Home heating controls

wotnoshoeseh

Okay, so I've let all of the advances on home heating controls pass me by and I currently have a simple one channel controller (mounted under the stairs in the fuse box cupboard), with pins around a 24 hr clock dial for turning my heating on and off.
With having to reach into the box and inadvertently pushing in more pins and/or turning the dial so the clock is not accurate, we have reverted to simply reaching in and turning it on and off as we need it....
The issues with this though are:-

• It gets turned on and forgotten about.
• It's awkward to use.
• There is little to no control - just on/off.

The temperature control is on the boiler in the garage. There are/were mechanical TRV's on a lot of the radiators in the house, but that's the extent of the controls - there is no zoning per se. Also the home heating must be on to heat the hot water in the cylinder (20+ years since it was installed).

I want to know what we can do to replace this controller that limits the amount of wiring etc. that is required. The controller currently in use simply plugs into a three pronged plug socket, and controls the heat (turns the boiler and pump on/off).
So what is available that can replace this and that we can control from outside the fuse box cupboard?

I've seen Hive but need to understand what I need to do to retrofit this to my system. This will give me basic control in that I can turn the heating on and off, and I can probably add a room thermostat to control the on/off functionality, so that's one option that will give me added functionality. If my understanding is incorrect and/or it adds even further functionality then please feel free to advise.

I guess I can add other functionalities through TRV's etc. but I think that's probably starting to get expensive. Also I'm not sure that the Hive system can do all of that too, or whether I need to look at other systems.

Sorry there's a lot of info above to take in, but any advice that can be provided would be gratefully received.

nofoollikeold

A lot of what you can and can't achieve depends on the way your heating and hot water system is configured. You need to establish:
1. Whether the central heating is via a combi boiler or a more traditional system / heat only boiler.
2. How easy / difficult it would be to create separate heating (maybe more than one) and hot water zones.

Almost certainly with a 20 year old boiler (which may be approaching the end of its useful life) you should be able to separate the heating and hot water. TRVs on nearly all radiators enable you to set suitable temperatures for each room relatively cheaply. Extending this to "smart" TRVs is a good deal more expensive, and may not be cost effective.
Going for weather compensation may not be possible with your existing boiler, but is a good way of minimising gas usage with a suitable boiler. In my experience it can be fiddly to set up and get right, but does yield savings of the order of 5% gas usage.
If you want a sensible starting point, then:
a. Install a 2 channel (heating and hot water) programmer such as the Drayton LP722
b. Make sure there are two 2 way or one three way motorised valve(s) to control heat to different zones.
c. Install a good room thermostat for the CH. I personally like the wired type as being trouble free, but a decent radio frequency one (e.g. Honeywell) involves less wiring.
d. Install a good cylinder thermostat on the hot water cylinder. Again my preference is Honeywell.
e. Make sure existing TRVs are working, and install additional ones to any radiator without. Except none on the radiator in the room with the room thermostat.
f. Set the TRVs to suitable values. For those with a 0 to 5 setting, try 3 for bedrooms and 4 for living rooms. Generally roughly equate to 18 degrees / 21 degrees respectively.

southcoastrgi

Make & model of your boiler, but it sounds to me that you have gravity hot water & pumped heating, so if that's the case it's not as easy as just changing the programmer

glennevis

Bearing in mind the OPs description says the existing controller has a 13A plug, cheapest solution is to fit a remote control plug.

You can then leave the heating controller settings in the on position all the time and use the plug's remote to switch on/off without visiting the cupboard.

The very cheapest solution is a (non-smart) remote control plug. I have some Energenie plugs, a pack of 4 with their own remote control unit. However that doesn't address the problem of forgetting to turn it off.

Second cheapest solution is a smart wireless plug (comes with an app, so assuming you have a smartphone). That would also enable you to switch the central heating on when away from home. This would be my solution since the app also has a scheduling function. A lot cheaper than hive, nest etc.

I use tp-link hs100 smart plugs. The app is called Kasa if you want to look up the description of its features.

When you do upgrade your system the wireless plug can be repurposed to control another device which has an awkwardly placed plug, e.g. I have one on my TV so I can switch it off at the wall and not leave it on standby.

FreeBear

southcoastrgi wrote: »

Make & model of your boiler, but it sounds to me that you have gravity hot water & pumped heating, so if that's the case it's not as easy as just changing the programmer

Fitting anything that is going to give better control over both heating and hot water is not going to be simple. I too have a gravity system (Baxi back boiler). The old control died a while back, so I took the opportunity to upgrade things a little. A tank thermostat was the first thing to fit, followed by a cheap Flomasta 25902 two channel timer - Needed one fairly quick, and that was the cheapest Screwfix had on the shelf at the time. Fortunately, the room thermostat (mounted in the hallway) still works. Saved considerable time and money not having to route new cables around the house for it...

Laying in cables for thermostats and boiler connections is going to be the biggest headache for the OP. Unless he goes for a wireless system, but they are darned expensive and will need regular battery changes.