WATTS central wireless regulation

The growing demand of our customers for a regulation system allowing the central control of electric heating, which would offer comfortable and intuitive control alongside the possibility of extending the system without the need to alter the installed equipment, led our company to establish cooperation with a French company involved in the development of regulation systems. The result of this mutual cooperation is a modular wireless central regulation system with the option of floor, ceiling and wall electric heating control.

The basic elements are a wireless Watts V22 thermostat with a Watts V23 wall receiver and a Watts V25 socket receiver. A combination of these elements can control your heating system independently or can be controlled with a Watts V24 central control unit. With the addition of a Watts V27 GSM module you obtain the option of instant checking and partial control of the whole heating system via short text messages.

The Watts V22 digital programmable thermostat offers regulation in several operating modes and enables the control of up to 4 receivers. It is, of course, possible to switch the regulation to room, floor or room + floor limit temperature options depending on the type of heating. There are two menus available – "User" and "Installation", enabling a wide range of parameter settings for the regulation system.

In the "Auto" mode the heating is controlled with one of the selected preset programmes (9) or programmes defined by you (4). A day can be divided into six periods (programme jumps) with allocated comfort or attenuation temperatures. The "Easy programme creator" function enables the copying of a created programme to the following day.
Apart from the automatic mode, the temperature can also be regulated in manual mode. In the case of a sudden change in regime (a visit, party,…), the temperature and time during which the temperature should be maintained can be set by selecting the "Timer" mode. During a winter holiday, a constant non-freezing temperature is maintained with the help of the "Holiday" mode for a selected number of days. The thermostat can be attached to a wall or placed in a stand on a table or shelf. Power is provided via a couple of 1.5V AAA batteries with a lifetime of up to 2 years.

The Watts V23 wall receiver, featuring the option of floor probe connection, enables the switching of floor and ceiling heating, radiant panels, direct heaters and towel rails. The receiver is controlled via a wireless signal from the thermostat and can switch a load of up to 16A directly. Up to three other V23 or V25 Slave receivers can be linked to the main V23 – Master receiver. In this way it is possible to combine floor heating with radiant panels as the receiver with the floor probe switches off only the Ecofloor/Ecofilm floor heating system when the limit temperature is achieved on the floor. The radiant panels/direct heaters can continue to heat the room up to the required room temperature. The receiver is intended for installation on a KU 68 wiring box.

The Watts V25 socket receiver is basically a socket switched on and off wirelessly and which enables the control of e.g. towel rails in bathrooms. Its simple installation enables the easy extension of heating systems when no alteration to the power distribution lines is required. Up to three V25 slave receivers can be connected to the main V25 receiver. The receiver can also be connected directly to the V24 central unit and it then works as a "Timer" for setting the On/Off time function.

All the regulation system elements which have been presented up to now can be paired with a Watts V24 central unit. With this step, your heating regulation system transforms from a locally controlled one into a heating system which is fully controllable from one location. The multi-language version and the graphic touch screen display of the control unit enable the easy and intuitive control of up to 24 independent zones – rooms. Zones can have the names of rooms allocated to them and these can be numbered for the easy checking and setting of programmes for the individual rooms. In order to increase user comfort, the control unit offers a choice of several background colours, time and temperature format, the ability to switch on the screen saver or lock the display, and other settings.
One of the operating modes – "Manual", "Automatic", "Non-freezing" or "Stand-by" – can be allocated to the individual zones. In the case of a holiday, the system can easily be put into the "Non-freezing mode", "Home" mode – maintenance of the Sunday programme if the holiday is spent at home; alternatively it is possible to switch off the whole system – "Off". In the Menu – Statistics – it is possible to obtain an estimate of the consumption in kWh for individual zones for the period of the last 30 days.

The GSM module – Watts V27 – enables the control and partial setting of the heating system via short text messages. According to the setting of the parameters in the control unit you can receive warning messages if there is a power failure, a temperature drop under the set limit in a zone, a system error or a breakdown. Furthermore, the automatic sending of an informative message about the status of the system can be set, with a period of every 1 to 99 days.

Thanks to its versatility, simplicity, the wide range of parameters which can be set by the user and the modular system used, this regulation system is suitable not only for gradual reconstructions of heating systems and the supplementation of current installed heating systems with regulation elements, but also as a basis for the design of a comprehensive wireless regulation system in newly built family homes.

Josef Podlaha,  27th February 2013