Vaillant ecoTEC Plus 624 with VRC470f to HIVE?

[sh4d0w]

Hello all,

I am really hoping for some help and advice on a little predicament i find myself in.

2 years back we moved into the house, i ripped the pre-historic heating system out and with the help of my brother we fitted a new system adopting the 624 with two zones, Upstairs and Down stairs and also an Albion Hot water store.

Ever since, the upstairs has been a bit of a pain in the bum in that some of the rads have a mind of their own and we often find them not heating but there is no air in the rad and doesn't appear to be any blocks, if i shut the rest off via the TRV i can push the hot water to the rads that are not working etc. Also, the upstairs Zone doesn't appear to work independently as per schedule set on my stat, For EG,
UPS Zone - comes on at 6AM goes off at 8AM
DWS Zone - comes on at 7AM and goes of at 8AM

what happens is that both zones come on at the same time!

If i put my UPS Zone to Party mode and turn the stat up it does indeed come on alone!

SO, as you can guess, it is most frustrating and i just cant get it working, so many other bits on the stat that i dont know what to set so its just all been a bit of trial and error and what plumber mates have tried IE Heat Curves.

Having been at a British Gas Engineer mates house last night and him showing me his Hive system, i am VERY impressed with it and what it has to offer, so much more functionality to the 470 i have now; user facing.

What i am asking is this:

A) Has anyone moved from a 470 to a smart heating system such as HIVE - how have you found it?

B) Am i taking a backwards step by moving away from the 470 to a system such as HIVE?

C) How would i manage the other settings and see boiler stats if i dont have the 470?

Any help will be massively appreciated.

Martin

 

[The831Bunny]

Doesn't sound like your 470 is set up correctly, or the VR66 and zone valves are wired incorrectly. Have you got a VR81 thermostat in the other zone to the 470?

A Hive won't solve these problems unless you compleatly rewire your controls from ebus to 240v. Hive's are a single heating zone on/off thermostat, so unless I'm wrong you'll need one for each zone, and you'll lose the boiler modulation from the 470. But you'll be able to turn it on from your phone..... wooo

 

[muggles]

As above, changing to a Hive from a 470 will most likely reduce your heating efficiency and increase your gas bills, quite apart from needing a re-wire, as Hive isn't as intelligent as the 470 and isn't capable of modulating your boiler in the same way. To use a car analogy, you'd effectively be going from using small, gentle throttle movements to regulate your speed (470) to stamping on the accelerator and releasing it repeatedly (Hive). It's really not as smart as you think it is, beyond the ability to control it from your phone. If you want phone control, vSMART may be more suitable for you although I understand that it'll only do one zone. @The831Bunny or @Bunnyman will be able to give you a more accurate comparison between the capability of the 470 and vSMART

I don't think any kind of app-controlled stat is going to solve your main issue though, which sounds like a simple case of a system that needs to be balanced correctly to ensure all radiators heat up at the same rate, and possibly some minor re-wiring to sort out the issues with both zones coming on at the same time

 

[sh4d0w]

Thank you both for your time and response

Initially i had bought:
ecoTEC Plus 624
VR66 Control Centre
VRT 50 Digital Room Thermostat
VRC 470F Digital Wireless Weather compensator

the plan was to have the VRT 50 upstairs on the landing and the 470 downstairs.

Having had some issues with the system with the above items and not being able to get it all working i spoke to a few chaps and called Vaillant technical to be told i could not do what i intended with the kit i bought and i actually need to buy other items, So my system is built up of the following:

ecoTEC Plus 624 - stored in my extension loft
VR81 on the landing hard wired to;
VR61 in landing cupboard
VRC 470F downstairs

3 Honeywell zone valves all hard wired into my VR61 - i will take some pics of cabling later to see if anyone can help with that.

 

[sh4d0w]

 

[sh4d0w]

Howdy all,

here is my VR61 wiring.

LP/ZP = Cylinder Honeywell Zone Valve
HK1-P = Heating Zone 1 (Down S) Honeywell Zone Valve
HK2-P = Heating Zone 2 (Up S) Honeywell Zone Valve


Can anyone advise?

 

[The831Bunny]

I'm doing this every day, but I would still need to be in front of the kit with testers and possibly my laptop connected to trouble shoot that...

 

[sh4d0w]

Hi Bunny,
Thanks for your reply mate, i have just dropped you a PM.

can you point me any direction in terms of testing?