Smart heating controls
Discussion
My CH controls are in desperate need of replacement, but I don't think it's so easy with my set up. My boiler, pump, valves etc. are all in a boiler house that's separate from my house. My existing programmer/stat is a Honeywell Smartfit. It is in my hallway and connected to the rest of the set up in the boiler house by a low voltage cable. Ideally, I'd like an Alexa controlled set up with the programmer/stat in my lounge. I'm not wanting to route cables but do have good WiFi in the house. So the question is, if the WiFi doesn't reach the boiler house, can a smart set up still work? The only link to the boiler house us the lv cable.
Do you need heating *and* hot water control from inside the house, or could the latter be left on a timer (in the boilerhouse)?
If it is just heating control you want, there is the Honeywell T6 wall-mounted wired smart thermostat/programmer that would work in the same way as your current setup using the 2-core LV cable to provide power and communication between the relay box in the boilerhouse and the controller in the house.
(Cheeky plug but I happen to have one I was going to put up for sale hence my familiarity with it - do let me know if it might be of interest)
There will of course be other options out there too.
If it is just heating control you want, there is the Honeywell T6 wall-mounted wired smart thermostat/programmer that would work in the same way as your current setup using the 2-core LV cable to provide power and communication between the relay box in the boilerhouse and the controller in the house.
(Cheeky plug but I happen to have one I was going to put up for sale hence my familiarity with it - do let me know if it might be of interest)
There will of course be other options out there too.
Edited by tux850 on Friday 29th November 10:06
Apologies, having read your post properly I see that you want to move the programmer/stat from the hall to the lounge without adding cables so a wireless (or partial wireless) approach is likely your only option.
There is the desk-stand Honeywell T6R wireless smart thermostat/programmer which might work. I say 'might' because it of course depends on whether you'd get a signal between the house and boilerhouse. Note that it doesn't use wifi but rather its own proprietary 868Mhz comms channel hence is likely to propagate better than a 2.4GHz signal. Other products likely take a similar approach (i.e. not relying on wifi for the programmer-relay link, so just because you might not get a wifi signal inside the boilerhouse doesn't mean you're out of luck).
At the risk of sounding like a dodgy bloke that's been hanging around the back of the Honeywell factory I also have one of these for sale too. Again though, single-channel (heating only).
There is a dual-channel heating/hot-water one too (T6R-HW), which I happen to use myself, but alas in a break from tradition is not for sale... ;-)
There is the desk-stand Honeywell T6R wireless smart thermostat/programmer which might work. I say 'might' because it of course depends on whether you'd get a signal between the house and boilerhouse. Note that it doesn't use wifi but rather its own proprietary 868Mhz comms channel hence is likely to propagate better than a 2.4GHz signal. Other products likely take a similar approach (i.e. not relying on wifi for the programmer-relay link, so just because you might not get a wifi signal inside the boilerhouse doesn't mean you're out of luck).
At the risk of sounding like a dodgy bloke that's been hanging around the back of the Honeywell factory I also have one of these for sale too. Again though, single-channel (heating only).
There is a dual-channel heating/hot-water one too (T6R-HW), which I happen to use myself, but alas in a break from tradition is not for sale... ;-)
Edited by tux850 on Friday 29th November 10:05
tux850 said:
Apologies, having read your post properly I see that you want to move the programmer/stat from the hall to the lounge without adding cables so a wireless (or partial wireless) approach is likely your only option.
There is the desk-stand Honeywell T6R wireless smart thermostat/programmer which might work. I say 'might' because it of course depends on whether you'd get a signal between the house and boilerhouse. Note that it doesn't use wifi but rather its own proprietary 868Mhz comms channel hence is likely to propagate better than a 2.4GHz signal. Other products likely take a similar approach (i.e. not relying on wifi for the programmer-relay link, so just because you might not get a wifi signal inside the boilerhouse doesn't mean you're out of luck).
At the risk of sounding like a dodgy bloke that's been hanging around the back of the Honeywell factory I also have one of these for sale too. Again though, single-channel (heating only).
There is a dual-channel heating/hot-water one too (T6R-HW), which I happen to use myself, but alas in a break from tradition is not for sale... ;-)
Thank you for this. The T6R-HW sounds like the potential answer. The next issue would be finding out whether the signal would work without first buying one. Stat to boiler house would be about 35ft via four 2ft thick stone walls! There is the desk-stand Honeywell T6R wireless smart thermostat/programmer which might work. I say 'might' because it of course depends on whether you'd get a signal between the house and boilerhouse. Note that it doesn't use wifi but rather its own proprietary 868Mhz comms channel hence is likely to propagate better than a 2.4GHz signal. Other products likely take a similar approach (i.e. not relying on wifi for the programmer-relay link, so just because you might not get a wifi signal inside the boilerhouse doesn't mean you're out of luck).
At the risk of sounding like a dodgy bloke that's been hanging around the back of the Honeywell factory I also have one of these for sale too. Again though, single-channel (heating only).
There is a dual-channel heating/hot-water one too (T6R-HW), which I happen to use myself, but alas in a break from tradition is not for sale... ;-)
Edited by tux850 on Friday 29th November 10:05
Lord Flashheart said:
Thank you for this. The T6R-HW sounds like the potential answer. The next issue would be finding out whether the signal would work without first buying one. Stat to boiler house would be about 35ft via four 2ft thick stone walls!
Yeah, you could have all the theoretical calculations to hand but there's still no substitute for just trying things out in practice.For what it's worth, I only went from the heating-only controls (with the HW on a timer) to full heating+HW control to help feed my geeky desire for building a home automation system. I was very much going through a phase of 'if I can control it 'smartly' then I will' kind of thing. It turns out I rarely - if ever - need to manipulate the HW side of things though. It works off a schedule and I never change it. The only exceptions to this are perhaps disabling the HW prior to going away on holiday or boosting it if we happen to risk running short (say, if guests are staying over) and whilst you might have to wander out to the boilerhouse to press a button for that I only had to walk a few metres inside the house to do this so the smart/app/Alexa control I now have is arguably unnecessary. Incidentally, I say Alexa control but I'm not sure if it can do the HW side with the Honeywell (never tried it) - it can definitely control the heating though.
I am not saying all of this to tempt you towards one of my heating-only options (although it would be a cheaper way of finding out if the distance is an issue! ;-)) but rather so that as you explore other options I would ask yourself if you *really* need remote/app control of your HW or would a local timer suffice thus leaving you with a greater choice of heating-only controllers.
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