Smart thermostat and clever radiator valves?

[GnarlyOldGoatDude]

Our ancient thermostat is playing up and I’ve started thinking about getting one of those fancy Hive/ Nest things instead. I’ve seen they also do smart radiator TRVs- our study is always freezing as it’s the end of the line to our ancient heating system. Previously we’ve just put enormous jumpers and hats on when we’re in there, but thanks to Covid we are using it on a daily basis and it’s COLD.

I’m wondering if this could be the answer to our prayers?

Any recommendations for a smart thermostat system? Especially one which has the potential to independently control and boost the temperature to one particular room?

Thank you

Oh and WiserHeat is connected to our Google Home so you can set routines and Google controls the whole lot.

TRVs can be set to 1 in unused rooms. There’s also a frost setting * to stop pipes freezing and keep damp out. Just put them back on 3 an hour or so before somebody uses the room. There will still be some flow to the rads on frost setting.

@Nandakanda

TRVs can be set to 1 in unused rooms. There’s also a frost setting * to stop pipes freezing and keep damp out. Just put them back on 3 an hour or so before somebody uses the room. There will still be some flow to the rads on frost setting.

You have literally just educated me as to what the * means

If your study takes a long time for the rad to get warm then you might benefit from balancing your rads. I had exactly this problem on one of my radiators which was at the 'end of the line' - it would get warm quickly if it was the only rad in the house which was on, but would only warm up slowly if others we heating up.

What was happening in our case was the other radiators were allowing all the hot water to flow through them and not leaving any for the last rad. Once we reduced the flow of water through the other rads then this fixed our problems.

There may be other reasons - you might have a load of crud in your pipes which is restricting flow for example. Having a flush done in this case may improve matters.

You can balance the rads yourself. PigletJohn may be along soon to link you to the simple DIY guide he wrote.

It is amazing how much pleasure you can get out of a really well setup heating system.

@TobyHouseMan

If your study takes a long time for the rad to get warm then you might benefit from balancing your rads. I had exactly this problem on one of my radiators which was at the 'end of the line' - it would get warm quickly if it was the only rad in the house which was on, but would only warm up slowly if others we heating up.

What was happening in our case was the other radiators were allowing all the hot water to flow through them and not leaving any for the last rad. Once we reduced the flow of water through the other rads then this fixed our problems.

There may be other reasons - you might have a load of crud in your pipes which is restricting flow for example. Having a flush done in this case may improve matters.

You can balance the rads yourself. PigletJohn may be along soon to link you to the simple DIY guide he wrote.

It is amazing how much pleasure you can get out of a really well setup heating system.

@TobyHouseMan we had them balanced last year when Covid first hit and we started having to do more WFH. Also some cleaner stuff pumped through the system.

It did help a bit, but now the cold weather has hit again, it’s just arctic in there. DH has been round bleeding radiators again this morning but says there isn’t much air.

Sounds like you covered the obvious stuff.

Just ideas off the top of my head:-

. The engineer didn't correctly balance the rads.

. The flush didn't get all the crud out and the rads are still full of it. (I have a thermal imaging camera which is excellent for detecting this. If you are near the GU area I can lend it to you.)

. You have 10mm pipes installed which were never up to the job in the first place.

. Your pump isn't sized correctly. Some pumps have a setting where they can adapt to the number of rads turned on by sensing the backpressure. If you have one of these you could try adjusting it so it pumps 'harder'. In our previous house, we had the pump changed for one of these and it made a big difference.

. Many other things I've not thought of.

What you need is a 50 year old plumber who's been around the block a bit to come sort it out for you ;)

@TobyHouseMan

Sounds like you covered the obvious stuff.

Just ideas off the top of my head:-

. The engineer didn't correctly balance the rads.

. The flush didn't get all the crud out and the rads are still full of it. (I have a thermal imaging camera which is excellent for detecting this. If you are near the GU area I can lend it to you.)

. You have 10mm pipes installed which were never up to the job in the first place.

. Your pump isn't sized correctly. Some pumps have a setting where they can adapt to the number of rads turned on by sensing the backpressure. If you have one of these you could try adjusting it so it pumps 'harder'. In our previous house, we had the pump changed for one of these and it made a big difference.

. Many other things I've not thought of.

What you need is a 50 year old plumber who's been around the block a bit to come sort it out for you ;)

Thanks for brainstorming @TobyHouseMan!

The pipe diameter could easily be a factor. It’s a 1950s house which has been variously extended up, out and along by various previous owners, and I suspect the plumbing is utterly higgledy piggledy.

It has a huge commercial type water pump cylinder thing attached. Every plumber who’s ever seen it has raised their eyebrows

When I was researching this on here, lots of people recommended Tado. Haven't got it yet ourselves, came very close last Black Friday as was a good discount, hadn't realised then we'd need 2 parts in order to make it work with our boiler. Which is fine, just a bit more £ than we had at that moment.

I think zoning would work really well in your kind of situation, and ours where we're in the study WFH all day and not really anywhere else, and vice versa in the evenings. My plumber was a bit though - when I said, I could turn up the bedroom rad half an hour before bed while still sitting in the lounge, he was like "why not just pop up there and turn the dial yourself and save the ££?"

@SiulaGrande I’d only heard of Tado on here too. What 2 bits would you need?

Popping upstairs to do the radiator is UTTERLY missing the point

The thermostat and the control panel that needs to be wired into the boiler. Then however many individual radiator controls.

And yes, it was!

Tado here. Thermostats in every room.
It's smart enough to boost when it recognises you coming home and intuitive enough to stop heating a room if it detects an open window. It also knows you're out so will stop heating.

It's an amazing system we've had in for about 6 years and has paid for itself a dozen times over. It tracks savings as well and the app this month tells me it's saved us 12.9% in September.
House is always warm and doesn't need much involvement from us, it just 'knows'.

We have had Tado from a few years now and love it. We have the Tado controller in the airing cupboard linked to the Tado thermostat on the wall in the dining room downstairs. It has an app so we can control the heating from anywhere. It's lovely to be able to turn the heating on when you are out so it's warm by the time you get back.

We have just last week bought some of the Tado rad valves to add to the system. Again these link to the app so I can set different temps or heating schedules for each room with a valve. This is great for us as we also have a woodburner so downstairs tends to get warm while upstairs in the bedrooms is freezing! Now I can set the bedrooms to 20 degrees and know that's how it will be when I go up bed without overheating the whole house.

Two more recommendations for Tado, thank you!

Tado support is also out of this world.

When we bought it we sent a photo of the boiler and a personalised wiring diagram was sent back. Installed easily.

I had an issue where the geofencing was struggling. At the time I worked 500 yards from where I lived so it wasn't recognising I was leaving the house. I emailed and within the hour they had tweaked the geofencing to personalised settings and fixed it.

When we moved we sent a photo of the new boiler and again were given personalised fitting instructions.

If you are looking at Tado, Costco them at have good prices right now. Tado is doing 20% off for Black Friday via Amazon but the Costco prices are slightly cheaper than that.

I just ordered some more of the rad valves today as they are selling in packs of 4 for £149.89 which makes them a couple of pounds less each than the £118 for 3 deal via Tado/Amazon.

[[https://www.costco.co.uk/search?text=Tado]{

@GnarlyOldGoatDude

Two more recommendations for Tado, thank you!

I've just bought the smart thermostat, will be fitted this week. Can't wait!

Thank you!

How has my life come to this, that I am excited by thermostats and radiator valves?

Honeywell evohome here too. You can pair it with Honeywell TRVs (bought separately) we have similar situation with an office and had this system for couple years now - works great. Comes with a central thermostat and an app - you can control each room separately, have a schedule for each room, etc. Works with google and Alexa. I can recommend, not cheap but good.

@GnarlyOldGoatDude

Thank you!

How has my life come to this, that I am excited by thermostats and radiator valves?

Same. It's sad isn't it?

If you'd told 18 year old me I'd be thrilled at the prospect of a radiator valve and a new smart light bulb I'd have choked on my pint 😂

NC for this....

DH worked on Hive some years ago. When our old thermostat died, he built his own software (and wired up the relevant hardware) rather than install Hive. I think that tells you all you need to know about whether he'd recommend Hive...

@GnarlyOldGoatDude

Thank you!

How has my life come to this, that I am excited by thermostats and radiator valves?

Not sad at all - I am almost evangelical about our smart heating I love it because it's very efficient and economical. I am that person who will put on another jumper rather than turn the heating up, so I like knowing I am only heating the rooms I need.

We installed Tado a week ago and are loving it! The kids' bedrooms are set to warm up for their bedtime and ours go on a couple of hours later; we had friends round last night so kept the dining room warm without heating the rest of the house; if I'm pottering in the kitchen, I can use the app and just heat that up - so many ways it's useful! DH replaced our controller and the app guided him through it step by step with really clear instructions, and we replaced our existing TRVs with Tado ones ourselves. And DH is a techie and is delighted that he can write code for it (not sure what the code will do but he's happy ).

@MincemeatMaestro

We installed Tado a week ago and are loving it! The kids' bedrooms are set to warm up for their bedtime and ours go on a couple of hours later; we had friends round last night so kept the dining room warm without heating the rest of the house; if I'm pottering in the kitchen, I can use the app and just heat that up - so many ways it's useful! DH replaced our controller and the app guided him through it step by step with really clear instructions, and we replaced our existing TRVs with Tado ones ourselves. And DH is a techie and is delighted that he can write code for it (not sure what the code will do but he's happy ).

@MincemeatMaestro I’m about to hit the buy button, but not sure if I need a wired or wireless system

We’ve got a newish boiler with an older timer control panel on the wall next to it, and then an ancient dial thermostat in the hall.

How do you work out what you need?

Drop them an email with a picture/make model of your boiler and they will tell you exactly what to purchase.

@GnarlyOldGoatDude We had a thermostat in the hallway and the controller in the airing cupboard so needed wireless for them to talk to each other. Hope that helps!