I made this description for others to be inspired for their home heating project. It has the following features therefore maybe interesting for others to consider when they are planning on starting a similar project.
Low Budget
It uses a Raspberry Pi Zero W, which is probably not suitable for more extensive home automation, but very suitable for this. Also using Eqiva EQ-3 thermostatic radiator valves. The whole project cost around $50.
Multi zone
It uses two generic thermostat instances for each room (takes some things to keep in account)
A non wireless system
I chose an all wired system, for reliability reasons and because I want to limit the use of EMF radiation in the home.
Presence detection with motion sensor and phone location combined
A setting for reverting to usual set temperature when doing a manual change
I tried to write it so that also the persons not familiar yet with Home Assistant can get on the way starting a similar project.
I’ll probably add some more text as explanation to some parts of the document.
If you see any mistakes please let me know and let me hear what you think!
I moved to a new apartment which was a reason to rethink the old thermostat design. This time I used a setup with two ESPHome nodes, as hubs for some sensors and relays for activating a heating actuator on the radiator. The ESPHome nodes are both connected by ethernet cable to the local network.
The design is pretty straightforward, something in which it will differ from other configurations is that it uses ethernet cables for connection to the ESPHome hubs.
I am using floor heating actuators for opening and closing the radiators.
With this actuators you have to take in account that there is a closing and opening time of a couple of minutes. In my configuration they usually close and open once a day. Would have been great if the opening and closing would be a bit quicker, but it doesn’t bother me.
Below is a schematic overview of the configuration I am using.
