The Zentium Pro Thermostat is a dual zone thermostat that allows control over heating and cooling via its simple digital crown. The thermostat can be stand alone or combine with intelligent lighting control keypads such as the Lutron Palladiom or Crestron Horizon. The product from Polar Bear, leverages from years of experience working with Building Management Systems (BMS) and lighting control systems.
There shouldn’t be a learning curve to use a thermostat…
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The many faces of the Zentium thermostat, shown integrated with leading lighting keypad manufacturers.
The refinements of the Zentium has come from working closely with leading BMS & AV system integrators. Zentium merges both commercial features with the design aesthetics, high end installations demand.
Digital Crown
The digital crown is the perfect user interface for controlling temperature. It is simple and it’s universally understood. Another unique aspect of the digital crown interface is that when features are disabled from the device, you haven’t got buttons that don’t do anything, that only lead to more user confusion.
The digital crown controls the temperature of the zone by turning it up and down. Feedback to the user in addition to the colour screen is via a soft glowing halo within the digital crown. Pressing the crown selects different pages to give the user access to fan speed a second zone or custom* pages. These can be disabled by the installer if these features are not suitable for the area the product is installed in.
Virtual Temperatures
In addition to the five remote probes and the internal temperature sensors, the Zentium thermostat can receive a DISPLAY temperature from a third-party device within the BMS system and use it as if it was its own built in temperature reading.
This is ideal for installations with VRF indoor units that have their own room temperature sensors (sometime called return air temperature). By passing the temperature from the VRF to the Zentium, it creates a much more accurate and robust control loop between the wall thermostat and the VRF indoor units.
Once the thermostat’s zone is set to use the virtual temperature, values can be passed to the thermostat. These values will then be used as its display temperature and also be applied to its internal logic used to determine demand status.
Heating Modulation
Achieving a stable room temperature with minimal use of dead band is the goal of many BMS engineers. Polar Bear Design adds a new tool to the engineers list by allowing the heating system to be modulated and giving a third state to the normal On & Off of an underfloor actuator.
This feature allows the engineer to slow down the heating of the floor in the last 1 °C period of heating. This reduces the residual heat within the floor so as to dramatically reduce overshoot of the room’s temperature. Overshooting the rooms temperature can lead to flip flopping between heating and cooling. Normally this is contained by increasing the dead band zone, but that tends to only lead to a wider fluctuation of temperature for the user.
Heating modulation combats this and allows for smaller dead band settings and tighter overall control over comfort.
Enabling Heating Only or Cooling Only
The Zentium thermostat is traditionally a Heating and Cooling controller. However, it can be configured to a ’Cooling only’ or ’Heating only’ product. When these changes are set, any display symbols or pages relevant to those features are removed from the user’s interface, eliminating confusion.
Dual Zone
Zentium is a dual zone thermostat allowing two rooms to be monitored and controlled independently. This is achieved by using a number of remote probes wired into the system. If the thermostat is installed in a single zone environment, then zone 2 can be disabled. When disabling zone 2 any symbols or pages are removed from the user’s interface.
Towel Radiators
The Zentium allows you to set a period of time you want a towel radiator to come on for. This feature like the others is simple to use using the digital crown. The Zentium can control up to two independent towel radiators and each can be disabled if not required, so they are removed from the users interface. See this video for a quick how to.
Product Parts
Digital Crown | Face Plate | Mid Plate | Zentium Base Unit |
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Front Rear 

Front | Rear |
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Specifications
ZEN-TH2-MB4 | ZEN-TH3-MB4 | |
---|---|---|
Room Temperature Sensor | Centigrade or Fahrenheit With configurable display resolutions of 0.1, 0.5 & 1.0 °C/°F Accuracy ±0.5°C ±1°F Includes Virtual Temperature Support | |
Dead band support | 0 – 8°C (in half degree increments) for heating 0 – 8°C (in half degree increments) for cooling Total dead band width 16 °C | |
Floor Temperature | Configurable Maximum Floor Temperature (for zone 1 & 2) Configurable Minimum Floor Temperature (for zone 1 & 2) | |
Zone Support | Zone 1: Internal temperature probe & Humidity Sensor 3no. 10k3 remote probe inputs (2 x Wall & 1x Floor) Zone 2: 2no. 10k3 remote probe inputs (1 x Wall & 1x Floor) Zone 2 can be enabled or disabled | Zone 1: Internal temperature probe & Humidity Sensor 2no. 10k3 remote probe inputs (1 x Wall & 1x Floor) Zone 2: 2no. 10k3 remote probe inputs (1 x Wall & 1x Floor) Zone 2 can be enabled or disabled Zone 3: 1no. 10k3 remote probe inputs (1 x Wall or 1x Floor) Zone 3 can be enabled or disabled |
Heating Mode | Heating support can be enabled or disabled (per zone) Includes Heating Modulation Support | |
Cooling Mode | Cooling support can be enabled or disabled (per zone) | |
Humidity Support | Between 15% & 85% RH humidity readings Accuracy ±2% RH | |
Setpoint Range | Adjustable setpoint between 5 & 36°C in 0.5 & 1.0 °C increments Allows for installer configurable setpoint limits | |
Power | IEC SELV/NEC® Class 2 18 – 28 V DC – 80mA | |
Typical Power Consumption | 30mA / 0.85 W @ 24v DC Test conditions: All features enabled, with external probes fitted. Screen in dim mode. | |
Enclosure | IP20 Rating, indoor use only | |
Environment | Ambient operating temperature: -5 °C to 45 °C, (23 °F to 113 °F) 0% to 85% non-condensing relative humidity. Indoor use only. | |
Communications | SELV/PELV/NEC® Class 2 wiring connects thermostats to other devices on the Modbus link. Mode: RTU Framing (JBUS) Baud Rate: 9600, 19200 & 57600 Byte Format: 8N1 Modbus ID: 1 – 32 (range) | |
ESD Protection | Meets IEC 801-2. To withstand 15 kV electrostatic discharge without damage or memory loss. | |
Memory | Internal EEPROM is rated for 100,000 writes (non-volatile configuration only) | |
Power Failure | Features marked as non-volatile are saved to internal EEPROM memory and will be restored after power is returned. | |
Mounting | See mounting details | |
Wiring | SELV/PELV/NEC® Class 2 | |
Terminals | DC Power Terminal (x2pin) accepts 24AWG to 12 AWG wires Modbus Terminal (x3pin) accepts 28AWG to 16AWG wires Remote probes Terminal (x10pin) accepts 28AWG to 16AWG wires | |
Display | 2.4 inch IPS TFT Screen 36.72(W) x 48.96 (H) mm (262K) / Transmissive / Normally Black Life Time 50,000 hrs (@ 25 °C) |
Zentium Accessories
![]() | UMC Controller8 way underfloor heating manifold controller |
![]() | 1g - Single gang, Metal backboxA single American ‘J’ Box can be used for the 1G unit although it is recommended to use our approved back box to ensure enough cable space is provided and correct alignment for dual keypad (e.g. Lutron or Crestron) keypads. It is the responsibility of the installer to confirm their suitability. |
![]() | 2g - Double gang, Metal backbox |
![]() | Floor Sensor10K3 Floor sensor. Part available with a high quality thermistor element or platinum element. The sensor is housed in a plastic cap. |
![]() | Pipe Strap On Sensor10K3 Strap on pipe sensor, for obtaining temperatures of pipes |
![]() | Thimble Wall Sensor10k3 wall sensor avaialbe in Aluminium, Stainless Steel, Brass and white plastic |
![]() | Button Wall Sensor10K3 button wall sensor, used for remote temperature sensing and also room temperature averaging |
What lighting keypads can be combined with the Zentium Thermostat ?
- Lutron Palladiom
- Lutron SeeTouch (US)
- Crestron Horizon
We are also investigating custom combinations such as Control 4 or Lutron Pico
What is the standard finish ?
Our standard finish is Brushed Satin Nickel. The digital crown is bright nickel has a carbon fibre ring.
Can the Zentium be interfaced to a Control 4 system ?
Yes, the Zentium uses a standard RS485 Modbus communications protocol. The control 4 has a standard modbus module which allows the Zentium to be configured into your control 4 environmet.
Can the Zentium be interfaced to a Crestron system ?
Yes, the Crestron sytem has a number of methods to interface with the Zentium thermostat.
Creston Home
For the Crestron Home system a module has been produced by Ultamation Ltd
Product Model Types & Variations
Model Numbers | ||
ZEN-TH2-MB4-SN | Single gang complete unit (2 Zone) Modbus Thermostat | |
ZEN-TH3-MB4-SN | Single gang complete unit (3 Zone) Modbus Thermostat | |
ZEN-TH2-MB4-NONE | Single gang, base unit only (Face plate kit required) | |
Face Plate Kits | ||
ZEN-FP1-ff | Zentium Single Gang Face Plate Kit including digital crown | |
ZEN-LUT-UST-xxx-ff | Zentium Lutron Plate Kit including digital crown | |
ZEN-LUT-UPW-xxx-ff | Zentium Lutron Plate Kit including digital crown | |
ZEN-CRE-HOR-xxx-ff | Zentium Crestron Face Plate Kit including digital crown | |
We have produced a number of video clips for the Zentium. These are convienently added to youtube play lists
New Features | |
Installation | |
HowTo |
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