thingstodo
Member
I would like this to have a PLC solution .. perhaps cloud based?
There is an existing 6 zone in-floor heating system (boiler, with it's own control system, supplies hot glycol) that is controlled with 6 hard-wired thermostats
The customer would like 8 zones (adding 2 zones for forced air heating of the second floor), so either replace the existing controller with 8 zones or add 2 more zones and a new controller.
The new valves will be the same - 24V, 0.25A motorized, with limit indication for open. The request is thermostat control inputs to the controller, with another over-ride for each of the 2 new zones, via wifi .. or cloud .. or whatever. It sounds like the perfect solution would be like having 8 Nest thermostats, one per zone, with remote control and monitoring over wifi. And that may be what ends up happening.
But the zone controller needs to be replaced or expanded, the valve bank needs 2 more valves to be creatively added, and one of the places left for the valves is where the existing zone controller is.
The newer controllers I have found all look like small PLCs with some missing features. So that's where the question comes from. Is there a PLC solution out there? WIFI enabled, password protected, with a web interface or a cloud interface or even an app?
Looking for possible solutions, or add-ons to existing PLCs perhaps. We have not talked budget yet, but if 8 Nest thermostats will work ... and that costs $1600 canadian .. that's likely the upper end of the budget.
There is an existing 6 zone in-floor heating system (boiler, with it's own control system, supplies hot glycol) that is controlled with 6 hard-wired thermostats
The customer would like 8 zones (adding 2 zones for forced air heating of the second floor), so either replace the existing controller with 8 zones or add 2 more zones and a new controller.
The new valves will be the same - 24V, 0.25A motorized, with limit indication for open. The request is thermostat control inputs to the controller, with another over-ride for each of the 2 new zones, via wifi .. or cloud .. or whatever. It sounds like the perfect solution would be like having 8 Nest thermostats, one per zone, with remote control and monitoring over wifi. And that may be what ends up happening.
But the zone controller needs to be replaced or expanded, the valve bank needs 2 more valves to be creatively added, and one of the places left for the valves is where the existing zone controller is.
The newer controllers I have found all look like small PLCs with some missing features. So that's where the question comes from. Is there a PLC solution out there? WIFI enabled, password protected, with a web interface or a cloud interface or even an app?
Looking for possible solutions, or add-ons to existing PLCs perhaps. We have not talked budget yet, but if 8 Nest thermostats will work ... and that costs $1600 canadian .. that's likely the upper end of the budget.
