INTRODUCTION TO ZONES

Owned by Marco Serpelloni
Last updated: Aug 31, 2023
5 min read

Zones are the basic element of the REG System and it can manage a maximum of 32 zones. Without Zone, Dehumidifiers, Circuits, and consequently Source cannot be activated.

The primary function of the Zone is to determine when to heat, cool and/or dehumidify a part of the system, based on one or more of the following information:

By acting on the Zone parameters, it is possible to configure how to combine this information to determine the conditions under which the zone should activate.

In turn, the zone can activate other subsystems; it can activate:

  • A Circuit, when the zone is activated to heat and/or cool.

  • A Dehumidifier, when the zone detects that dehumidification is required.

  • Another Dehumidifier (which in most cases is the same as the previous point), when the zone detects that it is necessary to integrate the heating/cooling function.

Note

In a radiant system, each room of the system equipped with a sensor (temperature or temperature + humidity) is managed by a Zone.

In a system for mixed circuits management, a Zone is associated with each circuit to determine the activation conditions of the circuit itself.

Normally each temperature sensor corresponds to a zone, but exceptions may be possible:

  • In a bathroom, the same sensor can control both the radiant floor and a towel heater; in this case, we should configure TWO zones, which use the same sensor.

  • In a mixed system, the same sensor can control the radiant floor in winter and a fan coil in summer; even in this case we should configure TWO zones, which are based on the same sensor.

  • A zone could NOT be associated with any sensor, for example:

    • In a bathroom the towel heater may be switched on at certain times, regardless of the sensor reading in the room.

    • A zone could be used to control the change of air: even in this case the switching on could be timed and not take any sensor into account (see CMV FUNCTION WITH TIMETABLE AND/OR VOC SENSOR).

Use of the zones in system for the control of Direct/Mixed circuits

In the system used for the control of Direct/Mixed circuits, the Zones take on a slightly different meaning from the standard one, as here the zones are not Environments/Locations, but to all intents and purposes take on the meaning of Circuits. In the following:

  • Zones are associated with Direct/Mixed Circuits

  • Zone Sensors are generally not used

An example is given below:

Typical case: Control of 1 Direct and 2 Mixed Circuits  

The system controls the operation of a central thermic system and in particular there are three circuits:

  • Circuit 3 is of the Direct type with flow temperature set at 60 °C

  • Circuits 1 and 2 are of the Mixed type to control the heating of radiant surfaces, with flow temperature set at 24°C and 20°C respectively.

In this case the logic with which the system must be constructed is as follow:

  • 3 Zones must be set up, each corresponding to a circuit.

  • A Circuit must be associated with each zone, every circuit must have a sensor to control the Flow Temperature (see SET POINT AND SENSORS SETTINGS of the Circuits).

  • As regards the activation of the zones (or rather, circuits), associate each one with its own timetable to determine the operating status and do not set zone sensor, so that if the timetable is active, the corresponding zone is automatically active.

  • It is possible to associate an activation/enabling signal (classic room Thermostat)

  • Associate to the direct circuit the operation of 1 water pump.

  • Associate to each one of mixed circuit the control of 1 water pump and 1 mixing valve (see WATER PUMPS AND MIXING VALVES SETTINGS)

Zone Description

To each Zone is assigned a Description (see DESCRIPTIONS), that is a short text (maximum 16 characters), that easily allows to identify the function of the Zone, which can be set in the Zone Page – Configuration Zone/1.

Usually the description is associated with:

  • A room (Kitchen, Living room, Room, etc...)

  • A Circuit (Mixed 1, Direct, High Temperature, etc...)

  • A particular user (towel heater, Integration, panel radiator, etc...)

It is also possible not to associate any description, in this way the zone will not be shown on the REG-TFT or REG-DOT-B display; this operation is usually carried out for all those zones that you do not want the end user to see (for example, zones used as integration in cooling system).

Zones without description are not displayed even in remote control!

Warning

On very complex system, not assigning descriptions to Zones may lead to misunderstandings and complications during assistance. Therefore, it is always better to assign a name.

Then, if you do not want to show any zones on the displays or in remote control, from Configuration Zone/3 sub page:

As with timetable, it is possible, by ticking one of the two white boxes under Hide on TFT/DOT, to hide the zone on display 1 or on display 2 (for example, if the display 1 is in the day zone and 2 in the night zone, the zones in the day zone can be hidden from display 2 and zones of the night zone from display 1). If you tick both boxes while having an associated description, the zone will not be shown on any interface (display, app, web), but you can see it only from RegConfig or directly from REG-DIN-8.

Zones Page

Zones page is the most elaborate one, it even has 4 sub pages:

  • Configuration Zone/1

  • Configuration Zone/2

  • Configuration Zone/3

  • Zone Parameters

The most frequently used sub pages with the most significant parameters are Configuration/1 and Parameters Zone.

The other two have mainly special functions to be used in special cases.

From the Configuration Zone/2, you can access the use of:

From the Configuration Zone/3, you can access to the below functions:

To create a zone, simply switch the Timetable drop-down menu from NC (Not Configured) to:

  • COMFORT

  • ECONOMY

  • OFF

  • TIMETABLE x