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Community and Q&A

Thermostats and weather compensation in a well insulated tight house

davorradman | Posted in Mechanicals on

Trying to figure out a heating strategy for the following house:
– climate zone equivalent to 4A (continental Croatia, Europe)
– 170m2 net, ground floor + 1st floor
– ~35kwh/m2 a, so well insulated
– Zehnder ERV
– underfloor radiant heating + gas boiler (also used for warm water tank)

I am trying to figure out two things:
– do I need thermostats in several rooms?
– do I need weather compensation thermometers and a regulation system that supports it (most do)

I do not plan to change temperature very often, but I would prefer if I could keep bedrooms/wardrobe a little cooler than the rest of the house.
Can I accomplish this simply by manually manipulating the valves, instead of going with thermostats? Since it will not be changed often, doing it manually, if possible, seems like the most sensible way of doing it.
I just see thermostats as unnecessary in the situation where I want to turn on the heating in say September, set temp, and then forget about it until April.

Regarding weather compensation thermometers.. With the huge sluggishness of radiant heating, some of the benefits of such a system are lost, but supposedly it does help.
Supposedly, the system sees that outside temp is dropping and by how much it is dropping. Based on that, and based on what is has learned of your house energy needs at given outside conditions, it
than preemptively seens more or less through the pipes.
Can anyone offer an advice regarding this?

I know UFH is not very popular here, and I understand the reasoning, but it’s standard here.
I’d prefer to use minisplits (called just klima here (AC)), but that is out.
Also, air/water heat pump is just not cost effective no matter how hard i tried to make it work. Payback is ~15 years, which is bordering the life expectancy, and service is far too spotty. Gas is (still) cheap enough, installation cost is also cheap, service is abbundant and cheap..

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Replies

  1. GBA Editor
    Martin Holladay | | #1

    Davor,
    You should install the type of system that your local contractors are familiar with. It makes no sense for North American readers to recommend an approach that is used in North America, if Croatian contractors do things differently.

  2. GBA Editor
    Martin Holladay | | #2

    Davor,
    In the U.S., I believe that most hydronic system installers would recommend a separate thermostat for any zone that you wanted to keep at a different temperature from the main living area. If you want a separate zone, you have to plan the zones when the tubing is installed. In most cases, each zone will get its own circulator, and each circulator will be controlled by a thermostat.

    What you call a "weather compensation thermometer" is usually called an "outdoor reset control" in the U.S. An outdoor reset control makes sense -- as long as local contractors are familiar with the technology.

  3. davorradman | | #3

    Ok, thanks.

    I have posted a question to some european sources as well. But i've gotten good advice here before, so wanted to try.

  4. JaBK | | #4

    I hope it is not against any rules, but the OP should really check out the croation forum: http://www.samsvojmajstor.com/portal/forum

    If you cannot find the answers there, there is a slovenian alternative, which is older, hence with a lot more information: http://www.podsvojostreho.net/forum/
    I am not that familiar with the croation version of it, but I guarantee that the slovenian version has all the answers you are searching for. Languange barrier is also not that great that your personal question could not be answered.

  5. davorradman | | #5

    Thanks Jabk. Have to go over the ocean to get directions :)

  6. GBA Editor
    Martin Holladay | | #6

    Jabk,
    It's perfectly OK to provide links to other forums. Thanks for your help.

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