Smart heating hot water systems

[Jimmcb]

Any recommendations out there??

Jim

[bootneck]

Any recommendations out there??

Jim

We’ve had a tado system in for 3~4 years now and it’s been brilliant TRVs fitted on radiators essentially zones the heating system only bringing the rooms we actually use on. Geofencing linked to our phones so we’re never heating an empty house until one of us is heading home. The only negative if you can call it that is you can’t boost the heating for whole house you have to actually select which rooms you want never usually an issue because it’s set to look after itself and we hardly ever have to adjust anything. I chose tado because at the time it was one of the few that worked with a conventional boiler and a hot water tank, any questions I can help with feel free to ask.

[leiper]

We’ve got the Hive system. Early days for me but very happy with it. A simple swap of old controller and it’s up and running quickly.

Similar with geofencing for heating house but having a thermostat to control house temp is a new feature for us.

I’d recommend it.

Andy

[mk2driver]

Honeywell Evohome here - rock solid system, I’ve had it for 3 years now

No geofencing but I don’t see that as an issue as our schedules are pretty predictable

[boris9]

Second on the hive system. Cannot recall for how long exactly, but probably 18 months now.

It’s very good as a thermostat. Easy to set a schedule and also control manually via the app. We now have lights, plugs and sensors all linked to the same system as well making the home truly “smart”.

So far at least, it’s not failed in any way so would happily recommend.


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[wotsthecrack]

Tado, no question, installed in my Dad's as he has dementia and I can control remotely but generally just leave it in auto. Check it out

[Captain Morgan]

Jim Could you be a touch more concise, it’s hard to follow your post...

[eagletower]

Honeywell Evo home user. Have had it 4 years now. Been bullet proof. Love the room by room control and very easy to use.

[Barton Red]

Just coming up to a year with nest, love the system.

[Brighty]

Watch out with Tado, it's a subscription system now, so if you want the smart features like geofencing, you have to pay a monthly fee of £3

[mrpgkennedy]

I installed tado some 4 years ago and have evolved the system

they are really helpful and i have mine doing things officially that aren't compatible with tado (twin boilers, unvented heating system+ some electric underfloor heating)

i can control the temperature i each room, make the floors warm in the relevant rooms, if you have a complex heating system it an take little thinking about how it works and there is a way around it normally, things like it has a minimum value to prevent frost in a room, actually you can rise this i have it set so no room in the house drops below 10 degrees rather then their 5

will also control air con/air heat pumps if you have them

downsides sometimes the valves can loose contact with a server, but they still work manually so if you're internet is down the system still runs itself, it doesn't support different profiles but that's coming so different people switch on different rooms when they come home) but will pre heat your room as it sees you coming home

you need to close doors to get the best out of it, which means educating the house members or putting self closing mechanisms on them

[R0bertb00th]

Ive had the Hive system for a couple of years and its a good piece of kit, I would however advise against the individual TRV radiatior valves we've had nothing but problems with them throughout with a couple of them consistently not working and needing recalibrating - the idea is that you heat individual radiators as opposed to the house which in theory is great but as I say we've had nothing but problems with ours and Philips have on more than one occasion provided cotradictive instructions to resolve it and looking online many others have had similar issues

[Captain Morgan]

Heatmiser system here for coming on 7 years.

3 electric ufh zones, 2 wet rad zones, dhw tank, heated towel rails and a pumped hw loop all controlled from the one app.

[Christian]

Used to have Nest in my old flat and have just had Hive installed. Pretty much identical...going for Hive as a British Gas customer saved me about £100 compared to getting Nest.

The Hive thermostat is a bit bulkier, not as aesthetically pleasing, so if I were doing a one-for-one replacement for a wall mounted thermostat, I'd go for Nest. Barely using the thermostat myself and just using the app (which is how most people will end up using the system) means that it doesn't matter in reality...you put the thermostat on a shelf, have a clean wall and use your mobile to control it.

[subseastu]

Are these solving a problem that doesn't exist or am I missing something fundamental? I have a remote control thermostat and normal TRV on my radiators. Rooms heat up individually as per the temp I've set on the the valves.

[Christian]

Are these solving a problem that doesn't exist or am I missing something fundamental? I have a remote control thermostat and normal TRV on my radiators. Rooms heat up individually as per the temp I've set on the the valves.

Don’t think so. I got hive fitted for £180. Previously had a boiler with an on/off clock and no thermostat at all. I now have much more control over the heating. One of the big advantages for me is control whilst I am out of the house. Arriving back earlier than planned? No problem, boost the heating before I get back using my mobile phone and still arrive to a warm house.

[boris9]

Are these solving a problem that doesn't exist or am I missing something fundamental? I have a remote control thermostat and normal TRV on my radiators. Rooms heat up individually as per the temp I've set on the the valves.

Fair question and I’d say it depends on your expectations.

We’ve just returned from a week at the coast. I walked in to a warm house despite the fact that the radiators had only been keeping the cold off whilst we were away.

Similarly, when we return from work the temperature is just right and if we are going to be early or late we can adjust accordingly.

Maybe you perceive it as an issue, maybe you don’t, but they give you flexibility.


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[Christian]

Being a fan of gadgets, I've pretty much been through all the smart home kit...Philips Hue, Nest Cam, Google Home Hub, Nest, Hive. I'm happy to admit most is absolutely unnecessary and wasting money. Hive and Nest not though. The only bit of home tech thats worth it imo.

[bootneck]

Are these solving a problem that doesn't exist or am I missing something fundamental? I have a remote control thermostat and normal TRV on my radiators. Rooms heat up individually as per the temp I've set on the the valves.

It depends how much control you want, we’re not heating a whole house when we aren’t using most of it or the time clock isn’t coming on when we’re away for a weekend etc yet we walk into a warm house upon return because of the geofencing of our phones. Best example I can give is the wife works from home 90% of the time (before COVID) and would put the heating on if feeling cold, whole house heated up now she just controls the room she’s in during the day and of an evening it returns to normal for the rooms we use. The tado system has essentially given us a thermostat in each room

God knows what’s going on with my keyboard

[ray_li30]

Question for hive users, if you move the thermostat to a kids bedroom, if you wanted to control the heating during the night, do you set a temperature let’s say 21 degrees between the hours of 20:00 until 06:00? Would the system switch off automatic once the temperature was reached and come back on later if the temperature dropped? And would this be economical to do?

[Middo]

Question for hive users, if you move the thermostat to a kids bedroom, if you wanted to control the heating during the night, do you set a temperature let’s say 21 degrees between the hours of 20:00 until 06:00? Would the system switch off automatic once the temperature was reached and come back on later if the temperature dropped? And would this be economical to do?

Depends how you set it up. You can have it set trigger on and off bang in a set temp, from the sales pitch there is another way to too do it that’s more economical and maintain within range.

For what’s it’s worth, nest has been brilliant for us. The auto eco mode is great.

[Jimmcb]

Thanks everyone.

Tado on offer at costco for a set of kit and it seems good value.

Jim

[T1ckT0ck]

Had nest for years and it works brilliantly. The auto eco when you leave home must have saved enough on energy to have paid for itself a few times over.

Our house would drop too cold before the old thermostat fired up. Nest seems to smooth it out, it ‘knows’ how long your house takes to heat up and cool down ... it takes this into account to avoid this issue.

I have added to it... smoke alarms, cameras, doorbell, etc. It’s a very capable system with most elements talking to each other eg if smoke alarm fires it turns the boiler off.


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[Gee252]

I have had hive many years now and it has never missed a beat.
I also have the bulbs for lamps and sensors all work great.
Since I have fitted many of these for friends and all love it's simplicity of use (once set up)

[kace]

Our hive hub heard the smoke alarm go off this morning and sent me a text. Admittedly I was cooking at the time and had already heard the alarm but it's a useful feature to have.

It also detects breaking glass and a dog's bark.


The ready by feature doesn't seem to work, I've had it on since day one and it still hasn't learned how long the house takes to reach the desired temperature.

[bootneck]

Thanks everyone.

Tado on offer at costco for a set of kit and it seems good value.

Jim

Ours has been superb batteries last roughly 18 months for us, from memory it took me about an hour to set it all up on 10 radiators

[Maysie]

Sorry for being a bit dense, but how are people heating individual rooms within their homes with these systems?
Surely that would mean thermostats in every room and umpteen motorised valves to control umpteen different heating circuits?

What am I missing?

I am having our boiler and thermostat/controls replaced in the spring, but not the internal heating pipework/radiators, hence the question.

TIA

[Brighty]

Sorry for being a bit dense, but how are people heating individual rooms within their homes with these systems?
Surely that would mean thermostats in every room and umpteen motorised valves to control umpteen different heating circuits?

What am I missing?

I am having our boiler and thermostat/controls replaced in the spring, but not the internal heating pipework/radiators, hence the question.

TIA

A TRV on each rad will control the temp. If you then use smart TRV's, you can set each one to come on/off as desired

[Maysie]

A TRV on each rad will control the temp. If you then use smart TRV's, you can set each one to come on/off as desired

Right.
Understood.

Thank you!

[RobM]

You have to think about it in reverse... you don't heat individual rooms, rather, you don't heat all the other rooms.

I have Tado, I'd recommend it to everyone and I'm convinced it has paid for itself by now. The TRV's allow you to isolate specific radiatiors so when the heating comes on, they're bypassed. If you do this in every room, when you want to heat just one room all the other rooms are blocked off and the heat only benefits the room you want. For example, overnight I can maintain a different temperature in my daughters room without heating the rest of the house as well. It's much more efficient and therefore cheaper.

[guinea]

My gas bill went down £100/m when I got a new boiler and Hive with TRVs last year

With discount, warranty, free servicing and efficiency improvements I've already broken even.

I do seem to have a leak though - had to top up water pressure every couple of weeks recently, but that's covered under servicing/warranty.

[MrSmith]

People have heating on overnight??

[Brighty]

Been looking again as these today and can't decide what to get. Currently have an oil boiler with built in timer and no thermostat, so anything will be an improvement, but like the idea of geofencing to automatically turn the heating off if everyone is out.

Tado. Can get the starter kit+extension for £145. I like that I can add trvs later if i want. But the £3 a month subscription for geofencing is putting me off.

Honeywell T6r. About £135. No subscription for geofencing, but no trv option. I also like the fact it doesn't need a dongle plugged in to my router like the tado, just the start and the box wired to the boiler.

Any thoughts?

[Skier]

I went for the Tado kit around 2 years ago and it has been excellent. It's fitted to an oil fired boiler with hot water tank (Honeywell Y-Plan). There were some issues initially in that the bespoke instructions were incorrect but after spending the best part of a day studying central heating systems and the boiler wiring, I wired it as I believed it should have been and all has worked perfectly ever since (sent detailed notes and photos to Tado for their database should others have similar setups). THIS is one of the best sites I found when looking into my system.

I don't bother with the subscription any longer; I found geofencing completely useless as by the time it turned on the heating I was only a couple of miles from home so if I need to, I switch it on from the app before heading home from wherever I am. The maximum radius I am able to set for geofencing is 3,000m. I have TRVs on all radiators except those in the bedrooms; in my opinion they're too noisy for bedrooms but then we do live in a quiet very rural area so are no longer accustomed to sleeping through noise.

[bootneck]

Yes I wouldn’t be without our tado system there was no subscription when we bought so got that feature for free obviously in the current climate geofencing is useless as we can’t go anywhere lol however it’s worked faultlessly for the past few years.

a few adjustments of the at home radius got it to the point where the house was just getting up to temp as we walked in the door not quite fully warm but 85-90% there in winter. I absolutely love the open window detection as the wife had a horrible habit of heating full blast with windows wide open this stopped her in her tracks without the arguments or her realising for a while lol.

[Jubal]

You have to think about it in reverse... you don't heat individual rooms, rather, you don't heat all the other rooms.

I have Tado, I'd recommend it to everyone and I'm convinced it has paid for itself by now. The TRV's allow you to isolate specific radiatiors so when the heating comes on, they're bypassed. If you do this in every room, when you want to heat just one room all the other rooms are blocked off and the heat only benefits the room you want. For example, overnight I can maintain a different temperature in my daughters room without heating the rest of the house as well. It's much more efficient and therefore cheaper.

This is a great explanation. I’m Hive but the principle is exactly the same. It’s a great system, I rise early and heat just the room I use. Either planned via the schedule or with a boost if I’m early. Had it for years, gradually expanding. I like it so much I’m into the Hive lights, security and cameras as well. All works nicely via an app from anywhere and is wife friendly if she’ll take some simple instruction.

[mr noble]

Has anyone used the Drayton system?


It looks to have improved no end since the last time I looked, and also seems to be very well priced if you include 6-10 TRV units.


https://wiser.draytoncontrols.co.uk



It's always nice to get first hand feedback before buying something like this.

[Andyg]

Insulate your roof.
Make sure you have double/triple glazing.
Draft proof doors.
Fit thermal curtains/blinds to all windows and actually draw them at night.
Fit TRV to all rads and don’t heat rooms you don’t use.
Make sure your central heating system in sized correctly and balanced.
Make sure you shower rather than bath.

But perhaps most importantly don’t let your wife fiddle with the thermostat. If she is “feeling chilly” suggest a jumper

As for spending £100’s on a heating system you can control from your phone

[wuyangkid]

I moved into a new place recently and the heating system was so dated. Had 3 heatmiser thermostats to control the zoned underfloor, a watertank upstairs to control the heating and a thermostat in a random room which controlled the temp of the heating. It was all quite old so couldn't be controlled via an app so I got a plumber around to replace everything with hive. A week in and I can say hive is great, so easy to use

Does anyone know if they plan on releasing a doorbell anytime soon? Would like to have a hive one so everything is controlled on the same app

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[Middo]

Nest here, it has geofencing and also puts the heating into eco mode of there is no movement in the house for a while.

It also works with conventional system set ups too.

Moving soon and will be after another smart system. New house will feel antiquated without one.

[Rob Leeds]

I'm buying the nest this week.
£174 at City Plumbing.

[Brighty]

Went for Tado, ordered last night. £146 with a free Extension kit from Screwfix

[ernestrome]

We currently have a very basic heating programmer, one daily schedule controls heating and hot water which is not efficient for us - the hot water should be running much ss than the CH most of the time in winter, whereas in summer we would only want hot water and no hating.

The system has one wired thermostat. We have a fairly basic vaillant thermocompact boiler and a sadia megaflo hot water tank, not combi. There are two motorised valves. I think the whole system dates to 2005?

I was thinking I would replace the controller with a more sophisticated dumb controller to control heat and water separately with weekday and weekend settings. However it doesn't seem much more expensive to get the tado system at screwfix currently. Am I right in thinking the wireless starter kit with the fee extension will be what I need to control heating and hotwater? Do I need any other kit to get it working?

Or, is there a good cheap dumb programmer that I can buy for significantly less (i/e less than half the price of tado kit @ £147)?

Attic is already well insulated, thermal curtains in most rooms, doors seal well and so on.

[MB2]

We currently have a very basic heating programmer, one daily schedule controls heating and hot water which is not efficient for us - the hot water should be running much ss than the CH most of the time in winter, whereas in summer we would only want hot water and no hating.

The system has one wired thermostat. We have a fairly basic vaillant thermocompact boiler and a sadia megaflo hot water tank, not combi. There are two motorised valves. I think the whole system dates to 2005?

I was thinking I would replace the controller with a more sophisticated dumb controller to control heat and water separately with weekday and weekend settings. However it doesn't seem much more expensive to get the tado system at screwfix currently. Am I right in thinking the wireless starter kit with the fee extension will be what I need to control heating and hotwater? Do I need any other kit to get it working?

Or, is there a good cheap dumb programmer that I can buy for significantly less (i/e less than half the price of tado kit @ £147)?

Attic is already well insulated, thermal curtains in most rooms, doors seal well and so on.

You have an "S" Plan heating system so you could easily control the 2 valves independently - using the old programmer for the water and a new one for the CH. Whilst it might not save you much money it will give you more choice for the heating programmer. I would look at the cost of the programmer + smart valves as for me, whilst the programmer was a huge benefit, especially when I was travelling a lot. The valves are really handy allowing me to simply heat the rooms I want when I want - ideal for WFH days when I want to heat just the dining room & kitchen during the day (office) so make sure the valves can control the heating system.

[ernestrome]

Thanks MB2. I have bought a cheap tado system plus the extension kit to try out, essentially using it as a programmer. Smart TRVs will have to wait a bit.

[ernestrome]

Oops, think I may have been a bit hasty. Bought a wireless tado kit and extension but have an existing wired thermostat.

[bootneck]

Oops, think I may have been a bit hasty. Bought a wireless tado kit and extension but have an existing wired thermostat.

You just replace the wired one with tado

[Brighty]

Oops, think I may have been a bit hasty. Bought a wireless tado kit and extension but have an existing wired thermostat.

It will still work. You have 3 choices

1. Wire the Tado stat in where your old hardwired one is. Then you don't need the extension (return or sell it). But you wont be able to control your hot water (but can use your old timer for that). Can you get just the starter kit cheaper elsewhere? Or sell the extn on ebay?

2. Wire in the Tado stat where your old hardwired one is. Wire in the extension kit (for the HW only). Control Heating & HW using Tado

3. Put the Tado stat wherever you like and operate it wirelessly. Wire in the extension kit (needed to operate the wirelesss stat, and will also work your HW). Control Heating & HW using Tado. Move the Stat wherever you like.

[ernestrome]

Yes the advice on the tado community was just to bypass the existing thermostat.

I bought the whole lot cheaply on eBay so will probably try heat and hot water first, then if there's little benefit in the HW I can always sell the extension.

[RobM]

I find the Tado Extension and HW control quite useful. Day-to-day it's not that different from a traditional controller if you're in a set routine, but if you're away from home for any time it offers some benefit, and it gives you the option of placing your thermostat wherever you like, which is helpful if the old one is in a bad location.