Smart WiFi heat radiator thermostat
Fourdeg announced the world’s first smart WiFi heat radiator thermostat
Original publication date: Wed 17 May 2017 09:30:00 AM EEST
The Finnish start-up company Fourdeg has announced the world’s first WiFi thermostat for water-circulating heating radiator. Wi-Fi is the commercial name of WLAN products. WLAN is a widely-used wireless local area network, but the technology has not previously been used in heat radiator thermostats. The greatest obstacle that there has been to its adoption, i.e. the high power consumption of WiFi, has now been solved.
Fourdeg has designed the low-power WiFi radio module, based on a Texas Instruments circuit, in cooperation with the Finnish listed companies Etteplan and Vincit. The WiFi thermostat works everywhere in the WLAN network. The estimated battery life is two years, which is more than with the Z-Wave or ZigBee thermostats. The thermostat component is made by Eurotronic, the production of which is in Germany. ”Our vision as a service company is that all digital thermostats will be connected to the service of Fourdeg,” says Mikko Kaijärvi, the Chief Technology Officer of Fourdeg.
Smart heat radiator thermostats react more sensitively than manual thermostats to changes in temperature and regulate the indoor temperature more precisely. A learning algorithm heats and cools each room separately, taking into account the local weather forecast from the Meteorological Institute. The service operates completely automatically and no actions are required from the resident or employee. When they want, they have the possibility to control the heating and affect their own consumption via the user interface. A healthy indoor temperature improves air quality, affecting well-being and the productivity of work.
No extra routers needed anymore. Until now, a separate router has been required that converts the WLAN signal for the low-energy radios used by wireless thermostats. The Wi-Fi thermostat makes a router unnecessary. Radio communication is also more reliable when the surplus operation is got rid of.
Fourdeg will begin deliveries of WiFi thermostats to customers in June 2017. ”The new thermostat is more user-friendly and the initial investment is halved when a router is no longer needed,” says the CEO, Markku Makkonen.
