Best Wifi enabled thermostat

Best Wifi enabled thermostat

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number2

4,270 posts

186 months

Wednesday 2nd June 2021
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Just get a NEST. For the majority of households this will be perfect. All the WiFi TRVs etc sound like a right unreliable faff for no material gain.

pghstochaj

2,400 posts

118 months

Wednesday 2nd June 2021
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BrewsterBear said:
Looking for recommendations please. I'm done with my Honeywell Evohome. It's buggy as hell. I have a simple system with only two relay boxes and one wireless temperature sensor on the hot water tank. I use the Evohome touchscreen and my room temperature sensor.

Last night I had heating set to off with hot water demanding and the heating came on. Sure enough, checked the relay boxes and both were being demanded. On the touchscreen I cycled the heating demand to on and off and the heating relay box stayed on throughout.

I factory reset the box, both relays and the tank sensor. Configured them all again and now although it binds fine to all of them it simply won't demand any, although I can see the temperature of the tank. Tried it a few times and I presume the touchscreen is screwed. Called Evohome helpline only to be told that someone must have bound the heating demand relay for it to do that (nobody has) and that I should call a professional installer (I'm an electrical engineer).

I need a new system that will do what I have and can be controlled by an app. I've got no interest in creating loads of zones. I simply want a system that has a wireless temperature sensor for my tank, a wireless room thermostat, and the ability to send a demand signal for either hot water or heating separately. Cheers.
My recollection of this is that it’s easy to mess up the initial set up so it does as you say. You think you’re doing the right thing but accidentally connecting both relays to hot water etc.

I think I fixed it by following the manual as if my life depended on it.

It really is a good system so stick with it!

Toilet Duck

1,329 posts

184 months

Friday 25th June 2021
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Morning all,

I've bit the bullet and bought a Drayton wiser room thermostat and radiator valves. I've fitted/set up the kit using the existing wall plate for the old "dumb" room thermostat control box thing and I can now switch the hot water and heating on via my phone app etc. However, the old hardwired room thermostat is still present and the wiser setup only activates the heating if the old hardwired room stat is also set above ambient room temp. How do I remove the old stat? Do I have to short out the wires feeding the old stat to remove it?

Also, I didn't realise the smart wiser radiator thermostats don't come with an actual body, it seems they are designed to replace the heads on existing TRV's. Unfortunately, the previous owners of my house haven't fitted TRV's to the radiators, just locksields. Do I really have to buy a load of new "dumb" TRV"s, remove the heads to throw away and then fit the smart new wiser heads? That seems like a waste of money. If I do have have to go to this expense, what are my options for something compatible? I need a minimum of 7.

Cheers

LocoBlade

7,621 posts

255 months

Friday 25th June 2021
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If you search for TRV valve body only you can get them but Screwfix and Toolstation sell cheap TRV heads for about £6 which is probably not a lot more than a bare body would cost anyway.

Regarding the controls, presumably the old wall thermostat is wired in series through the wall plate so is cutting it's power when over temperature and the old stat is trying to turn things off. I'd have thought you could bypass that from the wiring in the back of the wall plate and get rid of the live wire to the old stat entirely but I'm not an electrician so hopefully someone will be able to give a more comprehensive answer.

S6PNJ

5,158 posts

280 months

Friday 25th June 2021
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Yup, 'fraid so! As a 'Wiser' user, I have (currently) about 9 TRV controllers and 2 room thermostats - my final system will be (or should be around) 15, maybe 18 rad TRVs, one smartplug and 1 room thermostat. Having replaced (or being in the process of replacing) just about every radiator, I now have a collection of dumb TRV 'heads' due to the fitment of the Drayton Wiser TRVs. I've just used the basic Screwfix / Toolstation TRV bodies which take the Wiser unit without the black collar (Trade Rated or whatever they are called). I'm sure if you wanted a more 'gold plated' solution you'd use Drayton TRV4s, but I didn't want to go to that expense.

Ref the old stat - if you tell us the make/model I'm sure one of us can confirm, but it is likely to be a simple 2 wire stat at a guess, so just joining the 2 wires (the diagram on the back of the cover if it has one) where the 'call for heat' lines are, should be the answer - or just turn the stat up to the maximum so it is 'always on' and leave it like that.

Drayton has just issued a software update for the TRVs which should make the batteries last longer and also reduce the nosie a bit as well.

Toilet Duck

1,329 posts

184 months

Friday 25th June 2021
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LocoBlade said:
If you search for TRV valve body only you can get them but Screwfix and Toolstation sell cheap TRV heads for about £6 which is probably not a lot more than a bare body would cost anyway.

Regarding the controls, presumably the old wall thermostat is wired in series through the wall plate so is cutting it's power when over temperature and the old stat is trying to turn things off. I'd have thought you could bypass that from the wiring in the back of the wall plate and get rid of the live wire to the old stat entirely but I'm not an electrician so hopefully someone will be able to give a more comprehensive answer.
S6PNJ said:
Yup, 'fraid so! As a 'Wiser' user, I have (currently) about 9 TRV controllers and 2 room thermostats - my final system will be (or should be around) 15, maybe 18 rad TRVs, one smartplug and 1 room thermostat. Having replaced (or being in the process of replacing) just about every radiator, I now have a collection of dumb TRV 'heads' due to the fitment of the Drayton Wiser TRVs. I've just used the basic Screwfix / Toolstation TRV bodies which take the Wiser unit without the black collar (Trade Rated or whatever they are called). I'm sure if you wanted a more 'gold plated' solution you'd use Drayton TRV4s, but I didn't want to go to that expense.

Ref the old stat - if you tell us the make/model I'm sure one of us can confirm, but it is likely to be a simple 2 wire stat at a guess, so just joining the 2 wires (the diagram on the back of the cover if it has one) where the 'call for heat' lines are, should be the answer - or just turn the stat up to the maximum so it is 'always on' and leave it like that.

Drayton has just issued a software update for the TRVs which should make the batteries last longer and also reduce the nosie a bit as well.
Thank you both very much!

I'm obviously being thick here, but I had a look earlier on Screwfix and Toolstation and couldn't find a suitable TVR body only, clearly I'm looking wrong. Do you mind linking me to one? I did find a Drayton TRV4 body only on Amazon for around £10 a pop but would sooner buy from Screwfix etc in case the Amazon stuff is not what it seems. I assume I can't remove the top of a lockshield and fit the wiser smart TRV head to that? Annoyingly I'm replacing all the radiators and Screwfix had a deal on where with each rad bought you could get a TRV for around a fiver but I passed as I assumed the smart TRV's came "complete" !!!

Does it make any difference going for cheaper TRV bodies compared to Drayton branded ones?

On page 188 of this thread I did post pics etc of my current setup. Old hardwired stat controller box thing is a Siemens RWB9, actual hardwired stat is a Honeywell T6360B.

If possible I would like to remove the old hard wired stat if nothing more just for asthetics, but at least it is working!

Thanks again for your help, much appreciated

S6PNJ

5,158 posts

280 months

Friday 25th June 2021
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Theses - (or any other) https://www.screwfix.com/p/white-chrome-angled-trv... just chuck away / sell / otherwise dispose of the white 'dumb' actuator and just keep the metal valve piece. You'll probably be unlikely to be able to buy just the TRV valve on its own (at a sensible price).

kambites

67,462 posts

220 months

Friday 25th June 2021
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Be wary of exactly what valve type you get for Wiser. I've got a few "fake TRV4" valves which simply don't work with the Wiser heads because the head doesn't wind back far enough to open the valve more than a trickle.

Personally I'd only buy genuine TRV4s now because the saving from buying knock-offs pales compared to the hassle of having to drain the system down to change them again if they don't work properly.

Edited by kambites on Friday 25th June 10:16

AW10

4,422 posts

248 months

Friday 25th June 2021
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We have been away for a week and came home to find one of the bedrooms whose rad is controlled by a Wiser TRV at 30 C. Looking back at the graphs I can see that on the 21st the room started to heat up and then stayed at 30 C for 4 days. Smart meter suggests this pissed away some £15 of gas over 4 days. The hot water was also being heated all the while; normally it’s just heated for an hour every morning. Coincidence or linked to the recent Wiser firmware “upgrade”? Has anyone else seen any anomalies?

kambites

67,462 posts

220 months

Friday 25th June 2021
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In the couple of years ours has been in, I've seen TRVs drop out once or twice, but in those cases they weren't requesting heat so they wouldn't cause the boiler to fire up; they just cooked the room they were in when something else happened to call for heat.

AW10

4,422 posts

248 months

Thursday 1st July 2021
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AW10 said:
We have been away for a week and came home to find one of the bedrooms whose rad is controlled by a Wiser TRV at 30 C. Looking back at the graphs I can see that on the 21st the room started to heat up and then stayed at 30 C for 4 days. Smart meter suggests this pissed away some £15 of gas over 4 days. The hot water was also being heated all the while; normally it’s just heated for an hour every morning. Coincidence or linked to the recent Wiser firmware “upgrade”? Has anyone else seen any anomalies?
By way of an update... there were two faults. The first was that the 2 port valve for the central heating stayed open and thus kept demanding heat from the boiler which it was happy to provide. (The Wiser system quite possibly executes a creep function and runs the boiler for a minute or two each day and opens all the valves to keep them from sticking - must check the documentation.) The 2nd fault is that the TRV in the room in question was also stuck open and thus for 4 days the rad was getting all the hot water it could handle. Drayton/Wiser is providing a new TRV and I'm replacing the head on the 2 port valve. Drayton's customer service team was v helpful in checking logs etc - top marks from me.

BobSaunders

3,028 posts

154 months

Thursday 1st July 2021
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Hi, have three Nest smart thermostats. Two for downstairs underfloor heating (no radiators) and one for upstairs radiators.

Thinking of replacing the upstairs nest for something with TRVs to heat specific rooms only. Any recommendations?

Four bedrooms, and three ensuite towel rails.

Fentalogue chic

5,245 posts

119 months

Thursday 1st July 2021
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Tado or Wiser are pretty much your choice if you just want a simple system. Have a look at the app, features, and price of the kit.

JapanRed

1,559 posts

110 months

Thursday 8th July 2021
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Hi all.

Wondering whether to have Nest installed in the house which we are having built which will be ready in November. House is over 3 floors with multi zone temperature controlled heating. Ground floor is entirely UFH with 2/3 zones.

Builder/electrician has come back with the following. Is it a good price? Mates have had Hive/Nest installed for a couple hundred quid but I don’t think they have much functionality (one just has a mobile thermostat I believe). Obviously I’m expecting the works at the price below but still wondering whether the cost is justified for what we will get out of it.


frisbee

4,958 posts

109 months

Thursday 8th July 2021
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JapanRed said:
Hi all.

Wondering whether to have Nest installed in the house which we are having built which will be ready in November. House is over 3 floors with multi zone temperature controlled heating. Ground floor is entirely UFH with 2/3 zones.

Builder/electrician has come back with the following. Is it a good price? Mates have had Hive/Nest installed for a couple hundred quid but I don’t think they have much functionality (one just has a mobile thermostat I believe). Obviously I’m expecting the works at the price below but still wondering whether the cost is justified for what we will get out of it.

That sounds like they are installing 7 separate nest thermostats. When I looked into it a few years ago Nest was pretty much only suitable for houses with just 1 zone. It may have improved but even for my house with two zones it was a messy solution.

Evohome maybe?

AstonZagato

12,652 posts

209 months

Friday 9th July 2021
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I have a house with 5 dumb thermostats and 41 radiators. I rather like the idea of automating it all. Is it possible to put wifi thermostatic valves on all 41 rads, control those from an app (and just crank up the existing thermostats so they are just "on"?

S6PNJ

5,158 posts

280 months

Friday 9th July 2021
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In theory, yes, in practise, possibly not - depending on the smart system chosen. I think the Drayton Wiser system (the only one I can speak of as it's the only one I know) has a maximum number of TRVs that a smart hub can control. From memory I recall it might be 16 - or it was a t the time I did my install - things might have changed with more recent software updates. I have 2 hubs, partly due to this reason and partly due to needing 2 no-volt switched contacts.
Oh, each smart TRV is about £40, so 41 will be around £1600 eek but I'm sure multi buy deals are available.

essayer

9,011 posts

193 months

Saturday 10th July 2021
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So we’re moving soon and as Evohome controls the UFH it needs to be included in the sale.

I’ve found it utterly reliable and we like the zone approach.

At this point, I could just buy another controller/hot water kit and reuse the HR92s in the new house.
Or I could sell the HR92s and buy something more modern. There isn’t a more modern Evohome is there? I still see the kit for £200ish. Happy to pay again unless there’s something better smile

markiii

3,565 posts

193 months

Saturday 10th July 2021
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Heat Genius seems better to me, but still on my early trial so don't tale it as gospel

JapanRed

1,559 posts

110 months

Saturday 10th July 2021
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frisbee said:
JapanRed said:
Hi all.

Wondering whether to have Nest installed in the house which we are having built which will be ready in November. House is over 3 floors with multi zone temperature controlled heating. Ground floor is entirely UFH with 2/3 zones.

Builder/electrician has come back with the following. Is it a good price? Mates have had Hive/Nest installed for a couple hundred quid but I don’t think they have much functionality (one just has a mobile thermostat I believe). Obviously I’m expecting the works at the price below but still wondering whether the cost is justified for what we will get out of it.

That sounds like they are installing 7 separate nest thermostats. When I looked into it a few years ago Nest was pretty much only suitable for houses with just 1 zone. It may have improved but even for my house with two zones it was a messy solution.

Evohome maybe?
Thanks for the reply. I’ve been doing some reading around and Google themselves say that multiple thermostats are compatible. Has anyone got any experience with this or similar to what we are considering?