Multi-zone HVAC

[WayneW]

Ahh Haa.. glad we cleared this up. Elk has created confusion when they canceled the original "M1 (Std)" product. Because some places Elk refers to the M1 when they mean the M1Gold. Now the M1EZ8 comes along and really confuses things. So what exactly is an "M1"? Does it now apply to a GROUP of products? Or just to the old obsolete original model?

Anyway, that pdf is for the M1 & M1G, the M1EZ8 is not listed. Therefore that document is not wrong, but it is outdated. The original M1 (Std) only supported 1 port.

At the very bottom of this page, you can see where it lists 8 serial ports for the EZ8.

 

[Mike]

Makes sense. I should have remembered Electron's setup which would have made me question this.

Thanks for the explanation.

 

[Micah]

So are we back to the only difference between the Gold and the EZ8 being the voice and telephone support?

 

[Mike]

This should summarize the key differences I think:

http://www.elkproducts.com/products/m1/M1_Control_Family.htm

 

[electron]

http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=2406

 

[wassup]

have you looked at the RCS zone stat?

the ZCV2 or ZCV4 will accomodate respectively a 2 and 4 zone system. it's a 2-piece design: 1 controller at the HVAC and 1, or more, display-unit in each zone.

Wiring uses your existing thermostat wires, so it retrofits easily to existing houses.

The controller's got a RS485 connection and uses the RCS serial protocol (text based) for connection to an HA controller.

 

[Steve]

I could be wrong but I don't think those will work seamlessly with the M1. I think they use a proprietary protocol to their controller kind of like their RS485 keypads. I think only the TR16 or TR40 will work with the M1 and XSP. If I am wrong, I'm sure someone more knowledgable will correct me.

 

[Micah]

hrm, I was thinking that I'd use the TR16 (love the way it looks) but for some reason I was under the impression it would allow me to hook 2 wall display units to a single controller. Looks like I was wrong and it only allows 1 wall display unit but it does let you wire a remote sensor to it.

Bummer. Back to the thermostat drawing board.

 

[Micah]

And the thermostat drawing board leads me right to the Zone controllers that Wassup and Steve were discussing (by the way, great game of iSketch Steve).

The Zone controller and the TR16 both use the same RS-485 hook-up (at least that's what I think I'm seeing in the manuals) but the zone controller doesn't have the extra port for external control the the TR16 has. i.e. the TR16 has 1 WCU port and 1 network port and the 2-Zone controller has 2 WCU ports and no network ports.

I'm a little stumped at this point as to how I would hook-up two WCUs to tell the Control Unit when to kick on the HVAC and also hook-up the M1 to the Control unit so it knows when to open the dampers (or reprogram the wall units to not turn on if a window is open). It almost seems like I'd need a 3 zone system so that I could hook the third zone up the the M1.

...Oh no...I think I've gone cross-eyed.

 

[Micah]

And the answer is...(drum roll please)...the ZCV2 which has support for 2 zones + a network connection.

Here's a link to the manual - http://www.smarthome.com/manuals/30952.pdf

I won't be using the damper hook-ups as those will be wired to the M1 but otherwise that's the beast I'm looking at.

Thanks for bringing this back up guys, I would've been in a world of dissapointment had I ordered the TR16 THEN tried to figure out what the devil I was doing.