Worcestor Greenstar Boiler/Smart thermostat

VT41

I have a Worcester Greenstar 24i junior combi boiler and a thermostat in the hallway.  Shall I always leave it 'on' and then let the hallway themorstat dictate when it heats the water for the central heating?

What I don't want is the boiler to be always on for central heating so it's on 24/7

When the boiler is on the 'off' dial on the hot water side - hot water is still being produced. 

I'm thinking of moving to a smart heating system.  Currently two radiators, a heated towel rail and underfloor heating. Any advice on which is best? Nest or Wiser? Many don't like the former given it's Google who can stop supporting products instantaneously. 

Bendy_House

VT41 said:

I have a Worcester Greenstar 24i junior combi boiler and a thermostat in the hallway.  Shall I always leave it 'on' and then let the hallway themorstat dictate when it heats the water for the central heating?

What I don't want is the boiler to be always on for central heating so it's on 24/7

When the boiler is on the 'off' dial on the hot water side - hot water is still being produced. 

I'm thinking of moving to a smart heating system.  Currently two radiators, a heated towel rail and underfloor heating. Any advice on which is best? Nest or Wiser? Many don't like the former given it's Google who can stop supporting products instantaneously. 

The controls in that image, they are on the boiler? Or on a separate timer unit?

The 'Hot Water' part doesn't apply to your boiler IF it's a 'combi'. There are no HW 'timings' for a combi - the boiler just fires up whenever a hot tap is opened, and shuts off again when the tap is closed. That would explain why you still get DHW even when that 'dial' is 'off'.

As for the CH, yes, you can leave the boiler 'on' 24hrs, and do all the controlling via the room stat. When you turn the stat down, or when the set temp has been reached, then the boiler will shut down, until it's needed again.

When you go for a 'smart' controller, then the boiler itself is essentially left in the 'on 24hrs' setting, and the smart controller takes over control.

First, tho' - are you 100% sure you have a 'combi'?

Where is that controller you've shown in that diagram?

VT41

Bendy_House said:

VT41 said:

I have a Worcester Greenstar 24i junior combi boiler and a thermostat in the hallway.  Shall I always leave it 'on' and then let the hallway themorstat dictate when it heats the water for the central heating?

What I don't want is the boiler to be always on for central heating so it's on 24/7

When the boiler is on the 'off' dial on the hot water side - hot water is still being produced. 

I'm thinking of moving to a smart heating system.  Currently two radiators, a heated towel rail and underfloor heating. Any advice on which is best? Nest or Wiser? Many don't like the former given it's Google who can stop supporting products instantaneously. 

The controls in that image, they are on the boiler? Or on a separate timer unit?

The 'Hot Water' part doesn't apply to your boiler IF it's a 'combi'. There are no HW 'timings' for a combi - the boiler just fires up whenever a hot tap is opened, and shuts off again when the tap is closed. That would explain why you still get DHW even when that 'dial' is 'off'.

As for the CH, yes, you can leave the boiler 'on' 24hrs, and do all the controlling via the room stat. When you turn the stat down, or when the set temp has been reached, then the boiler will shut down, until it's needed again.

When you go for a 'smart' controller, then the boiler itself is essentially left in the 'on 24hrs' setting, and the smart controller takes over control.

First, tho' - are you 100% sure you have a 'combi'?

Where is that controller you've shown in that diagram?

Bendy_House said:

VT41 said:

I have a Worcester Greenstar 24i junior combi boiler and a thermostat in the hallway.  Shall I always leave it 'on' and then let the hallway themorstat dictate when it heats the water for the central heating?

What I don't want is the boiler to be always on for central heating so it's on 24/7

When the boiler is on the 'off' dial on the hot water side - hot water is still being produced. 

I'm thinking of moving to a smart heating system.  Currently two radiators, a heated towel rail and underfloor heating. Any advice on which is best? Nest or Wiser? Many don't like the former given it's Google who can stop supporting products instantaneously. 

The controls in that image, they are on the boiler? Or on a separate timer unit?

The 'Hot Water' part doesn't apply to your boiler IF it's a 'combi'. There are no HW 'timings' for a combi - the boiler just fires up whenever a hot tap is opened, and shuts off again when the tap is closed. That would explain why you still get DHW even when that 'dial' is 'off'.

As for the CH, yes, you can leave the boiler 'on' 24hrs, and do all the controlling via the room stat. When you turn the stat down, or when the set temp has been reached, then the boiler will shut down, until it's needed again.

When you go for a 'smart' controller, then the boiler itself is essentially left in the 'on 24hrs' setting, and the smart controller takes over control.

First, tho' - are you 100% sure you have a 'combi'?

Where is that controller you've shown in that diagram?

Thanks for the reply.

Yep def a combi the one in this link. Controller is on the boiler itself, apparently  Worcester DT20RF programmer. 

 - https://www.boilerguide.co.uk/productinfo/worcester-bosch/greenstar-24i-junior-combi-gas-boiler 

Another_Level

That dual programmer worcester dt20rf can have multiple settings, which many people dont need.  The heating side If  ON is selected its on 27/7 but the transmitter in your hallway (the room thermostat part) can for example be manually set to your comfortable day time temperature say 22°C and bedtime temperature of 15°C the boiler will not burn gas 24/7.
When you go out and want the heating off manually lower the temperature to 5°C

The hot water can be timed although you have a combination gas boiler it times the hot water pre heat and prevents pre heating at unwanted times ie when your a sleep. It can be turned off, its just a pre heat which should deliver preheated water to your hot water taps a little sooner than if it was OFF

Smart heating, its a con invented by gadget sales people 

BUFF

VT41 said:

I'm thinking of moving to a smart heating system.  Currently two radiators, a heated towel rail and underfloor heating. Any advice on which is best? Nest or Wiser?

Not sure that either of those support WB's EMS control protocol - if so neither would give you the best efficiency from the system.

Bendy_House

Thanks for the confirmation, VT.

Ok, A-L says the DHW control will affect the 'preheat' part of the hot water supply, which makes sense. It's up to you whether you want this feature or not. Pros: hot water should be delivered from your taps more quickly, as the 'preheat' should always ensure that the boiler is 'hot' with a small reserve of how water inside it, ready to be delivered. Cons: the boiler fires up every few minutes to keep the water 'preheated'. This means a little bit more wear on the boiler, and a little bit more gas consumed.

Perhaps a sensible setting would be to have the DHW set to 'on' (ie preheat) at times when you'll be glad of a quick delivery - say around teatime, or when folk tend to have showers. At other times, the boiler will usually need to heat the DHW from scratch, which will add  - ooh - 3, 4 or so more seconds before you get hot water out yer tap...

For the CH control, you have a choice. You can leave the CH timing to 'on' 24 hours, and then just use the room stat to turn the temps up and down as needed. Ie, you turn it down to, ooh, 14oC when you go to bed, to just keep the chill off the air overnight. Then you get up in the morning and turn it back up to (say) 20oC, and then wait for the house to warm up. Turn it down again to 16oC when you head out for work, and back up to... yougettheidea.

Or, you set the timings to 'on' between 6am and 8am, off until 5pm, back on at 5pm until 11pm, off again until 6am. And set the temp to, say 20oC (which, of course, you can tweak up and down as required. What this will do, then, is turn the boiler 'on' and 'off' at your chosen times, but only to the set room stat temp. So, for the example above, the heating would come on at 20oC at 6am, go completely off at 8am, come back on at the same 20oC at 5pm, and then go completely off again at 11pm.

On balance, then, you may prefer to leave the 'timing' 'ON' 24hrs, and you control the temp as required.

If you replace the existing setup with a Prog Stat, this will do BOTH the timings and the temps, giving you whatever temp you want at whatever time you ask and programmed it to.

For 'Smart', you'd really need to decide for yourself whether the extra facilities are worth it. I understand these can be things like remote control by App (so you can keep the heating off if you are going to be late coming home, but then turn it on when you know you are actually on the way), and 'intelligent' temp control so that the stat - rather than always coming on at, say, 6am, will instead work out when it has to come on in order to deliver the house temp you want. Ie, in cold weather, it'll come on earlier. You are essentially telling it "Make sure my house is at 20oC by 6.30am..."

You will need a sparky to fit this.

neilmcl

VT41 said:

Bendy_House said:

VT41 said:

I have a Worcester Greenstar 24i junior combi boiler and a thermostat in the hallway.  Shall I always leave it 'on' and then let the hallway themorstat dictate when it heats the water for the central heating?

What I don't want is the boiler to be always on for central heating so it's on 24/7

When the boiler is on the 'off' dial on the hot water side - hot water is still being produced. 

I'm thinking of moving to a smart heating system.  Currently two radiators, a heated towel rail and underfloor heating. Any advice on which is best? Nest or Wiser? Many don't like the former given it's Google who can stop supporting products instantaneously. 

The controls in that image, they are on the boiler? Or on a separate timer unit?

The 'Hot Water' part doesn't apply to your boiler IF it's a 'combi'. There are no HW 'timings' for a combi - the boiler just fires up whenever a hot tap is opened, and shuts off again when the tap is closed. That would explain why you still get DHW even when that 'dial' is 'off'.

As for the CH, yes, you can leave the boiler 'on' 24hrs, and do all the controlling via the room stat. When you turn the stat down, or when the set temp has been reached, then the boiler will shut down, until it's needed again.

When you go for a 'smart' controller, then the boiler itself is essentially left in the 'on 24hrs' setting, and the smart controller takes over control.

First, tho' - are you 100% sure you have a 'combi'?

Where is that controller you've shown in that diagram?

Bendy_House said:

VT41 said:

I have a Worcester Greenstar 24i junior combi boiler and a thermostat in the hallway.  Shall I always leave it 'on' and then let the hallway themorstat dictate when it heats the water for the central heating?

What I don't want is the boiler to be always on for central heating so it's on 24/7

When the boiler is on the 'off' dial on the hot water side - hot water is still being produced. 

I'm thinking of moving to a smart heating system.  Currently two radiators, a heated towel rail and underfloor heating. Any advice on which is best? Nest or Wiser? Many don't like the former given it's Google who can stop supporting products instantaneously. 

The controls in that image, they are on the boiler? Or on a separate timer unit?

The 'Hot Water' part doesn't apply to your boiler IF it's a 'combi'. There are no HW 'timings' for a combi - the boiler just fires up whenever a hot tap is opened, and shuts off again when the tap is closed. That would explain why you still get DHW even when that 'dial' is 'off'.

As for the CH, yes, you can leave the boiler 'on' 24hrs, and do all the controlling via the room stat. When you turn the stat down, or when the set temp has been reached, then the boiler will shut down, until it's needed again.

When you go for a 'smart' controller, then the boiler itself is essentially left in the 'on 24hrs' setting, and the smart controller takes over control.

First, tho' - are you 100% sure you have a 'combi'?

Where is that controller you've shown in that diagram?

Thanks for the reply.

Yep def a combi the one in this link. Controller is on the boiler itself, apparently  Worcester DT20RF programmer. 

 - https://www.boilerguide.co.uk/productinfo/worcester-bosch/greenstar-24i-junior-combi-gas-boiler 

What room thermostat do you have, is it a programmable one?

I'm not at home at the moment but my Greenstar has the older DT10RF, I'll let you know what you have to leave the main receiver unit set to when I'm back tomorrow.

VT41

Bendy_House said:

Thanks for the confirmation, VT.

Ok, A-L says the DHW control will affect the 'preheat' part of the hot water supply, which makes sense. It's up to you whether you want this feature or not. Pros: hot water should be delivered from your taps more quickly, as the 'preheat' should always ensure that the boiler is 'hot' with a small reserve of how water inside it, ready to be delivered. Cons: the boiler fires up every few minutes to keep the water 'preheated'. This means a little bit more wear on the boiler, and a little bit more gas consumed.

Perhaps a sensible setting would be to have the DHW set to 'on' (ie preheat) at times when you'll be glad of a quick delivery - say around teatime, or when folk tend to have showers. At other times, the boiler will usually need to heat the DHW from scratch, which will add  - ooh - 3, 4 or so more seconds before you get hot water out yer tap...

For the CH control, you have a choice. You can leave the CH timing to 'on' 24 hours, and then just use the room stat to turn the temps up and down as needed. Ie, you turn it down to, ooh, 14oC when you go to bed, to just keep the chill off the air overnight. Then you get up in the morning and turn it back up to (say) 20oC, and then wait for the house to warm up. Turn it down again to 16oC when you head out for work, and back up to... yougettheidea.

Or, you set the timings to 'on' between 6am and 8am, off until 5pm, back on at 5pm until 11pm, off again until 6am. And set the temp to, say 20oC (which, of course, you can tweak up and down as required. What this will do, then, is turn the boiler 'on' and 'off' at your chosen times, but only to the set room stat temp. So, for the example above, the heating would come on at 20oC at 6am, go completely off at 8am, come back on at the same 20oC at 5pm, and then go completely off again at 11pm.

On balance, then, you may prefer to leave the 'timing' 'ON' 24hrs, and you control the temp as required.

If you replace the existing setup with a Prog Stat, this will do BOTH the timings and the temps, giving you whatever temp you want at whatever time you ask and programmed it to.

For 'Smart', you'd really need to decide for yourself whether the extra facilities are worth it. I understand these can be things like remote control by App (so you can keep the heating off if you are going to be late coming home, but then turn it on when you know you are actually on the way), and 'intelligent' temp control so that the stat - rather than always coming on at, say, 6am, will instead work out when it has to come on in order to deliver the house temp you want. Ie, in cold weather, it'll come on earlier. You are essentially telling it "Make sure my house is at 20oC by 6.30am..."

You will need a sparky to fit this.

Thank you, this is very detailed! Speed of hot water being generated isn’t really an issue so I’ll leave that timer ‘off’ and keep the CH always ‘on’ but manually adjust the temperature to what’s required!

Yep I bought a Wiser thermostat reduced from Amazon for £95 . Trying to get estimates from electricians on how much they’d quote to install before deciding whether it’s worth it or not 

VT41

neilmcl said:

VT41 said:

Bendy_House said:

VT41 said:

I have a Worcester Greenstar 24i junior combi boiler and a thermostat in the hallway.  Shall I always leave it 'on' and then let the hallway themorstat dictate when it heats the water for the central heating?

What I don't want is the boiler to be always on for central heating so it's on 24/7

When the boiler is on the 'off' dial on the hot water side - hot water is still being produced. 

I'm thinking of moving to a smart heating system.  Currently two radiators, a heated towel rail and underfloor heating. Any advice on which is best? Nest or Wiser? Many don't like the former given it's Google who can stop supporting products instantaneously. 

The controls in that image, they are on the boiler? Or on a separate timer unit?

The 'Hot Water' part doesn't apply to your boiler IF it's a 'combi'. There are no HW 'timings' for a combi - the boiler just fires up whenever a hot tap is opened, and shuts off again when the tap is closed. That would explain why you still get DHW even when that 'dial' is 'off'.

As for the CH, yes, you can leave the boiler 'on' 24hrs, and do all the controlling via the room stat. When you turn the stat down, or when the set temp has been reached, then the boiler will shut down, until it's needed again.

When you go for a 'smart' controller, then the boiler itself is essentially left in the 'on 24hrs' setting, and the smart controller takes over control.

First, tho' - are you 100% sure you have a 'combi'?

Where is that controller you've shown in that diagram?

Bendy_House said:

VT41 said:

I have a Worcester Greenstar 24i junior combi boiler and a thermostat in the hallway.  Shall I always leave it 'on' and then let the hallway themorstat dictate when it heats the water for the central heating?

What I don't want is the boiler to be always on for central heating so it's on 24/7

When the boiler is on the 'off' dial on the hot water side - hot water is still being produced. 

I'm thinking of moving to a smart heating system.  Currently two radiators, a heated towel rail and underfloor heating. Any advice on which is best? Nest or Wiser? Many don't like the former given it's Google who can stop supporting products instantaneously. 

The controls in that image, they are on the boiler? Or on a separate timer unit?

The 'Hot Water' part doesn't apply to your boiler IF it's a 'combi'. There are no HW 'timings' for a combi - the boiler just fires up whenever a hot tap is opened, and shuts off again when the tap is closed. That would explain why you still get DHW even when that 'dial' is 'off'.

As for the CH, yes, you can leave the boiler 'on' 24hrs, and do all the controlling via the room stat. When you turn the stat down, or when the set temp has been reached, then the boiler will shut down, until it's needed again.

When you go for a 'smart' controller, then the boiler itself is essentially left in the 'on 24hrs' setting, and the smart controller takes over control.

First, tho' - are you 100% sure you have a 'combi'?

Where is that controller you've shown in that diagram?

Thanks for the reply.

Yep def a combi the one in this link. Controller is on the boiler itself, apparently  Worcester DT20RF programmer. 

 - https://www.boilerguide.co.uk/productinfo/worcester-bosch/greenstar-24i-junior-combi-gas-boiler 

What room thermostat do you have, is it a programmable one?

I'm not at home at the moment but my Greenstar has the older DT10RF, I'll let you know what you have to leave the main receiver unit set to when I'm back tomorrow.

I can have a look tomorrow but the hallway thermostat isn’t programmable. I turn it left/right to manually adjust the temperature. Part of the reason I’m looking at smart thermostats 

BUFF

The DT20RF  should be programmable https://www.worcester-bosch.co.uk/support/literature/download/8716115495

I have asked Wiser support whether their stats support Worcester Bosch EMS bus & modulation on WB boilers - awaiting reply.

VT41

BUFF said:

The DT20RF  should be programmable https://www.worcester-bosch.co.uk/support/literature/download/8716115495

I have asked Wiser support whether their stats support Worcester Bosch EMS bus & modulation on WB boilers - awaiting reply.

Sorry what is  EMS bus & modulation?