Best Wifi enabled thermostat
Discussion
Well, I put myself in it now. I am trustee and director of a medium sized community charity that owns a large centre: 2 massive gas boilers heating 30 rooms, 70-80 radiators, currently using 3 manual stats and a sweaty old bloke who runs around 8 times a week twiddling TRVs when the various rooms are in use or not.
Our gas and electric bill tops £12k a year.
So I was talking up the smart TRV system to our caretaker and wondered if it was feasible to fit at our centre? I'd imagine we'd be looking at 3+ controllers plus range extenders.
Anyone have any thoughts?
Our gas and electric bill tops £12k a year.
So I was talking up the smart TRV system to our caretaker and wondered if it was feasible to fit at our centre? I'd imagine we'd be looking at 3+ controllers plus range extenders.
Anyone have any thoughts?
kambites said:
Let us know how you get on. I'm interested to know whether the early issues with Wiser have been ironed out.
My only issues have been:TRV to hub range, solved by sprinkling range extender plugs
(suggestion - a hard-wired range extender module for system integrators, new builds etc, could then be shoved into ceiling void)
Hub wifi range, solved by doing what I should have done when I moved in: properly designed access point system
(suggestion - improve the antenna gain, it's poor compared to many devices)
TRV calibration didn't take on 2 and had to be re-done, not before my son looked like a boiled beetroot in the playroom at 28c!
Having to set a billion rooms individually, need to allow device/room.zone, like Hue.
Other than that, a boon. We like our room cooler at night, my daughter likes it freezing but her bathroom hot at random bath times, my son's bedroom must be hot at bedtime or he complains, I work from home so only heat my office unless wife decides she also is going to work from home on random days so then I hit the dining room TRV. Perfect.
My baseline heating oil consumption is almost £2000 annually so even a 10% saving will pay back.
Incidentally, when using a full TRV system, especially micro-zoning a non-modulating oil system like this, you should use a buffer tank. I put a 210l sealed 4 port buffer in, twin latching stats and a variable speed pump. This way if only 1 TRV calls for heat it is fed from the buffer; the boiler only fires when the buffer depletes and can be weather-compensated by varying the lower stat set point.
If you don't buffer then you're trying to put 36kw into a towel rail and it will short cycle to death.
Edited by lobsterliberation on Monday 11th November 11:42
To Trustmeimadoctor
Forgive my perhaps impolite intrusion on the current conversation, but I'm researching the use of the VR33 on valliant 637 and I notice that back in early 2017 you were able to provide photos of the set up of your board. A bit cheeky I know, but I wondered if you still could provide me with some photo's?
Many thanks
Forgive my perhaps impolite intrusion on the current conversation, but I'm researching the use of the VR33 on valliant 637 and I notice that back in early 2017 you were able to provide photos of the set up of your board. A bit cheeky I know, but I wondered if you still could provide me with some photo's?
Many thanks
lobsterliberation said:
Well, I put myself in it now. I am trustee and director of a medium sized community charity that owns a large centre: 2 massive gas boilers heating 30 rooms, 70-80 radiators, currently using 3 manual stats and a sweaty old bloke who runs around 8 times a week twiddling TRVs when the various rooms are in use or not.
Our gas and electric bill tops £12k a year.
So I was talking up the smart TRV system to our caretaker and wondered if it was feasible to fit at our centre? I'd imagine we'd be looking at 3+ controllers plus range extenders.
Anyone have any thoughts?
Damage to trv heads a issue?Our gas and electric bill tops £12k a year.
So I was talking up the smart TRV system to our caretaker and wondered if it was feasible to fit at our centre? I'd imagine we'd be looking at 3+ controllers plus range extenders.
Anyone have any thoughts?
Any electronic actuator is fragile to vandalism and general damage.
In that situation, id go Honeywell. It's range, settings and proven reliability.
Evohomeshop sell actuator guards/covers too.
Can you disable itrvs with wiser? So people can't play with them and turn the heating up?
When I had it you couldn't, evohome can though, that might be a issue dependant on who's using the premises, (kids or adults etc).
eloceo said:
To Trustmeimadoctor
Forgive my perhaps impolite intrusion on the current conversation, but I'm researching the use of the VR33 on valliant 637 and I notice that back in early 2017 you were able to provide photos of the set up of your board. A bit cheeky I know, but I wondered if you still could provide me with some photo's?
Many thanks
SureForgive my perhaps impolite intrusion on the current conversation, but I'm researching the use of the VR33 on valliant 637 and I notice that back in early 2017 you were able to provide photos of the set up of your board. A bit cheeky I know, but I wondered if you still could provide me with some photo's?
Many thanks
Just taken these now
Edited by Trustmeimadoctor on Monday 11th November 12:26
shady lee said:
Can you disable itrvs with wiser? So people can't play with them and turn the heating up?
When I had it you couldn't, evohome can though, that might be a issue dependant on who's using the premises, (kids or adults etc).
Yes you can, sort of. When the heating is off for that room playing with the TRV will not turn it on, but when the heating is on then you can turn up the temperature.When I had it you couldn't, evohome can though, that might be a issue dependant on who's using the premises, (kids or adults etc).
BigBen said:
shady lee said:
Can you disable trvs with wiser? So people can't play with them and turn the heating up?
When I had it you couldn't, evohome can though, that might be a issue dependant on who's using the premises, (kids or adults etc).
Yes you can, sort of. When the heating is off for that room playing with the TRV will not turn it on, but when the heating is on then you can turn up the temperature.When I had it you couldn't, evohome can though, that might be a issue dependant on who's using the premises, (kids or adults etc).
BigBen said:
The main problems encountered (with Wiser) have been:
ii) The batteries supplied with the valves are utter garbage, replacing them with better quality Lithium AA cells has paid dividends.
What benefit did you see from better batteries? I have one TRV that seems to be eating them a lot faster than the other TRVs, It's got through a set and a half while all off the other TRVs aren't even showing less than full battery on their original ones. Does it help with valve actuation as I think I'm having shut-off issues where the TRV body/valve isn't fully closing, so when another zone calls for heat, water is getting through and the non-requesting rad is getting warm.ii) The batteries supplied with the valves are utter garbage, replacing them with better quality Lithium AA cells has paid dividends.
Oh, and any recommendations for Lithium AA batteries?
S6PNJ said:
BigBen said:
The main problems encountered (with Wiser) have been:
ii) The batteries supplied with the valves are utter garbage, replacing them with better quality Lithium AA cells has paid dividends.
What benefit did you see from better batteries? I have one TRV that seems to be eating them a lot faster than the other TRVs, It's got through a set and a half while all off the other TRVs aren't even showing less than full battery on their original ones. Does it help with valve actuation as I think I'm having shut-off issues where the TRV body/valve isn't fully closing, so when another zone calls for heat, water is getting through and the non-requesting rad is getting warm.ii) The batteries supplied with the valves are utter garbage, replacing them with better quality Lithium AA cells has paid dividends.
Oh, and any recommendations for Lithium AA batteries?
Certainly for my colleague who has made the change it has sorted out a few rooms where operation was previously sketchy
shady lee said:
Damage to trv heads a issue?
Any electronic actuator is fragile to vandalism and general damage.
In that situation, id go Honeywell. It's range, settings and proven reliability.
Evohomeshop sell actuator guards/covers too.
Can you disable itrvs with wiser? So people can't play with them and turn the heating up?
When I had it you couldn't, evohome can though, that might be a issue dependant on who's using the premises, (kids or adults etc).
Yes, TRV damage might be an issue. Common ground floor rooms and passages have a huge traffic flow, we have upwards of 100 kids running riot on a weekly basis.Any electronic actuator is fragile to vandalism and general damage.
In that situation, id go Honeywell. It's range, settings and proven reliability.
Evohomeshop sell actuator guards/covers too.
Can you disable itrvs with wiser? So people can't play with them and turn the heating up?
When I had it you couldn't, evohome can though, that might be a issue dependant on who's using the premises, (kids or adults etc).
Forgive me but didn't someone say that evo doesn;t have range extenders? How would the practical layout look, multiple controllers?
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