I’m in the planning stages of a master bathroom remodel. I plan to go with Schluter DITRA-HEAT for the floor. I’ve been happy with plain DITRA in the past and so I don’t plan to go with another brand.
The one major obstacle I’ve run into is the thermostat that Schluter sells (DITRA-HEAT-E-WiFi). For one thing, it looks like it is cloud-based. I’m inferring this from the literature that Schluter provides. The description of the WiFi setup strongly implies that it depends on an outside server to do its job and allow the phone apps to operate. Moreover, it does not look like Schulter gave any thought to integration with home automation systems. However, I asked a representative about using DITRA-HEAT with a third party thermostat and got this answer:
Guidelines for choosing a thermostat compatible with DITRA-HEAT:
Must accept a 10K Ω floor temperature sensor
Must have built-in GFCI suitable for the application (e.g., Class A for bathrooms)
Must support heating cable voltage (120/240V, not 24V)
We also strongly recommend installation of 2 floor temperature sensors (1 hooked up, 1 stowed in case of damage or failure).
So I’m looking for a thermostat that works with Home Assistant, does not need a cloud connection, and satisfies the requirements listed by the Schluter representative. (And I don’t need the specs explained to me. I know what they mean.)
Note that I’m only looking for a thermostat. I don’t want to use an entirely different membrane system just because I don’t like Schluter’s thermostats.
I figure some forum members here probably have had experience with floor thermostats and can probably recommend something or warn against the duds.
Update 2018/11/08
The most promising product I’ve found is the Sinopé TH1300ZB. It is a Zigbee device and has the characteristics required by Schluter.
(heatit sells a Z-Wave thermostat that looked promising but it has no GFCI and hasn’t been certified for sale in the US or Canada. And they have no plan to bring their product to the US so…)
All the other thermostats I found require a cloud connection.
I have this setup but just put a wave switch that controls power to the t-stat. I use an automation to turn on power to the t-stat and off as needed to satisfy my needs.
On 30 minutes before wake up in the morning; off 60 minutes later.
The only drawback is I don’t control temp level, but ok with that.
Thank you for mentioning that solution. I’ve run before into the solution you mention.I prefer to have temperature control too. I’ve read a lot of discussions about how people use their floor heating systems. While some people may be satisfied with just an on/off system, I don’t think my wife and I are in that group.
By the way, people who may want to use an on/off switch between the thermostat and line need to check that their floor heating system does not use more watts than the switch’s rating. In other discussions I’ve seen about this solution, I’ve seen people forget to perform this check. Most wall switches I’ve seen are rated a 600W whereas the heating system can go up in the 1000s of watts. The heating cables usually have a sticker or a datasheet telling the wattage they consume that allows determining ahead of time how much power the system will need and whether a switch is rated to handle it.
I was curious if you ended up going with the Sinope TH1300ZB with your DITRA-HEAT. I’m in the process of getting DITRA installed, and I am also looking for a thermostat that I can suggest to the contractor instead of the Schluter provided one. If you did end up pulling the trigger, how are you liking it?
@adam3039 The web site shows me a little notice that you’ve just joined. Welcome to the forum!
Sorry to report I’ve not yet installed the Sinopé. Shortly after my post here the project stalled for a few months. We resumed in the spring and did the demolition in May but once it was down to bare studs I made some discoveries that required some additional research on my part. And my time was taken by other things that crept up, like taking a dying tree down before it falls on my house. (With the hurricane season getting in full swing I’m very glad we’ve taken care of that.)
Thanks for the warm welcome. The joys of home ownership! I’ll likely speak with the contractor about the Sinope hardware, I’ll let you know if they get back to me with any information.
Anyone have anything new here? Currently doing the cheap Schluter tstat and leave the temp set to 77 for the floor temp. I have a switch inline with that so it turns on 45 min before morning and then runs for 1 hour, unless the bathroom lights are on then it stays on and checks the light status every 20 minutes. however it would be best to just have a tstat that I could control directly.
Nothing new here that pertains directly to the thermostat, I’m afraid. We’ve had another emergency. Our kitchen stove became a fire hazard. I had to disconnect its oven circuit to make it safe. But no oven meant finding a replacement quick. The old stove was a Jenn-air downdraft stove (came with the house, and was ancient) but we decided to convert to updraft because downdraft is awful. So we had an unforeseen partial remodel of the kitchen to allow for the new stove.
I’m definitely getting closer to the point where I’m going to buy and install the thermostat, but man we got a string of unexpected house repairs like I’ve never seen.
For anyone interested, I am currently developing a home assistant integration with Schluter to control the in-floor heat thermostat. Making good progress and hope to have a PR to submit in the next few weeks. This would be for the Schluter DITRA-HEAT Wifi thermostat, of which I have two for the floor heating in my home office.
It’s good to have options. However, unless things have changed, the Schluter thermostat is controlled through the cloud. That’s what puts it out of the running for me.
Certainly an understandable position. I try to keep as much off the cloud as I can, but when it becomes impractical or downright impossible, I make exceptions. For anyone else interested, feel free to reach out if you have questions!
I was wondering if you’ve had any luck in getting a integration working for the DITRA-HEAT? I have the same thermostat and would be great to set up routines.
Yes, I’ve built an integration that works with the DITRA-HEAT WIFI Thermostats. I’ve submitted a PR into Home Assistant for review and hopefully acceptance soon. A +1 on the PR might help it move along a bit faster.
Did you ever finish your bathroom project man? The WiFi thermostat from Schluter is over $300. Would really like to integrate with HASS.IO and be able to set a schedule and temperature setting.
Please let me know.
Many thanks.
Hi Adam - I am no coder so I don’t really get everything that is listed on github, but did you ever get this config working with HA for the Schluter thermostat to work? I’m about to get some Schluter Ditra heat installed in my bathroom and really want to integrate it with HA.
Let me know friend,
Thanks.
@euromem I should be getting the heating cables (along with most of the other Schluter stuff: Kerdi, Ditra, etc.) this weekend. I’ll soon put in an order for the Sinopé TH1300ZB.
Heads up for those who care: where I am, the AHJ (authority having jurisdiction, which is the county where I reside in my case) wants to see the cabling installed in the floor prior to declaring the electrical to be okay. The first I heard of this was when the county inspected the electrical two days ago. No big deal in the end (no real delay and no extra fees) though I would have liked to know what from the get go. The county knew of the whole plan from the start but never said anything… On the other hand they do like to list inspections in my permit file like “footing” and “underground electrical” that don’t pertain to my project.
Sorry to hear that about inspection.
In any event, I just noticed the price for the Sinopé is more than the actual Schluter WiFi unit and the only mention I see for the Sinopé is for SmartThings and nothing about HA. Is your choice based purely on local control only given these two facts or am I missing something?
I don’t know if the Schluter has a HA “integration” or if you are able to just call it through some entity process in HA.
Curious to hear your thoughts.
Thanks.
The Sinopé is a Zigbee device. I’ve not used Zigbee yet but on the basis of what I’ve read it should work more or less in a similar way to how ZWave works. I have quite a few ZWave devices, from different manufacturers. When I install a ZWave switch from Inovelli, I don’t have to add an integration designed for Inovelli switches. It just works with the ZWave integration. If I install a multi-sensor device from Zooz, same thing, The ZWave integration just allows me to use it. If it is a ZWave device, HA can talk to it and operate it without needing an additional integration. That’s because all ZWave light switches expose themselves in a certain way, and all sensor expose themselves in a certain way, etc. The automation system does not have to learn a brand new way to control a device each time you add one to the network.
I expect Zigbee to offer the same advantages. Actually, from what I read, it should even be better because the way Zigbee specifies how devices expose themselves to the Zigbee network seems more sophisticated than what ZWave does.
I’ll note here that none of the ZWave devices I use with HA ever mention HA in their literature. What they mention are the names of systems that the average Joe and Jill are likely to have in their home. If you talk to the technical staff at some of those companies, they know HA and they can sometimes even help with setting things up on HA, but since most folks don’t use HA they don’t mention it in the literature. So the fact that the Sinopé doesn’t mention HA is neither here nor there. It is a Zigbee device. HA supports Zigbee.
The Schluter device does not have direct integration with anything other than Schluter’s server. Adam earlier in this thread mentioned integration with HA but that’s an integration that has HA talk to Schluter’s server (aka “the cloud”), and the server talks to the thermostat. The integration is not direct. Also, such setup requires a specific integration for Schluter’s thermostat because Schluter has developed their own REST API which is structured in Schluter’s specific way. I do not want my home automation system to be dependent on the cloud and subject to the whims of the manufacturer for ongoing automation support. So Schluter has been out of the running from the get go.
Understand. Thanks for the incredible detail and taking the time to write this. I am installing an Amba towel warmer as well as the heated floor so I think I will go with the Sinope for both.
