Help with baseboard thermostats

[Jmltech]

In the process of automating a vacation home. Each room has electric baseboard heat, controlled by a knob thermostat on the wall. Any suggestions as to how to remote control temperature settings in the house? With friends and family using the house, I need some way of controlling remotely the set points after they leave.

I can bring all control wires to a central location in the crawl space, but can't think of what to do from there.

 

[Jmltech]

Forgot to mention that the brand name of these thermostats is Ouellet. You can see more clearly in this image

 

[RAL]

There are a few thermostats that can control a 240V baseboard heater directly.  You didn't say how you want to automate it, but here is one that has a dry contact interface that will cause it to change to vacation mode and set back the temperature. The downside is that it requires running a low voltage control cable to the thermostat.
 
Another option would be the Honeywell eConnect wireless thermostats with the Redlink gateway.
 
Some folks also replace all the 240VAC thermostats with relays that they then control with conventional low voltage thermostats and automation interfaces.

 

[Del91574]

There's a few ways to accomplish this, but without knowing the control portion, it's all hearsay at this point. You can install individual T-stats as was alluded to or you could provide a central override as alluded to.

The largest item I can see to consider is whether or not there needs to be a minimum value held and what sort of infrastructure is going to exist and remain connected at all times. I think Honeywell and Nuheat are probably going to be the two most likely candidates. Honeywell would be the equivalent of a direct bolt in, which would allow your end users 100% control (both good and bad)
 
The other option I could see would be to install a Johnson Controls A419ABC with an A99 remote probe, set your min/max and then connect that/those to a output on a remote controllable system and put that on the network, phone access relays, etc. Part of the benefit here is you would be able to use the dry contacts to put the system to a maximum setpoint you determine, then override and put it to a "standby" setpoint and in theory, your end users don't have access to any of that portion, so Aunt Edna can't jack her heat up to 80 or off the scale.The same holds true where you could also enable/disable the wall mounted thermostats using this method, so occupancy and the like could be added.

 

[Jmltech]

I was hoping that I would be able to remote in to check and reset setpoints for any of the rooms. I will be installing an ISY with Z-wave (already have one in my primary house) to control front door lock, motion detectors, etc. Eventually, I'm planning on installing an Elk system.

Having each room controlled is good for setting the heat that is needed, not so good for setting and monitoring remotely. My worry is that a guest will crank up the heat in one of the bedrooms or bathrooms, then leave and we won't find out until our next electric bill or when the next guest uses the home. The home is in Colorado, so guest using in the fall or winter will want it warm.

I'll take a look at the links you provided, and see if I can come up with something.

Thanks for your response and links!

 

[spud]

have look at those:
 
https://casaconnect.com/en/
http://www.sinopetech.com/en/

 

[Del91574]

Is this a rental or simply a guest house for friends/relatives? Do you want the end user to have full control and be able to turn a room up to 80 and run it that warm, no matter what or do you want to cap them at say, 75 or so and then be able to set it back altogether?
 
Devil's advocate would be whether or not you kill the heat entirely or what and how you're managing keeping plumbing warm also.
 
I would put the M1 in and do the lock control via that (KAM) before spending for all the wireless business. More you could do with the M1 out of the gate in this application.

 

[LarrylLix]

Insteon has wire-in micromodules that could go in series with the existing thermostat and use the thermostat as a high-limit, safety.
 
You could then allow whatever setting the occupant wanted on the thermostat and still disable it completely later or control the baseboard at a set temperature, or time cycle, from another sensing source, with a HA controller like ISY994i or even self-contained communications without any smart HA.

 

[Del91574]

Baseboard heaters have a built in high limit safety built in, so using an external thermostat some distance away from the unit would be superfluous.