Force closing Netatmo valves after desired temp was reached

1

I have a problem with Netatmo valves and am wondering if I can solve it with HA. I’ve tried resolving it with Netatmo support, but those attempts failed.

All my radiators are equipped with Netatmo valves, connected with the relay to my boiler which runs on heater oil. So far so good. My warm water reservoir is also connected with the boiler. This is where the problem starts. When the warm water reservoir turns on the boiler (i.e. if temp is below a certain threshold), the hot water also runs through radiators which are still open (even if already above set temperature). This is because the radiator valves do not close when all rooms/valves have reached the desired temp, to save battery. In my setup this is a huge problem, causing random rooms to heat up a lot higher then requested, on random times.

Now my actual question : Can I somehow force/control valves to close after desired/set temp was reached?

1 Like
2

That’s tricky IMO, because when you set the valves to their minimum temperature (the closest to turning them off) you would you the maintain the desired room temperature?

3

I would only need to do that a short time, so it forces the close of the valve(s) in a room (or trick it into closing them). Then setting it back to normal.

Not sure if my issue is totally clear, if not let me know.

4

I see this property in GET /homestatus :

anticipating:{
type:"boolean"
example:false
description:"whether a device is currently anticipating or not"
}

Not sure what this means.

5

You can probably set up an automation that fires when the target temperature is reached and put the valve on min for a certain amount of time.

6

Worth a try. Shame there is no opened/closed status available for a valve.

I’ll make a new thread to see if anyone knows what the “anticipating” property means.

Thanks @cgtobi

7

Hi, Did you find a solution to close the valves?

8

“This is because the radiator valves do not close when all rooms/valves have reached the desired temp, to save battery”
What??? I just planning to buy Netatmo smart valves, but it is confusing. You says that there are situations when the valve will not cloase just because to save battery??? It’s insane!
By the way, is the valve position available in HA? So can you see the valve opened position in percent?

9

Did you manage to solve this problem ? I just ran into it.

I have two circuits that can switch on boiler demand, one is all sonoff zigbee and the other is netatmo.

I finally discovered through testing that Netatmo assumes it is the only thing that can turn on the boiler. So when the last room hits temperature, it doesn’t bother shutting the valves. It’s like it deliberately queues up the action to close them just in case the next room to require heat is the same one.

If I then demand heat in another netatmo room, and the boiler comes back on, Netatmo suddenly knows to close those valves that it had left open! Grrr.

I am scratching my head as to how to solve. I do have a spare Netatmo valve so one way I could do this is to create some fake demand that remains for a minute or two after the last real valves close. I am going to ask Netatmo if they can turn this “Lazy Close” feature off, but in the end maybe I am just going to rip them all out and go 100% sonoff+better thermostat. The netatmos are expensive and break over time anyway, two of mine the bases have broken one completely the other is on the way.

10

I think I have an idea which is:

  • Disable the feature where TRVs can demand heat in Netatmo

  • Move all TRVs out of the room which has the Netatmo thermostat regardless of whether that is true (i.e. make up a new room).

  • Try using smarter thermostat to drive the Netatmo TRVs , using the original Netatmo temperature sensor for example if they are in that room … which some are

  • Use HA to drive the boiler based on direct logic from the valves. I already have the relay in place for this and all most of the logic.

  • Netatmo set point then can be left at say 10 degrees. This is for BCP only. HA is in control but if HA completely dies then you can rescue the heating by dialling up netatmo and walking round the house manually changing valve set points

Will report back but please do share any other ideas you have.