Littleted

Anybody got one been looking at Hive and Nest.


Think im leaning towards Hive due to it having Geo location ( ie heating starts when your within 2 miles of home.


I know I know a bit extreme.


Anyone ?


ta

taylor85

iTrader: (5)

yeah been thinkin about it mate as mrs always moans its cold and our controller is old / complicated (not for me)

my house is really old tho, I havent got TRVS in all my rooms yet ! i got a couple of the honeywell wifi ones somewhere in my office

Blue by You

iTrader: (23)

Put a jumper on and light a fire when you get in

Littleted

Tado looks easiest

Spoon

If you only require the heating to come on then buy a GSM switcher. The rest of the gubbins on these heating controllers are largely unnecessary. I'd assume the geo location is a pain if you're driving by your home but not going in.

My set-up is via a dialler. If I ring or text the number the heating comes on. The thermostat temperature never gets changed anyway so anymore than an on-off for me is pointless. I use it if I'm out and have been for some time, otherwise the house doesn't lose enough heat to warrant turning the heat on until I'm back home.
Internal/external lighting is a different matter, the dialler gets used every time I'm out and it starts to get dark.

Chip

We've got the Nest and it's really good.

Littleted

Chip does it run from the mains power I saw it had a battery what's that for? I don't want to have to charge it..

Yeah spoon the devices I looked at have geo but also simple switch on and off via gps, the units fasten to wifi

I'll be honest most of the time the boilers on constant we just use the stat to run on and off..

Just had the new boiler fit, so everything is running top top, the new water flow amazes me, it's as fast as cold now but red hot, old boiler must have been ****e.

Spoon

The same as I wouldn't trust proper security to wireless, I don't like the idea of running my heating from something dependent on WIFI and software updates coming from any old source. Then there's the fact you have to plug in most devices along with another device plugged in your router.

I don't bother with my day/week timers for heating. If I'm in it's on and if I'm out it's off unless I dial it and switch it on.

I also don't leave anything on if I'm not using it so in your case leaving the boiler on and just controlling it via the thermostat means a GSM switch won't work.

Chip

Yes runs off mains, don't bow what batteries are for though, back up maybe.

Auto away feature is superb.

Spoon

So the heating turning off, at best, 30 minutes after you have left. Or in cases where you don't leave the house every single day at exactly the same time, up to 2 hours before the heating gets turned off is superb?

A waste of gas and electricity maybe but not superb, Chip.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

I've got this: http://www.honeywelluk.com/products/.../evohome-Main/

Does the job; Got it wired in and working in 30mins (8 rad controllers, two zone valves, hot water control and mobile access) . Bit longer to program though.

Easy to use and setup. Wireless Radiator controllers is the main plus point over the other smart systems and this allows multiple zoning without any plumbing work (so long as you have working TRVs).

I bought it a few months back, but I've only recently got it up running as I wanted to try and get the heating issues/balancing sorted before adding this to the mix. Plus I had a plumber that was adamant that a conventional time-switch was the way forward so I needed him out of the way too.

Criticisms? A few. Mobile app could be quicker, but that could be a server issue as it has to ping from the internet back home to the Honeywell server, then to my Mobile. With that in mind its never going to be snappy at responding.

The other is temperature overshoot I get on the odd zone sometimes. Might be a communication issue, or it maybe tied into the balancing issues I have which is now postponed on the drawing board until the weather warms up a little as the room that overshoots is also the room that's on the least resistive path from the boiler.

Finally, compared to the CM927 which IMO is the mutts nutts in conventional heating controllers, its missing a few engineer/installer options (like proportional bandwidth adjustment), which is handy for final tweaking the system. This wouldn't bother most people, but to me the installer menu options may have been dumbed down for the DIY market..

Cheapest stockists at the moment appear to be this lot...http://www.jtmplumbing.co.uk/honeywe...ohome-417.html I've used them a few times, quick delivery

Chip

OK, I'll downgrade that to "very good" as it seems to upset you so much.Happy now FFS.

Spoon

Don't confuse being upset with stating the facts.

The description you are looking for pertaining to unnecessarily wasting energy and therefore costing money is poor.

Spoon

Ali,

I removed my individual zoning TRVs but they were earlier than Honeywell's EvoHome. Your findings are exactly why I haven't replaced them yet. If I do it would be with the EvoHome gear.

I'm not sure I'm even going to bother now though as I've simply bought all new TRVs, balanced the system to an inch of its life and turned down the radiators in rooms, bedrooms in particular, that are never used. I'm home most of the time so the heating settings don't change. The new TRVs made a real difference to the system despite thinking the old ones worked fine.

I'll be interested if you get yours running as you want.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

The zone with the worst overshoot is actually via a 2port valve controlling the upstairs as a whole with a DTS92 in the one bedroom acting as room temperature sensor, its the room with the DTS92 is that is getting too warm. Odd as it knows its getting too warm as its measuring the correct temperature. But before this was installed I already had problems with the upstair getting to much priority to the downstairs, which I'm sure is a pipework issue, so I feel this is not helping.

The downsatirs of the house is mainly HR92s radiator valve actuator at first they seemed to overshoot, but after a week they seemed to settle down. I guess there is some self-learning as its designed to work with various makes of valve bodies. I should add all the TRV valve bodies in my house are 12months old and are a mix of Drayton TRV4 and Honeywell VT200 which are both high quality valves.

I chose this control system mainly because I wanted different rooms to be at different temepratures during the day and week. And some rooms were still too cold when the old coventional thermostat had shut down; again this is a pipework/balance issue and something I plan on properly sorting early next year. If you don't need to vary the temperature of a room during teh day/week then really there is no need for radiator actuators and TRVs will do.

As an aside, I have looked at Viessmann's Vitotronic 200 with internet/remote connectivity and weather compenesation. However the solution to my problems posed by Dr Viessmann's salesman during the house visit was to have the system on all the time as a single zone and adjust the TRVs as and when (idiot obviously hadn't listened to a word I said). I already had a £1000 gas bill for last winter with a setup not to different to what he proposed and I don't wish to have another bill that big. So he lost the sale of a boiler by saying that (I still bought their hot water tank, which was a grave and expensive mistake on my half ).

Spoon

If your pipework allows, and it isn't a blind plumbers special, it sounds like a decent balance would sort out your problems. My home too some years ago was warmer upstairs if the TRVs were at the same setting. Reducing flow via the lockshields to those radiators nearest the boiler evened out the flow for those furthest away. The result is one room downstairs, that was always warm but not hot, is now hot if required.
As previously said, I also keep the TRVs turned down low in the bedrooms not required and keep the doors closed but if I have someone staying the TRVs turned up in those bedrooms produce ample heat even though I restricted the lockshields.

Other rooms get used on a daily basis so are all at a similar temperature controlled by the TRVs.

Oh, and any overshooting on the desired thermostat setting was sorted with the proportional bandwidth adjustment.

As for gas usage, well, heating on for 15 hours a day is never going to be cheaper than someone going out to work all day but I'm happy it is as efficient as possible for my requirements.

Chip

Yeah whatever!

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, I have a bit of crazy plumbing going on with 18metres of needless pipework ( https://www.scoobynet.com/diy-39/101...ing-again.html )....they've been balanced , balanced and re-balanced. Not helped when tha last pumber airlocked it and went round opening them all...and didn't return them to the prior setting The problem is in order to get good heat from the coldest/furthest radiators the locksheilds on the closest radiators are almost fully closed - 1/8th of a turn, as a result they make a fair bit of noise.

The Evohome has helped a bit with this, as I can stagger times for each zone so the coldest rooms can get priority instead. And as half the house is only really being heated at any given time now, I can use the pump on a lower setting, which has reduced the noise. Its not ideal, as the issue with the plumbing still needs to be addressed, but it'll do me for this winter.

Littleted

Honeywell kit looks nice but expensive, however I do like the TRVs didn't know you could get them also.

I won't go that far though I just zone down the rooms where the kids used to be now left home, and keep the main ones on, bathroom kitchen master bedroom...

We discussed it and with me being home most of the time unless i get remote TRVs so in essence my office is the only room that is live through the day then we prob won't bother, this Honeywell kit maybe the solution but too rich for me at the moment, maybe after Xmas I can slowly build upon it..


I presuming Ali all rads need to come off to pop the new valve on? Or do they fit over existing TRVs ?

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Yeah its not cheap. I doubt if it'll ever create any saving to pay for itself, but time will tell.

They fit on the valve body of the existing TRVs. Just screw the thermostatic head off and screw the motor on.

Obviously this depends on the make of TRV fitted. Mine are Drayton and Honeywell, and they fitted with no problems. Other makes may need adapters or the valve replaced