I know this has been discussed elsewhere, see: here and there.
However, I do not see any experiences or further information on this. So maybe to revive the issue here are my plans.
I have a floor-heating system that is pretty dumb. Central gas heating with electric actuators from EQTherm. There are 8 valves to a junction box, which are currently regulated by ‘dumb’ thermostats, between 2 to 4 on each floor.
Here is my plan:
use 3 Sonoff 4CH (one at each floor) to open/close the circuits to the valve actuators.
switch on/off the Sonoff 4CH via a central panel (possibly the Sonoff NSPanel) with temperature feedback from Aqara temperature sensors.
This being underfloorheating I really do have no need to do any quick adjustments (open windows etc.), but need a reliable way to set and forget the temperature from a central point.
I have been looking at Thermostats like this. But then I would need at least 7 pieces. However, I would not need the Sonoffs. So moneywise it would be the same more or less.
The big advantage for me would be the option to use the Sonoff NSPanel to switch on lights and access all function for the Smart home.
Has anybody implemented a similar solution and can share experiences wrt reliability? I am a bit concerned what happens if e.g. the Sonoff loses WIFI or the temperature sensor is off somehow.
So I think the thermostat solution would be more reliable, but the NSPanel solution more comfortable.
Any thoughts or recommendation for other thermostats?
Having a physical thermostat on the wall to allow everyone to use the system without needing any smart system, would be my preference.
I have tuya ZigBee thermostats on the walls and anyone can manipulate the state if all internet goes down.
But, for last 3 years since we moved in, no one has not used the physical thermostats yet, we are just following pre-defined set temperature through home assistant.
For me, i would like to ditch these thermostats and replace them with tablets and wall sockets etc as you were suggesting to use a smart relay.
Just pay attention to what is the normal state of valves, Normally open or Normally close.
hey, @fuatakgun thanks there - that helps my considerations. I also tend towards physical thermostats for ease of access. Also with the NSPanel there would be one single-point-of-failure.
However, having small kids it is sometimes even preferrable to have NO thermostats that can be played with
The valves are NC, so if push comes to shove (loss of power), they will just switch off I think. Which would be preferable anyway in my view.
Do you have a link for the tuya thermostats - happy with them?
Which would give me even more options: if I see this correctly I can use the Sonoff 4CH to bypass the thermostat. This was another worry of mine - I thought I have to disconnect all the thermostats.
edit: what I really like about this option is that I can use tasmota on the Sonoff itself as a thermostat instead of HA regulating everything. however, I still need to get the temperature values into the Sonoff, so maybe still reliant on stable Wifi connection.
and the tasmota thermostat option really adds a lot of functionality like different heating strategies (ramp-up vs. pulses etc), which sounds really cool.
as you were suggesting to use a smart relay.