Carter Hobson Posted June 2 Share Posted June 2 Hi There, I am planning a Control4 system for a large house and putting some thought into how the climate control system would work out. Ideally, I would want different zones for different rooms in the house. This system would include an outside HVAC unit and an inside unit in the furnace. Dampers would be installed in the ducting to control the air flow to each room. My question is how would I integrate this into my Control4 system? From what I read, it's possible to have a "zone control board" hooked up to the HVAC system and all the dampers, providing thermostat connections for each zone. From here it would make sense to connect Control4 compatible thermostats in each room to integrate every zone. Has anyone done this or had a similar approach? Another thing that I imagine is possible is locating all of the Control4 thermostats in the mechanical room, connected to the zone control board, with remote sensors for each room. Thanks for the Help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanITman Posted June 2 Share Posted June 2 Standard thermostats work on zone systems. There will be a zone control board installed that helps decode what to do when the thermostats are requesting hvac. Example, the basement calls for heat while the upstairs calls for air conditioning. The zone control board will figure that out. when it comes to thermostats I prefer the control4 branded ones. They allow the most integration and run on zigbee. They also will work without the controller being online. However, people complain they are ugly and the relays click loud. Because if this, I’ve moved the thermostats to my furnace room and I control temp in my house through a series of remote thermostats. I have two thermostats per floor. One mobile and one on the wall. I use nest for my wall thermostats as they look nice and could be converted to working when I move out. They nest so not control the hvac, I have most of it automated and I can control the set temps from voice or t4 wall touch panels. I also have a mobile temp sensor that is a Shelly h&t gen2 and it can be moved based on preference. It mainly stays in my son’s room. Between the mobile thermostats and nest I average the temp on each floor with the temp aggregation driver to get a control temp for each floor. The control4 thermostats get their temp from the aggregation driver for each floor. The wife is happy that those control4 ones live in the furnace room :) GregCAMS, DawnGordon and South Africa C4 user 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregCAMS Posted June 2 Share Posted June 2 Agree with @DanITman on this. Have had a zone control system for a decade and only just recently had to replace the zone control board which wasn't that expensive. Using 2 furnaces, 2 condensers for a 6 zone split with dampers set. I use the white-labeled Aprilaire thermostats which are they branded for Control4. They are not going to win any beauty contests compared with other brands but they work. I use their coupled wire thermostat sensor offered that sent in the room and the actual thermostats sit in the room with all my other racked equipment. They also support multistage systems which my Trane units are. Would recommend these, especially since you're on a C4 platform. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C4 User Posted June 2 Share Posted June 2 Well, it depends what HVAC system you install. Some of the more advanced systems such as Carrier Infinity require the infinity thermostat. So if standard thermostats work with the system you intend to install great. If something like the carrier infinity you can purchase at driver to complete the integration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanITman Posted June 2 Share Posted June 2 4 minutes ago, C4 User said: Well, it depends what HVAC system you install. Some of the more advanced systems such as Carrier Infinity require the infinity thermostat. So if standard thermostats work with the system you intend to install great. If something like the carrier infinity you can purchase at driver to complete the integration. I would ask since they are still in the design phase. No proprietary thermostats. Tell them you want to use your own thermostats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Topfox Posted June 2 Share Posted June 2 My uostairs has 3 zones. Trans equipment, Honeywell Zone Controller and Nest thermostats. Works great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carter Hobson Posted June 2 Author Share Posted June 2 Thanks for the feedback! Has anyone integrated in-floor heating as well? I assume you would just replace those thermostats as well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carter Hobson Posted June 2 Author Share Posted June 2 To clarify, electric in-floor heating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popolou Posted June 3 Share Posted June 3 They tend to come with a temp probe/thermistor that can be installed in the floor to get a (more accurate) reading especially since some manufacturers insist that their floors must not be above a certain temperature. Generally, most big name HVAC manufacturers have the ability to be controlled through BMS systems and so via Control4. The question is, what logic are you relying on to switch between the underfloor heating and the HVAC so that one does not compete with the other. If you have a new build, best to get everything wired up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turls Posted June 18 Share Posted June 18 Ditto to most of the advice here. EWC Control boards have been rock solid for me. I've controlled a Geothermal system since 2009 and had it automated with the C4 thermostats since 2012. I just had to replace my Geo system and the same control boards are still running and providing the zoned control. Make sure and ask your contractor about connecting the sensors to the EWC boards if you go that route. My HVAC guy didn't want to do that because of false positives, but now the new Geo is more sensitive to airflow and is triggering diagnostic errors and I'm pretty sure if my HVAC guy will just install the sensors and I play around with the settings for a while the problem will go away. He isn't getting paid until he figures it out... (this is all independent of Control4). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyknight Posted June 18 Share Posted June 18 On 6/2/2024 at 5:08 PM, Carter Hobson said: To clarify, electric in-floor heating. C4's thermostat won't do those, at least directly. I use NVent NuHeat Signature thermostats on my own house (driver is on their website) and they integrate no problem. Those t-stats should work with pretty much any 120 and 240 v in floor heating setup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neo1738 Posted June 20 Share Posted June 20 Usually the HVAC will have a separate thermo for each zone. Just need to decide what c4 compatible therm to use. Aprilaire will NOT do humidity with remote sensors just be forewarned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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