Best Wifi enabled thermostat

Best Wifi enabled thermostat

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Discussion

teabelly

164 posts

230 months

Sunday 1st March 2015
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Pheo said:
Multiple Time Zone planning should sort this out. Coming in a couple of weeks. I agree though. Personally I'd like it if I could blip the heating 20 mins before I goto bed to cause the air temp to spike a little in the bedrooms.

Can't have everything.
If the heating hasn't been on close enough to bedtime I flick it onto manual with a reasonable temperature so it does a quick heat, then stick it back on auto. Mine seems to be coming on within half an hour of bedtime more often now so I don't know whether it learns from these manual adjustments and works them into its activities or it's coincidence or whether mentioning it to Tado support means they've tweaked something.


dickymint

24,089 posts

257 months

Sunday 1st March 2015
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Scottish Power has opted for TADO as have I.................

https://www.swalec.co.uk/HeatingAndWiring/tado/

gaz1234

5,233 posts

218 months

Sunday 1st March 2015
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My potterton has a control panel with off, on, timed modes for hw and ch. Do I leave both to the on position?

gaz1234

5,233 posts

218 months

Sunday 1st March 2015
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So nest and Tado don't mention heating the water.
Carp

Mattt

16,661 posts

217 months

Sunday 1st March 2015
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Tado does hot water control with the extension kit (replaces the programmer).

gaz1234

5,233 posts

218 months

Sunday 1st March 2015
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Don't think I'll bother until there is a clear reliable winner out there that will manage water and heating cleverly and know when I'm in or out.
Sticking to old fashioned system for now. Think they all have floors.

VEX

5,256 posts

245 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
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All of these single zone learning controllers are fine but what most are looking for is something more detailed and targeted in heating.

I have a dual zone system here are the moment separating upstairs from downstairs, but the ultimate I want for total efficiency is zoned radiator control and learning hotwater.

Honeywell EvoHome offers this and there are a few cost effective home control systems that use ZWave to control intelligent TRV's

Costs more, but will save more as well.

V.


bad company

18,483 posts

265 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
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gaz1234 said:
Think they all have floors.
They also have some flaws. wink

SMar

201 posts

139 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
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From reading this thread, it appears a lot of people don't understand what they are buying, or they expect these system to have the intelligence of Stephen Hawking. They are better than what’s gone before, but its still early days! smile

stuart313

740 posts

112 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
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VEX said:
All of these single zone learning controllers are fine but what most are looking for is something more detailed and targeted in heating.

I have a dual zone system here are the moment separating upstairs from downstairs, but the ultimate I want for total efficiency is zoned radiator control and learning hotwater.

Honeywell EvoHome offers this and there are a few cost effective home control systems that use ZWave to control intelligent TRV's

Costs more, but will save more as well.

V.
I posted on another thread that I think the most cost effective way to do this would be with an UFH manifold without the blending valve piped to each rad and a programmable room stat in each room. you could use the JG network controlers with the central touch screen.

Not too sure on the learning hot water though.

HenryJM

6,315 posts

128 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
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SMar said:
From reading this thread, it appears a lot of people don't understand what they are buying, or they expect these system to have the intelligence of Stephen Hawking. They are better than what’s gone before, but its still early days! smile
Some also overlook timing. Having my heating come on 10 minutes before I get there is pointless, OK in a small flat (perhaps), but heading takes time. If I want it to be warm at 7.00pm them it needs to be starting at 6.00pm to stand a chance, makes the whole prediction around where I am to be a bit hopeless.

What is much better is to be able to use an app on my iPhone that allows me to control it from wherever I am, and that works on the British Gas MyHome app, which just came with the new boiler a year or more ago. Has worked perfectly doing all the bits I need.

bogie

16,342 posts

271 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
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HenryJM said:
SMar said:
From reading this thread, it appears a lot of people don't understand what they are buying, or they expect these system to have the intelligence of Stephen Hawking. They are better than what’s gone before, but its still early days! smile
Some also overlook timing. Having my heating come on 10 minutes before I get there is pointless, OK in a small flat (perhaps), but heading takes time. If I want it to be warm at 7.00pm them it needs to be starting at 6.00pm to stand a chance, makes the whole prediction around where I am to be a bit hopeless.

What is much better is to be able to use an app on my iPhone that allows me to control it from wherever I am, and that works on the British Gas MyHome app, which just came with the new boiler a year or more ago. Has worked perfectly doing all the bits I need.
exactly my logic. Our work patterns change at a days notice. Sometimes away for days/week and other time at home all week. So my simple Salus app on the phone works great. Can switch heating on as required when on the way home or off when ive left for a few days

Surely you can do it manually with the Nest and other systems too? ..you dont HAVE to rely on the predictive thing ?

HenryJM

6,315 posts

128 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
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bogie said:
exactly my logic. Our work patterns change at a days notice. Sometimes away for days/week and other time at home all week. So my simple Salus app on the phone works great. Can switch heating on as required when on the way home or off when ive left for a few days

Surely you can do it manually with the Nest and other systems too? ..you dont HAVE to rely on the predictive thing ?
Yes, I may be missing something, it's just that the system you get as standard with a new boiler seems to do what is needed. Control from the phone, by internet and SMS, telling it when to do things if you want it to be away from standard for today. Different settings on different days and time of day. All standard stuff from BG, or at least I think it is, we didn't so much go out and buy it as got it with the boiler.

Sitting in Africa and switching the whole thing to come back on in winter was great having been down to minimum figures while we were away. Much more useful than it suddenly realising that 5 degrees wasn't going to do it when I am 10 minutes from being at home, for example.


ShortShift811

532 posts

141 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
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bogie said:
Surely you can do it manually with the Nest and other systems too? ..you dont HAVE to rely on the predictive thing ?
You certainly can on Nest. Just go into 'Thermostat Settings' > 'Nest Sense >'Auto Learning' and set this to 'Off'. You can then just control the thermostat via the app or set a schedule manually.

One of the main reason I went for the Next was its ease of use and so far that's proved to be the main boon for us.

Pheo

3,324 posts

201 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
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The key thing I like about Tado is the heating is never going to come on to set point temperature unless I've specifically overridden, when I'm not there.

Of course like anyone else I occasionally make adjustments. But when done with those adjustments, the system looks after itself

I never have a situation where I go - damn I left the heating on, better login and turn it off.

Leithen

10,799 posts

266 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
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"Home" technology has been very slow to become smart. I wonder what percentage of homes have "loop" hot water systems that ensure immediate hot water at the tap rather than litres of cold water wasted down the plughole? Given the difficulty in retrofitting such a system to older houses (such as mine), it must be pretty small.

Baths that fill to a set temperature?

etc etc.

Otispunkmeyer

12,555 posts

154 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
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So Installed my Nest about a week ago now. Very easy to do, though I did think I'd broken my boiler some 5 minutes after switching it all on again. Turns out it just needed a reset to clear a fault with the pump.

Tried volt free switching method first, but I think the headers on the boiler PCB were for OpenTherm rather than just volt-free, which the Nest doesn't support. So ended up using the switched live method. Straight forward on mine as there was already a rudimentary RF module controlling the boiler in the same way.

Its been learning for a week now and Auto-away has started working. At the moment its still not going away untill about 2 hours, but I assume this will come down.

As for Scheduling, well lets just say I have deleted a fair share of its schedule. After yesterday it had decided that it wants to put the heating on at midday, every week day, when no one is home. Great.

What is more, it still reckons on a 5 degree change in temp requires 2+ hours of heating, when in reality its almost always there within the hour. The time to heat is getting better though.

HenryJM

6,315 posts

128 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
Leithen said:
"Home" technology has been very slow to become smart. I wonder what percentage of homes have "loop" hot water systems that ensure immediate hot water at the tap rather than litres of cold water wasted down the plughole? Given the difficulty in retrofitting such a system to older houses (such as mine), it must be pretty small.

Baths that fill to a set temperature?

etc etc.
Well yes, but it's the builder/heating system that's the issue there though, not the thermostat.

Leithen

10,799 posts

266 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
HenryJM said:
Well yes, but it's the builder/heating system that's the issue there though, not the thermostat.
Partially - there are smarter pumps that "learn" when a hot water loop needs to be heated - Grundfos Autoadapt for example.

But my wider point was that home technology has been generally slow to become adopted or be widely available. There are big opportunities to save money and make systems much more convenient than has been possible in the past.

ShortShift811

532 posts

141 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
Otispunkmeyer said:
So Installed my Nest about a week ago now. Very easy to do, though I did think I'd broken my boiler some 5 minutes after switching it all on again. Turns out it just needed a reset to clear a fault with the pump.

Tried volt free switching method first, but I think the headers on the boiler PCB were for OpenTherm rather than just volt-free, which the Nest doesn't support. So ended up using the switched live method. Straight forward on mine as there was already a rudimentary RF module controlling the boiler in the same way.

Its been learning for a week now and Auto-away has started working. At the moment its still not going away untill about 2 hours, but I assume this will come down.

As for Scheduling, well lets just say I have deleted a fair share of its schedule. After yesterday it had decided that it wants to put the heating on at midday, every week day, when no one is home. Great.

What is more, it still reckons on a 5 degree change in temp requires 2+ hours of heating, when in reality its almost always there within the hour. The time to heat is getting better though.
Our Nest went in on Weds 28th Feb and I found the same as you; the initial learning phase seems to jump about and affect the scheduling but lots of people seem to find as you get more data points over time it improves. We have a fairly regular in / out pattern at home so I'm hoping it will only get better over the next couple of months.