X10 Community Forum

🔌General Home Automation => Automating Your House => Topic started by: justdaj on December 05, 2011, 03:01:49 PM

Title: electric heating automation
Post by: justdaj on December 05, 2011, 03:01:49 PM
Hi all, this is my first post and I am not too clued up on all the terms yet, so please be gentle with me! 

I'm looking for some general advice on how I can automate the control of my electric heating system.  Let me try and outline the current setup if I may...

Each room has one, or two, wall mounted electric heaters which are filled with water (I believe).  The heater has a thermostat dial ranging from 'frost' up to  3 (full).  Each heater is connected to it's own wall mounted (floor level) on/off switch.  There is no timer :-(   Each room has a separate trip switch in a fuse box (I think also referred to as a consumer unit).  There is one consumer unit containing all the circuit breakers (trip switches) for the heaters.  Another consumer unit has breakers for all other aspects of the house.

What I would like to achieve is a system where I could remotely connect to a controller in the house and turn on the heaters -- independently would be a bonus but if I had to turn them all on that is fine too.  The heaters are normally left at setting two or three so it's just the turning on and off of the power that I guess I need to do.

By 'remotely' I would happy remotely control a PC in the house to do this, or if I was really having all my dreams cone true I would do it using my iPhone.

I'm guessing some of this is achievable but I'm really not too sure.

I had look at something like this (http://www.uk-automation.co.uk/products/Marmitek-X10-DIN-Rail-Switch.html) and I initially thought I simply replaced the breaker but this looks like it actually needs wiring too

Any help/thoughts much appreciated

(I'm not an electrician.  I'm a computer person!)



Title: Re: electric heating automation
Post by: Brian H on December 05, 2011, 04:02:44 PM
First you would have to determine the wattage rating of the heaters. So finding a control with the correct rating would be needed.
The module you linked to is a UK version and can we say you are in the UK? Where modules we dream of but are not available are made.
Title: Re: electric heating automation
Post by: justdaj on December 05, 2011, 05:30:02 PM
Hi, thanks for the reply

Yes, I am in the UK -- sorry, I should have said.  I did try to update my profile with the usual stuff you put on a forum profile but I can not edit it. Maybe because I am new.

The heaters range from 1kw to 1.5kw

Title: Re: electric heating automation
Post by: Brian H on December 05, 2011, 05:55:44 PM
I believe you are correct on the editing the profile.
Will see what can be found.
Title: Re: electric heating automation
Post by: dave w on December 05, 2011, 07:29:43 PM
This is familiar. Have you posted this question before? If not, a similar post is somewhere on the forum, perhaps with solutions.
Title: Re: electric heating automation
Post by: justdaj on December 06, 2011, 04:23:13 AM
Quote from: dave w on December 05, 2011, 07:29:43 PM
This is familiar. Have you posted this question before? If not, a similar post is somewhere on the forum, perhaps with solutions.
Nope -- my first time.  Perhaps it is a familiar request, but I certainly have done a lot of reading and can't find an answer that I understand!
Title: Re: electric heating automation
Post by: dhouston on December 06, 2011, 05:45:10 AM
There was a recent thread but it really did not end with a clear yes/no answer.