Smart Heating Controls - Do they actually save you money?

Legacy_user

There is considerable interest shown on this forum for smart heating controls, and whilst I cannot comment on Nest or Hive or any other smart replacement thermostat, I can provide some definitive figures for my 'zoned' home.

During the period 31 Oct to 21 Dec 2013, my EDF bill shows a usage figure of 150 cu metres of gas (heating, HW and hob). The corresponding figure for the period 31 Oct to 21 Dec 2014 shows a usage figure of 122.3 cu metres - or an 18.47% saving in gas used.

A few points to be in mind when looking at this figure. Firstly, even my wife feels that we are warmer than we were. Thanks to the ease of programming and wireless TRVs, the 'heat' follows us around the house. By that I mean, we heat our bedroom when we are using it and again just before we go to bed; our family room/kitchen is kept warm until early evening before we move to our living room and so on. Other rooms are only warmed when required - for use or frost protection.

This trend of savings continues. My gas bill for the period 16 December 14 to 15 January 15 came to £65 - which includes Christmas and a 5 bed house full of family.

There is, however, a capital cost to consider, and smart systems do fail. After 7 months of use, my boiler demand relays started throwing up communications faults with the controller. As these relays have been in general use for years, they are seen as being the most reliable part of the installation. I suspect that only one relay was having issues but both have been replaced under warranty.

My advice, FWiW, if you are considering smart controls that look at buying a smart controller with the potential to talk to wifi TRV heads. It will do everything and more that Hive and Nest can do.

saveallmymoney

October / November was a fair bit warmer in 2014 than 2013 here - how was it for you?

http://www.degreedays.net

bsod

2014 is the warmest year on record, so you can't compare one year with another properly.

Standard trv's don't tend to need much altering if they are set correctly in the first place, so while it's nice to do it from a smartphone, I can't see many people paying for the costly upgrade.

System

Fair comments. All I am suggesting is that zoning does save money but the 'up to 40% claims' have to be taken with a very large pinch of salt. As Smart thermostats do little more than turn the heating on and off, then I suspect that some of the claims of 'up to 25%' might also be somewhat optimistic. Others may have experience that they can throw into the pot.

bsod

how much did it cost for parts and labour, how many radiators?

System

http://www.theevohomeshop.co.uk

https://www.plumbnation.co.uk/site/smart-heating-controls/?page=1

DaffyDill_2

Hengus wrote: »

Fair comments. All I am suggesting is that zoning does save money but the 'up to 40% claims' have to be taken with a very large pinch of salt. As Smart thermostats do little more than turn the heating on and off, then I suspect that some of the claims of 'up to 25%' might also be somewhat optimistic. Others may have experience that they can throw into the pot.

Depends where you're starting from.

If you have a universally over-heated house and then go to a carefully managed house with heating in each room carefully balanced to the need, you will no doubt save some money. But a lot of that can be done without any flash technology.