Picking a Wireless Heating System

ElDiem

Hey guys,

Would you be able to offer some advice on wireless heating? It'd be great to hear which systems you've had put in, as we're on the lookout for something which lets us control the heating of the home completely remotely while saving money.

On top of that, something which lets you control the heating via an app, is user friendly & can let you control the temperature in different rooms of the home at different times.

Any thoughts/experience from you guys would be awesome.

Thanks! All the best.

Pincher

A BBC engineer once told me they used to find dead rats and pigeons on the roof where the microwave link dishes were situated. Don't know if they were rare. medium or well done.


https://www.hivehome.com/


"Only £199 for the full kit including professional installation and iOS/Android app"




Or you can buy an apartment from the Candy Brothers for £30million.

System

Do your research carefully!

http://recombu.com/digital/news/smart-energy-systems-nest-hive-evohome-heat-genius-owl-tado-salus-it500-cosy_M13058.html

matelodave

Spending £2-300 wont actually save you money in the short term so make sure you understand what you want out of a system - will you really be sitting at work, on the train or in the car tweaking your heating system on an hourly, daily or even weekly basis

Have you looked at your existing controls to see if they could be utilised more efficiently.

You'd probably get more benefit from improving your insulation than buying a super-duper new toy. Work out how much your heating really costs and then guess at how much you'll actually save - 10% of £500 annual heating bill is only £50 a year.

I'm not saying you shouldn't buy one if that's what you want but beware of the sales hype and projected savings. They are usually based on not having any controls in the first place so be realistic.

MillicentBystander

ElDiem wrote: »

Hey guys,

Would you be able to offer some advice on wireless heating? It'd be great to hear which systems you've had put in, as we're on the lookout for something which lets us control the heating of the home completely remotely while saving money.

On top of that, something which lets you control the heating via an app, is user friendly & can let you control the temperature in different rooms of the home at different times.

Any thoughts/experience from you guys would be awesome.

Thanks! All the best.

As far as I can recall there are only 2 systems out there currently that allow you to do this - Evohome by Honeywell and Heat Genius by, err, Heat Genius. I ended up going for the Honeywell system because of their long established expertise in heating controls (I believe Heat Genius is a start up company). But these systems cost much more than the whole house systems, obviously. My thinking is if I am going down the smart thermostat route why just essentially replicate the drawbacks in your existing system (i.e. having a whole house temp setting where presumably the majority of the rooms are used very intermittently)??

System

As MBS has steered you towards Evohome, I will add my tuppence worth. I also have Evohome installed and I am very happy with the quality (and ease) of the installation and the components. The Evohome controller is easy to programme ( that said, the technical information supplied to customers could be better). Yes, wifi controlled thermostats are expensive but you do not need to zone every room. For example, if you have a room which Granny uses when she comes to stay at Christmas then a manual TRV will do just fine.

The IOS/Android app is also easy to use and last night it was updated to allow zone scheduling which previously was only a controller function. You can also set up IFTTT to send you messages ' baby's room has just reached 22C'.

So why did we buy Evohome? Large house with 3 bedrooms only used occasionally. Wood stove used as primary heat source but nice to warm bedroom before bedtime and again in the morning without heating all the other rooms as well. As I said in my earlier post - do your research and do not be taken in by the big advertising budgets associated with Hive and Nest.

Andy_WSM

Can anyone comment on the noise the wireless TRV heads make when adjusting the temperature?

I had some electronic TRV heads (not wireless) for my system a couple of years ago and they now live in a box in the garage as I couldn't stand the whirring noise when they adjusted themselves.

System

Andy_WSM wrote: »

Can anyone comment on the noise the wireless TRV heads make when adjusting the temperature?

Yes, there is a slight whirr as the valves open and close, and time cycle. I can't say that it is a big issue for us. I have though seen comments on other sites about valve noise (a rattle) when a valve head has not been tightened down properly.

Smiley_Dan

The HG heads (same as Danfoss heads) make a slight whirr, audible but it doesn't annoy me. Doesn't happen that often.