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Distribute Hit in house with Motorized Register?

Hi All,

I live in a Back Split house (bedrooms upstairs, living room downstairs) and have one of those LCD thermostats on main floor. I am not really happy with hit distribution in my house. I set the temperature in a scheduled order to keep the temperature at nights at

23 (74) degree but regardless of that our bedrooms upstairs are always to hot or too cold (depends on outside temperature). I think the problem is cold/hit from outside first hit the main floor (that thermostat is) and then bedrooms. Beside this problem I am wondering if I can computerize the whole temperature control system. I am thinking about someway to software-control temperature of each room. So I can bring down bedrooms and bring up living room temperatures during the days and backward during nights (or for instance turn off hit for guest room if no one is there; no guest). For implementing something like this I need two things: 1- Controllable Air Flow Register (Motorize) 2- Temperature sensor for each room (this part should be the easy part, there are lots of digital single-wire sensor in market that even can be chained)

Anyone knows anything about Motorize Register or any comment on my idea? Anyone interested to do it as a team?

Thanks,

Homer

Reply to
Homer
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Let's say... Open/closed venting. (Not variable position control.) How about a bunch of thermostats in parallel to the furnace. The furnace runs until the last thermostat open cct's. Each thermostat controls a motorized vent. If every room comes up to temp, all flaps are closed, there's nothing conducting in the parallel circuit and the furnace shuts down..

No software...

D from BC

Reply to
D from BC

There's a company in Beaverton, Oregon that produces a system that'll do this for you.

But I've been trying to remember the name for the last ten minutes and can't.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Do you need to implement control loops in software?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" gives you just what it says.
See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html
Reply to
Tim Wescott

Homer wrote in news:1192456452.265210.235580 @i13g2000prf.googlegroups.com:

Most central heating systems have "valves" for the duct work ususally located near the furnace. These allow you to control the airflow to various areas of the house. Close the upstairs a little and open the downstairs a little.

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Reply to
me

Very smart thinking D. All I need is a motorized vent with thermostat. I can even forget about linking them together and downsize the project to replace old vents with new motorized ones. I then think of something else for shutting down furnace is all vents are shut (presure control switch or something like that).

Now here comes the big question: Is there anything like that in market? anybody?

Homer

Reply to
Homer

Yep. Search for 'motorized damper'. But these are for installation in duct runs and may require chopping holes in walls and floors for a retrofit. Motorized registers would seem to make a better option for a retrofit.

--
Paul Hovnanian     mailto:Paul@Hovnanian.com
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Child prodigy procrastinator.
Reply to
Paul Hovnanian P.E.

I wonder how such a system would work if only a few rooms call for heat. The furnace might not work well with the back pressure and reduced flow. In fact, the heat exchanger may reach a high temperature. Most modern furnaces have safety sensors to shut down in this case, but hey will still treat this condition as a fault and may not even restart until properly reset (usually following an inspection).

High back pressures might also cause 'closed' registers to whistle.

--
Paul Hovnanian     mailto:Paul@Hovnanian.com
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Software Engineering is like looking for a black cat in a dark room.
Systems Engineering is like looking for a black cat in a dark room
  in which there is no cat.
Knowledge Engineering is like looking for a black cat in a dark room
  in which there is no cat and somebody yells, "I got it!"
Reply to
Paul Hovnanian P.E.

Don't know what' available in the HVAC world. But perhaps you could use the kind of mechanism found in some greenhouses to open windows. AIUI they use a cylinder that extends a piston when the gas inside expands with heat. When the temp goes down, the gas contracts and the piston retracts.

Ed

Reply to
ehsjr

The company you are thinking of is at

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They use inflatable bladders to control each outlet and a RF linked thermostat in each room. A central controller received each room temperature and setpoint and adjusts the main heat/cool and bladders accordingly. The duct bladders are blown backwards through the ducts to the central heater so there is almost no installation hassle. Interesting system but I think they want about $6000 for a typical system. Ouch!!

-bill

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Reply to
Bill Brown

That's the one. I know a guy who does software work for them, and they've interviewed me to do consulting but nothing came of it.

Neato idea, and the bladders are a clever way to avoid having to wire the house for control (apparently the prototype systems used beach balls).

But I never looked at the price until now -- that's steep, isn't it?

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Do you need to implement control loops in software?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" gives you just what it says.
See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html
Reply to
Tim Wescott

Ok, I did a little research on this a while back, and this is what I found.

First, you use either motorized dampers ($200+ each)or the 'balloon' controls ($60 each, but you also need an air compressor and controls for around $1000) for each zone you want. You have a separate thermostat for each zone that turns on the system and activates the damper for that zone.

Next, you have a little pressure regulator thingee that is basically a weighted flapper that you put right next to the furnace, between the output and the return air ducts. This keeps the pressure from being too great and burning out your fan. Also, the recirculated air requires less conditioning, possibly saving a buck or two.

Altogether, it can get pretty expensive and complicated.

Now, in my old two story house, all I did was buy a second thermostat for upstairs, and wired it to a two position switch directly above it so that I could either switch to the top thermostat at night, or the lower thermostat during the day. Funny thing was, I almost always just left it on the top one all day!

Charlie

Reply to
Charlie Edmondson

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