Remote/iphone controlled radiator valves?

oldskoo1

Wondered if the technology exists yet?

I work from home some days and the heating went on today as i can't stand being cold.

I thought last year that it seemed crazy heating the entire house when i'm in 1 room.

The house is a 3 story detached 5 bed and no wife and kids home in the day time so i don't need to heat the rooms until they all get back.

Would be nice if i could install radiator valves that i could control which zones got heat.

thanks

Cardew

I tend to use my thumb and forefinger to operate the TRVs!


Unless you have the CH in your house zoned - a lot of work to retrofit - the CH will still be controlled by the wall thermostat in your hall/living room. i.e. when that room is at the set temperature, the setting of the TRVs in the bedroom is irrelevant as no water will be pumped to them.

macman

Cheaper solution is to leave the CH off and use a panel heater in the single room that needs to be heated during the day.

chanz4

You can get one bg supply them, not cheap though

System

oldskoo1 wrote: »

Wondered if the technology exists yet?

thanks

Yep - the technology is out there but wifi-controlled TRVs are not cheap and require replacement batteries from time-to-time.

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/124710-high-energy-prices-here-are-five-intelligent-heating-systems-looking-to-save-you-money


Worth a look if you want to know more:

http://www.evohome.info/

Treat the savings with a slight pinch of salt. Evohome 40% energy savings based on:

Source Energy Saving Research Unit, Strathclyde University 2013 & TACMA 2013 - Energy savings quoted were calculated using a 3 bedroom, 2 level home, located in the UK, modelling a family of 4 over a typical week’s activity, comparing a evohome smart zoning system, with recommended settings, to a system comprising of a simple timer, single non-programmable room thermostat and no Thermostatic radiator valves. Individual Energy savings gained are dependent upon existing controls, environment and lifestyle.

New heating controls attract 5% VAT.

Scrounger

Programmable Radiator Valves may be a cheaper option.

Easy to replace the heads if you already have TRV's.

Scrounger

System

Cardew wrote: »

Unless you have the CH in your house zoned - a lot of work to retrofit

I have gone for this technology as I am getting too old to crawl under study tables to turn down TRVs. I took the view that one year of PV FITs would cover the investment.

I have a large 5 bed property and the installation took about an hour to fit the wifi boiler controls with Hot Water kit and about 5 mins per radiator to fit the remote TRVs. No draining down is necessary as the remote heads fit onto the existing TRV bodies. 'No TRVs' - then yes it would be a much bigger job.

As I have suggested above, savings are more difficult to predict; however, the HW kit alone is saving me about 25% on gas used (but not cost because of SCs). I am confident that we will reduce our energy spend but, at the moment, I am not sure by how much.

Is this technology intuitive and easy to control? The answer is 'yes'. We will be away next week so I can leave everything off or, if frost was predicted, I could set the system to frost protect. I can monitor the room temps on my iPhone 4 and control everything back home from wherever we are. I will leaving our HW Off and turning it back on a couple of hours before we are due back.

Smiley_Dan

Comparison of the above technologies: http://smarthomeenergy.co.uk/smart-energy-systems-nest-vs-hive-vs-evohome-vs-heat-genius-vs-owl-vs-tado-vs-salus-it500-vs-cosy-vs

Only Evohome, Heat Genius and I think Nest (at a very high price) can do "zoning" for a sensible number of zones (i.e. more than three or four).

Note here that "zoned" does not mean what it used to mean - it just means certain radiators turned on/off at different times and can call for heat. The pipework throughout the house will still be heated.

Cardew

Hengus wrote: »

I have gone for this technology as I am getting too old to crawl under study tables to turn down TRVs. I took the view that one year of PV FITs would cover the investment.

Very valid point.


Fortunately all mine are accessible.


May I ask how much the set up cost?

oldskoo1

This as a money saving option isn't going to look good. It's the convenience really.

I have 21 radiators to turn off which would be a pain everyday and equally painful to install a load of new trvs.

I wish I had looked at air source pumps before I laid all new flooring throughout the house last year.

Just seems like a waste to heat the entire house. Equally sad that it's the cheapest option. Panel heater probably does pip it even tho electric heating seems a lot more expensive. The room to heat is 22ft by 14ft so I wonder how much electricity it will take compared to firing the boiler.

Can you can air source pumps blowing warm air from vents?

Cardew

Since an incident with my daughter, I never feel comfortable with programmed appliances when out of the house.


My very clever daughter - three degrees including an engineering Msc - decided to program our new all seeing, all dancing, microwave/convection oven to switch on and cook a joint for 75 mins at ???C while we were out of the house; and thus return to a cooked joint.


Fortunately we returned earlier than planned, only to find the kitchen full of smoke with smoke alarm blaring and a blackened joint still being microwaved on full-power!