Heating control options.

getmore4less

I_have_spoken wrote: »

I've used Drayton Digistat 3+RF (?) in several houses, they do a good job IMHO

They seem to be mid/high range featured which will do for many people.


No internet option so not sure what was installed by BG in post above.


Further research has standalone Wi-Fi enabled stats by heatmiser at ok cost but the features are limited in the stat would need the interface to be good.




I do wonder if some of the new to market don't have the reliability at the business end which is the stat and relays which should last a lifetime(20+years).

System

My wife and I spent a lot of time assessing the 'pros and cons' of the various home automation systems on the market today as a wood burner , installed 5 years ago, has left our home heating somewhat unbalanced. For example, we quite like a warmish bedroom as we retire for the night but it seemed silly to have to heat the whole house just to achieve this. A simple list of 'essential' and 'desirable' criteria narrowed the choice down to Evohome and Heat Genius. The fact that Evohome offers water heating and Heat Genius doesn't swung the decision in Evohome's favour. Although more expensive than other systems on the market, the installation is neat and it works (although we did have a brief comms failure during a particularly violent thunderstorm over the weekend).

HW comes on for two periods a day during which the cylinder temperature varies between 60C and 50C; i.e., HW heating cuts out at 60C and cuts in again at 50C. We have already seen a 15 to 20% reduction in HW heating costs as the boiler is not firing up as often as it did previously.

Evohome also has a very good brand name behind it and the system is used extensively in other European countries. The downside is that documentation is in my view poor.

For those interested in 'zoning' there are very good reviews of Evohome on Trusted Reviews and Pocket Lint. Similarly, there is a good review of Heat Genius on the 'Home Automation' website. Looking at Heat Genius' website, I note that they are about to add HW control to their product line.

Having said all that, I doubt that our energy savings will cover the cost of installation: we have though a much more controllable heating system.

ispookie666

When I moved in ..first thing I installed Honeywell CM907 and programmed according to our needs and left the programmer on continuous.
I have purchased programmable TRV and have not yet installed - will keep you updated.
Ps: ours is a standard detached 4bedroom and just increased the loft insulation to 400mm

PheoUK

Just fitted a tado internet connected system to our new boiler. Pleased so far.

Does ego location to your phone to turn on off, it's weather aware & learns your houses behaviour to warm up/ cool down

getmore4less

Thanks to those contributing seems to be little on this subject on this site.


One thing I want to avoid is the dependency on a third party.


Some systems seem to work through a web site and the basic docs are not clear enough to know if they can work standalone(eg OWL the stat does not seem to have a manual interface).


I want the system to be programmable remotely/manually/locally but not dependant on the network to work.

getmore4less

PheoUK wrote: »

Just fitted a tado internet connected system to our new boiler. Pleased so far.

Does ego location to your phone to turn on off, it's weather aware & learns your houses behaviour to warm up/ cool down

Thanks will have a look.


What happens with multiple phones?


House thermo gradient(deg/min) is common on many programmable.

Lgas

The BG one will have been a HIVE, MyHome is just what shows on the app I believe. I use mine standalone, will probably reconnect to the broadband in the winter, can't be bothered at the moment when I only have the water on once a day. Nifty bit of kit though.

giraffe69

I use Hive. We wanted a system to replace an old and inflexible one that
a. allowed us to set it remotely (not needed for some but useful for us) by text or app
b. allowed it to be set in the house independently of app
It does not allow several zones at present which might be important to some but has been reliable and also meant we have used less gas.
I also thought the £199 fully fitted was a good price and no problems with the microwave oven or broadband!

getmore4less

OK an update.

For a staight replacement programable thermostat the Honeywell 907 seemed to be the best option.

To add wifi interface the next choice was Heatmiser


For a heating only solution Ithink TADO is worth a look and they rent so you can try for a year for £7.99pm(was £2.82 = £33.84 py exp end of aug)

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/tado-smart-thermostat-2-82-rental-per-month-tado-1980797

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In the end I went against my better judgment of 3rd party dependancy*

Went with OWL Intuition for £200.

You get a wired replacennt for the thermostat

You get a a cylinder themometer and control(include ambient temp)

These have a simple 3 button interface to overide the programed settings.

Both those are wired to the system so should work when the network is down.

They connect(wireless) to a gateway(wired to router) that connects to the Owl web site where you do the settings then download to the devices.

They record the temps of the room and tank on a regular basis so you analyse your settings and warm up cool down times.

Changing the themostat on the wall was easy Straight swap, the tank stat took a while as the system wiring box is tight and I needed to make sure the Mid position valve and current tank stat were also wired in properly.

We have the water Unit in the airing cupboard out the way and no new holes on the landing(handy as it records the ambient temp as well as the tank temp)

We can control the system from a browser so my windows phone works Apps for Android and Apple if needed, yet to test those.

One issue is only one browser at a time I think the app are multi use safe.

One thing we did have the boiler stat set quite low so the water would not go over 50c that has been tweeked up to get hotter water, 45c is comfortable shower temp but for a bath you need it hotter

We can also add an energy(electric) monitor(£25) to the system and have that data as well.


* This 3rd party dependancy is a risk, but hopefully if they do have issues they will release a standalone app that can be installed locally to do the management.(or publish the API so someone can do one).

Will try to remember to update in a few weeks once we have had a few cold days to test the heating more, water seems fine after 24hr.......

ispookie666

Its a bit off topic.
Have installed 5 programmable TRV's and have set different temperature times and set points.
So my bedroom is only heated for a couple of hours in the monring and a few hours in the evening. My main living area is set up according to the times we are in.
The only place which does not have programmable TRV is landing area and kitchen!! and ofcourse the area where the Programmable Thermostat is.
Seems to be working well.