• 13 Posts
  • 290 Comments
Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 13th, 2023

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  • Boilers are kinda on/off, from a control perspective.
    The boiler heats water to the set flow temperature, pumps it around the loop, and repeats until it’s switched off.
    The amount of gas used is modulated by the boiler to make the water come out at the right flow temperature.
    Unless all the rooms in your house are perfectly insulated, or so badly insulated that they lose heat instantly, ad-hoq temperature changes in individual rooms is tricky to do well.

    I did have smart TRVs for a while, but actually ended up binning them.
    So my current solution is:
    HomeAssistant controlled call-for-heat. This is a relay that when connected, turns the boiler on.
    Temperature sensors in each room. This allowed me to balance the radiators so they all warmed up evenly, and also feed into the HA thermostat to decide when the heat needs to come on.
    Manual TRVs in each room set to slightly above the normal target temperature. So they’re normally open, but will close if something crazy happens, like someone turning on a fan heater.
    Timed target temperatures in HA. So the target temperature drops at bedtime, and rises just before I get up.

    I also lowered the flow temperature of the boiler, which improves efficiency.
    I’m not 100% sure what you’re trying to achieve in your setup.
    But adding TRVs to each room (and having one always-open, like the bathroom) would be a good step forward.



  • A little late to the party, but yes, I can confirm that Hue bulbs can be controlled directly over zigbee. You will need a zigbee radio if you haven’t already bought one (£20-ish).
    They literally just appear like a zigbee device inside that integration.

    You may need to reset them before they will pair.
    I forget the pattern, but iirc it’s on 2s, off 8s, repeated until you see an acknowledgement flash.
    Sometimes, you’ll get one that takes forever, then the next bunch will just hop right on.
    I have several Hue hubs I still need to offload, as I sometimes buy the combo packs that include another hub.

    I also found that the response time was a lot quicker over direct zigbee than farting around with Signiant/Philips’ API.










  • I love my Reolink one.
    It’s powered by PoE, which means running an ethernet cable, and either using a PoE capable switch, or injecting the power just for that cable with an injector.
    If you’re planning a few cameras, a switch is worth it, as you can power them all easily. Basic ones are £20.

    Because it’s powered, it will stream all day/night without worrying about batteries. It stores video locally on a microSD, and dumps clips to FTP happily.
    The clip capture is pre-rolled too (30s, I think?), which is always nice.

    Currently, I have the feed in dashboards, and I have an automation that flashes the lights and sends a picture to my phone when someone presses the bell.
    Eventually, I’d like to integrate it directly into HA so I can speak to people without using the Reolink application.

    I like Reolink’s other cameras too (they do quite a few). I have an 810A, and a 510, if you wanted any feedback on them.