Automated thermostat / heating

Bendy_House

Chris_English said:

FaceHead said:

Not going to recommend the nest e to replace your setup. The UK version of the nest e needs to be plugged in and it then communicates wirelessly with the heatlink. The heatlink can either be put where your current thermostat is, or, more commonly it goes in the boiler cupboard.

If you want the thermostat to end up sitting on a piece of furniture then go for the nest e. If you want the thermostat(s) to end up  wall mounted, replacing your current ones, you'll need the original nest learning thermostat, which is much more expensive. 

I’d thought that they could be wired in on the wall as a direct replacement for the current analogue ones, is that not the case?

I don't know much about 'Nest', but I'm a bit familiar with 'Hive'. In essence, tho', all these WiFi Prog Stats - 'smart' or otherwise - have similar setups.

That is - a WiFi receiver unit, and the WiFi Prog Stat itself. (For Smart/App use, it also requires an internet 'hub', and this can be a separate unit (as with Hive), or seemingly built in to the receiver as in Wiser (I think?).

Anyhoo, the WiFi receiver is usually mounted close to the boiler, or close to where the boiler's control wiring is. In most cases with a wired analogue room 'stat, the 'stat's cable will be going back to, and into, the boiler. The usual solution, then, is to cut that cable short as it exists the boiler, and to wire it to the new receiver.

The old wall-mounted 'stat is now defunct, and can be removed - the wires behind it should be 'dead'. The new WiFi Prog Stat can now be mounted in that position (tho' it won't need wires since it's battery-operated), or it can be mounted elsewhere on a wall, or it can be sat in a stand and moved about.

Ok, the above needs some modification to the wiring, tho' it's straightforward stuff. A simpler solution is to remove the old analogue 'stat from the wall, and to clip the receiver there instead - in fact there's a very good chance it'll fit straight on to the existing wired backplate. So, instead of that old analogue wall stat, there will be a plain white box with one or two wee lights. The new WiFi Prog Stat can now be mounted somewhere else, either close to that receiver, or somewhere completely different.

There is one more possibility with Hive; they do a 'wired' Prog Stat, the SLT5, and this will simply replace the old analogue room stat, and use these wires - not WiFi - to control the boiler. Not sure how to add a hub to this setup, tho'. Personally, I wouldn't recommend the wired one anyway as they are silly money, and also still require batteries in order to work! You would only use one if a WiFi connection, from one end of the house to the other, is dodgy.

Anyhoo, ideas for your setup? Dunno. But I think what I'd do is to write down exactly which rads (rooms) NEED near-daily control, and which can sit for weeks or even months without being run at above a background 'frost' setting - eg guest rooms, spare study, stuff like that, where to actually turn up a manual TRV once in a while would be no great shakes. Then make a list of the rooms that WOULD benefit from Smart control - bedrooms in constant use, main living areas, etc. Fitting Smart TRVs to 15 rads sounds a bit excessive to me :-)