)---(http://www.bdshost.com/X10/lpup.gif)---(http://www.bdshost.com/X10/lpup.gif)---(http://www.bdshost.com/X10/lpup.gif)---(http://www.bdshost.com/X10/lpup.gif)----KDR
Title: Re: X10 HVAC integration
Post by: zach1234 on July 19, 2008, 11:46:42 AM
In my house I can mark rooms "occupied" or "unoccupied". So only rooms that are occupied will get lights and heat or cool and air filtration. This is all on a Control4 System.