General information
With the heating control application from digitalSTROM you can easily set your home heating according to your wishes. With a few clicks you can configure the behavior in the individual rooms, set the desired temperatures for the different temperature modes and plan your time profiles for the room based night setback function. digitalSTROM automatically adjusts each room to the temperatures that you want.
The first step is to install the blue digitalSTROM terminal blocks and the temperature sensor dS iSENS. Some radio-based EnOcean devices are also supported .
Using the digitalSTROM Climate Control app for smartphones, you can read actual temperatures and change the setpoint temperatures, among other useful features.
Preconditions
- The digitalSTROM server must be updated to the software version 1.9.
- Temperature sensors have to be installed and assigned to the appropriate rooms using the digitalSTROM configurator.
- The heating actuators (control valves) are installed and assigned to the appropriate rooms. In addition, the kind of installed heating system ( radiators or underfloor heating) has to be defined in the device properties dialog.
- Its recommended to install the my.digitalSTROM server App for remote access to the full heating functionality.
- The heating system has to be hydraulic balanced, so that the system is set to the optimal flow of hot water. This is usually done by the heating installer during commissioning.
Operation
The digitalSTROM heating application intelligently controls room temperatures using the infrastructure provided by the networked built-in sensors (room temperature sensor) and actuators (heating control valves). The sensors and actuators must be assigned to a room and regulated at individual room level. Target temperatures can be set and selected for different modes of operation.
- • During normal operation you can comfortably choose between the Comfort and Eco modes.
- If you want to save energy you can
- Set the whole appartment to lower temperatures during night mode
- Set the rooms to cooling mode while you are absent .
- Use your smart phone to set the time when your heater will be back to normal mode(Heating start point planning)
- Set unused rooms in the cooling mode (using the unused period mode either manually or automatically using the timer function)
- Reduce your heating target temperature while on vacation. You can comfortably use the presence simulation server app to plan your holiday dates.
You can use either your smartphone or this app to set the desired temperature for the five operating modes: Comfort, Eco, Cooling, Night and Holiday.
digitalSTROM heating always chooses the lowest possible temperature in order to maximize energy savings. For example if the cooling mode set to 19 degrees is selected for a room, and the night setback mode is set to 20 degrees the system will keep the cooling mode active during the night setback period.
‚Overview’ Tab
The actual status of your heating can be seen at a glance in Overview.
You can choose between Comfort and Eco modes in the Mode in normal operation in Apartment. The chosen mode is always active, unless you have chosen the night setback or the unused modes, or if you are on vacation.
The actual temperature, the target temperature and the actual mode of the rooms are displayed in Rooms. If needed, you can switch on or off the unused mode (Cool) in individual rooms.
Please note: General information and error messages are displayed in Messages and Events.
‚General Settings’ Tab
You can configure the following parameters under General Settings:
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Heating control switched either on or off: if it is switched on, the rooms will be regulated according to the temperature set for the active mode. If it is switched off, the regulation and the actors will be deactivated (summer operation), and the heating valves will be closed in order to save energy. However, the room temperature will still be monitored and can be displayed in the Apps . Please also see the Notes below!
- Chose the type of the building, either single family house or multiple apartment building in Building type.
- If the heating system of your building already has a night setback, this can be set in the Heating system section. If this mode is chosen, the time profiles of the night setback should be configured so as to be aligned with those of the building.
- You can chose in Behaviour in case of absence whether the rooms should be automatically switched to the Cool mode when Leave Home is called in order to save energy. This option makes particular sense if the rooms are heated with radiators or if the building isn’t very well isolated. In case your home is equipped with floor heating or very well isolated, this option is not recommended.
The timing of heating start can be simply and comfortably defined in the smartphone app Climate Control.
- The temperature of your apartment will be lowered during your vacation. If you want to enter a nicely warm apartment upon your return, then you can define in Preheating time before end of vacation how long before your return the apartment will start to be normally heated again.
The operation mode of your rooms, as well as their sensors and actors are displayed in Room settings.
You can choose between the following operation modes:
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Off – no controller active: The room is not regulated, and all heating valves are closed. If there is a sensor in the room, the actual temperature will still be shown in the smartphone app Climate Control. Please also see the Notes below!
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Heater / Radiator: The room has a temperature sensor, as well as at least one radiator with a heating actuator. You can choose a target temperature for each operating mode.
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Underfloor or Panel heating: The room has a temperature sensor, as well as underfloor or panel heating. You can choose a target temperature for each operating mode.
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The setting value follows a reference room: The room has at least one heating actuator but doesn’t have any temperature sensor. In this operating mode, the heating valve control value follows the value of a neighbouring room (reference room). For this purpose, a reference room must be chosen, and an offset value can be optionally defined. Example: if the room should only be fed with half the amount of warm water, just define an offset value of -50%. The offset ranges from -100% (meaning that the room is not heated) to +300%, which means that the room receives 4 times more warm water than the reference room. No standard temperature for the operations modes can be defined for a room with this setting.
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Use predefined settings values: In case there is neither a temperature sensor nor a reference room available, you can define a fixed heating valve value for each operating mode. For instance, you can decide to have the heating valves fully open when you are in the apartment and fully closed during the night or when you are absent.
For the operating modes 2 to 4, you can additionally define a heating valve value for the emergency operation. Example: in case the temperature sensor stops responding in a room and the regulation stops, the heating will continue operating in emergency mode and the value you have defined will be applied to the heating valve. This means that the room will continue to be heated, although it will not be regulated by temperature.
‚Standard temperatures and setting values’
You can define here the standard temperatures in Celsius degrees for all rooms and for the 5 operating modes (Comfort, Eco, Cool, Night and Vacation). If the chosen room is in the operation mode Use predefined setting values, then you can choose a valve value instead of a temperature.
These settings can also easily be configured in the smartphone app Climate Control under Standard Temperatures.
‚Time profiles’ Tab
You can define here time profiles for night setbacks and unused periods, for which the temperature will be automatically lowered in order to actively save energy:
- You can define a night setback for the entire apartment, during which the rooms will be switched to the Night mode.
- You can define unused periods individually for each room, for which the temperature will be lowered. If for instance you use a room only during the weekend, its temperature target can be lowered (mode Cool) from Monday to Friday. Only one unused period can be defined per day.
The night setbacks and unused periods can be defined for every day or for the whole week. These time profiles can also be adjusted in the smartphone app Climate Control.
Your time profiles will be displayed with bars in the graphical interface.
Notes:
- When you turn the heating control to summer mode, the outputs of the blue digitalSTROM terminal blocks are turned off. If the connected heating valves are of the type „Open when not connected“ the water will circulate in the heating system continuously. Therefore, make sure that the heater and circulation pumps are switched off. In case of questions, contact your heating installer.
- During summer operation the valve protection function is automatically on (can be configured in settings). This avoids the build up of calcification in the pumps by ensuring that the valves open once a week.
- The unused period mode can be used in other server apps like the scene responder or the user defined actions app. This allows the cooling mode to be controlled by other digitalSTROM applications. For example when the deep-off function is the unused period mode will be turned on, and it will be turned off by turning on the lights.