Nest thermostat equivalent for my system?

arctictern

I have a boiler in kitchen with thermostat (not wired) in hall. 

The controls are in a cupboard upstairs with the hot water tank. 

Thermostat and controls communicate wirelessly. 

Plumber who renovated the system said a Nest thermostat would have to be wired to controller. He said would be expensive and not very practical as wiring would have to run along the ceiling. 

Are there any alternatives as the current controller is  difficult to program? Also we have to go upstairs to turn on/off water and heating if we are going out or adjust the thermostat which we find hard to read. 

BUFF

What are the controls/'stat (& indeed boiler) that  you have exactly? (photos may help).
Drayton Wiser use the industry standard (for around the last 15+ years) backplate which may mean an easy replacement/upgrade for controls & 'stat.
Tado may be another system worth looking at for ease of replacing/upgrading.

N.B. since July 2022 an energy-saving controls upgrade is zero-rated for VAT on both labour & materials if done by an installer (if you DIY unfortunately you still pay 20% VAT on materials).

grumbler

For my traditional CH+HW system I DIYed Honeywell Lyric T6R-HW and I like it. Programming and control are easy and even easier with a smartphone app.

As the thermostat is portable and the old wired thermostat remained in it's place, I had to make small alterations in wiring.

Slinky

Our new Nest system being installed with our new central heating has a wireless controller that will sit on a stand, is that not a possibility? You need to plug it into the mains via a cable to power it.

arctictern

BUFF said:

What are the controls/'stat (& indeed boiler) that  you have exactly? (photos may help).
Drayton Wiser use the industry standard (for around the last 15+ years) backplate which may mean an easy replacement/upgrade for controls & 'stat.
Tado may be another system worth looking at for ease of replacing/upgrading.

N.B. since July 2022 an energy-saving controls upgrade is zero-rated for VAT on both labour & materials if done by an installer (if you DIY unfortunately you still pay 20% VAT on materials).

Thank you for your reply. Interesting about VAT. We will be using  a plumber. 

Worcester Greenstar boiler. 

Drayton Thermostat and “British Gas” UP2 controller. The original system was installed by British Gas and replaced like for like by plumber 

BUFF

I strongly suspect that you may find that the BG controller is a badged Drayton.
As such Drayton Wiser should be an easy replacement/upgrade.

To extract the absolute maximum efficiency (the last few%) from your Worcester boiler you probably need Worcester controls as they use a proprietary communication protocol for advanced modulation (their equivalent of Opentherm).

Actually the zero-rated VAT may have come in slightly earlier 
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2022/361/article/7/made

FreeBear

BUFF said: I strongly suspect that you may find that the BG controller is a badged Drayton.

You may well be right. The LP722 looks suspiciously similar - https://www.draytoncontrols.co.uk/product/lp722

BUFF

It certainly looks like one of the Lifestyle range https://www.draytoncontrols.co.uk/products/time-controls/lifestyle
(edit: a quick Google suggests it is an LP822)

Typhoon2000

Something like a Tado system work fine. You can have a wireless thermostat with it and can smart TRVs later if you wish.

Bendy_House

Or Hive

Money_Grabber13579

arctictern said:

I have a boiler in kitchen with thermostat (not wired) in hall. 

The controls are in a cupboard upstairs with the hot water tank. 

Thermostat and controls communicate wirelessly. 

Plumber who renovated the system said a Nest thermostat would have to be wired to controller. He said would be expensive and not very practical as wiring would have to run along the ceiling. 

Are there any alternatives as the current controller is  difficult to program? Also we have to go upstairs to turn on/off water and heating if we are going out or adjust the thermostat which we find hard to read. 

I don’t understand what the issue with the Nest thermostat is…

My Nest thermostats are fully portable (so long as they are next to an electric plug). There are two parts to a Nest thermostat - a heat link, which is connected to the boiler and the thermostat, which can be positioned wherever you want. The thermostat and heat link communicate wirelessly with each other, with the thermostat telling the heat link what to do and the heat link turning the boiler on and off.