Smart Heating Controller

The Room Controller Node is part of the Datacake Node-RED integration and provides intelligent control for heating and cooling systems.

Overview

The Room Controller Node combines data from your sensors and actuators to manage temperature automatically. It can handle heating and cooling, apply protective limits (frost and overheat), and even react to occupancy or window status.

This makes it ideal for smart heating and cooling automation, enabling energy savings by heating or cooling rooms only when needed.

Key Features

  • Customizable Setpoints – Define target temperatures for each room.

  • Heating and Cooling Logic – Automatically control both heating and cooling within defined thresholds.

  • Hysteresis Control – Avoid frequent switching by defining upper and lower bounds for heating and cooling.

  • Protection Modes – Built-in frost and overheat protection to keep systems safe.

  • Occupancy Awareness – Heat or cool only when rooms are occupied.

  • Window Detection – Optionally pause heating when windows are open.

  • Retrigger Control – Limit downlink repetition to reduce network load.

  • Dashboard View – Monitor all room controllers in real-time with a password-protected dashboard.

  • Scalable Configuration – Export and replicate configurations easily for large installations.

Basic Setup

  1. Add the Node Drag the Room Controller node from the Datacake section into your Node-RED flow.

  2. Configure Room Settings Double-click the node to open the configuration panel.

    • Room Name: For example, “London Main Station Ticket Office 01”

    • Location Path: Hierarchical dot notation (e.g. Germany.Main Station.Main Office)

    • Target Temperature: Default 21°C

    • Hysteresis: Default ±2°C

    • Cooling Offset: Define offset above the heating threshold (e.g. +5°C)

  3. Connect Sensors Use MQTT or Datacake MQTT Sensor nodes to provide:

    • Temperature readings

    • Occupancy status

    • Optional: Window state, external thermostat, humidity sensor

  4. Assign Actuators Use Downlink Nodes to control heating or cooling devices. You can add multiple downlinks (for example, “Heater 01 On”, “Heater 01 Off”) and assign each to your devices.

  5. Deploy and Monitor Deploy the flow, then open the Room Controller Dashboard node. It provides an overview of all configured rooms, including:

    • Room name and location

    • Current and target temperature

    • Occupancy state

    • Active heating or cooling state

Advanced Configuration

  • Occupancy Control: When enabled, heating and cooling operate only when the room is occupied.

  • Humidity Control: Optional feature to activate cooling or disable heating at high humidity levels.

  • Retrigger Count: Controls how many times a state change will trigger downlinks (default: 3).

  • Offline Timeout: Define how long the controller waits before marking a room as offline.

  • Export and Scale: Once a room is configured, export the setup as JSON and reuse it across multiple rooms. This allows easy deployment in larger buildings or networks.

Dashboard

The Room Controller Dashboard offers real-time monitoring of all configured rooms. You can filter by location (using the same dot-notation hierarchy), view room states, and soon even adjust settings directly through the dashboard interface.

Benefits

  • Optimizes heating and cooling based on real usage

  • Reduces energy costs by only activating when needed

  • Works seamlessly with Datacake devices and data

  • Scales easily across many rooms or buildings

  • Provides full transparency with real-time monitoring

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