Smart heating systems

[mavhc]

This is why I'm doing it myself, wired in. Can't trust random company to keep their servers running, can't trust internet to stay up, can't trust wifi not to be hacked, zigbee is hacked by default, bluetooth easily hacked.

[jmak]

Surely there should be a backup if the internet fails?

You'd think, but I confirmed with their support that there is no backup. It stays in whatever state it was in when it could last contact the servers across the internet. I would design the system to follow the normal pattern unless it received a change instruction. I found out when I went away for the weekend and it ran solidly for 72 hours - apart from the inefficiency, I'd run a risk of running out of oil if I was away for a week and that happened.

 

If I'm going away overnight, I turn it off manually now. Not ideal, but not worth switching systems at this point. When it works, it works very well and it does work the vast majority of the time.

[elsiegee40]

[PyROm]

Evohome can work without any internet access, the main controller is a touch screen display where you can setup everything, in fact the v1 and v2 versions of the controller had no built in networking and required an extra addon unit to add it. The newer versions have wifi built in (but not required), by connecting it to the internet it allows webpage, mobile app and alexa/google home control of heating.

[elsiegee40]

We have installed Hive today. Only the thermostat so far. TRVs are next on the list

[foofighterjim]

Not sure if this has been mentioned but the Hive TVRs can work independently from the thermostat. i.e. the TVRs can prompt the boiler to turn on even if the thermostat is at it's desired temperature. Not sure how efficient this is in terms of heating a house unless you have TVRs on all radiators but...

[elsiegee40]

Not sure if this has been mentioned but the Hive TVRs can work independently from the thermostat. i.e. the TVRs can prompt the boiler to turn on even if the thermostat is at it's desired temperature. Not sure how efficient this is in terms of heating a house unless you have TVRs on all radiators but...

 

In their blurb they recommend putting the TRVs on all radiators if you want to be able to have one room warmer than the rest of the house (perhaps a study in office hours)

Edited November 27, 2020 by elsiegee40

[foofighterjim]

In their blurb they recommend TRVs on all radiators

All except the room the thermostat is located in, I believe. I was contemplating putting TRVs just in the bedrooms, mainly because you don't need to heat the them at the same time as the rest of the house. Edited November 27, 2020 by elsiegee40

[HPlum78]

On the TRV on all except the rad located in the room with the Thermostat. I will say yes and no you need to be sure what your boiler manufacturer says about this. If your boiler has a flow meter built in (it can tell if all the TRVs are set to the off position) then you can fit TRVs to all rads (Thermostat location still needs to be considered so not to have the boiler hunting/ cycling all of the time, as they work against each other.. ) for those that don't have a flow meter there will be a min and max distance from the boiler for a TRV uncontrolled rad that essentially stops you burning out the pump and damaging the heating matrix in the boiler. Edited November 26, 2020 by HPlum78

[elsiegee40]

On the TRV on all except the rad located in the room with the Thermostat. I will say yes and no you need to be sure what your boiler manufacturer says about this. If your boiler has a flow meter built in (it can tell if all the TRVs are set to the off position) then you can fit TRVs to all rads (Thermostat location still needs to be considered so not to have the boiler hunting/ cycling all of the time, as they work against each other.. ) for those that don't have a flow meter there will be a min and max distance from the boiler for a TRV uncontrolled rad that essentially stops you burning out the pump and damaging the heating matrix in the boiler.

 

Yes, we would definitely apply the all but one rule here. We have conventional TRVs here and the rad in our downstairs loo doesn’t have one. We would leave that if going smart.