Heating Control systems - which one?

i know nothing

i know nothing

i know nothing

Soldato
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Norfolk Broads
I'm totally confused as to what options are available to me and I'm hoping someone far smarter than I can give me some pointers!:o

My thermostat has died. It's a Drayton Digistat RF2 wireless one that runs off batteries. It was installed along with the (Bosch) oil fired boiler about 15 years ago. Right now I've pressed the over ride button on the Drayton SCR wireless receiver unit and I'm controlling the heating using the TRV's, so I have heat!:)
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Along with the thermostat there's a Honeywell timer/controller for setting the time etc:-
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I'd like to update the system, but I don't really know what's out there and more importantly what the new systems are capable of. I realise of course that the cheapest, simplest option is for me to just replace the thermostat.;)

But what if I wanted to control it all from a smartphone? How would I go about that? What brands should I consider?

I'm wondering, but not at all sure if this is actually possible, if I could replace the thermostat with another battery powered one that is wi-fi enabled and that I could then control that from my phone? Maybe I could get some wi-fi/wireless TRV's and replace the conventional ones as well? Should I replace the Honeywell controller?

Any thoughts/pointers/advice welcome.:cool:
 
I have the same receiver, my thermostat has 2 batteries, one for the display, one for the wireless. if the wireless battery has gone, the display battery will still make it look like it is working, but there is no connection with the receiver. If you don't want to change it, may be worth replacing both batteries. (Not a fan of the 'connected' home).
 
FlyingFish said:
The Draytons are notorious for receiver failures. If you want to go smart then nest will work nicely with your two channel system.
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Thanks for the reply. The Nest system, does that allow these battery powered, wifi enabled TRV's? It seems to me that if you truly want to control the heating it's necessary to control the TRV's. I've never been happy with the idea of the whole house's temeparture being controlled by the temperature in one room.
 
Parents need a replacement wireless controller+sender/programmer/thermostat that can be moved from room to room, so was considering Honeywell cm927, or a more recent model.
(had looked a bit on ebay - installation seems pretty simple)

Wouldn't you need thermostats in the other rooms too ? in addition to expensive wireless trv's to do what you propose.?
 
i know nothing said:
Thanks for the reply. The Nest system, does that allow these battery powered, wifi enabled TRV's? It seems to me that if you truly want to control the heating it's necessary to control the TRV's. I've never been happy with the idea of the whole house's temeparture being controlled by the temperature in one room.
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If your budget allows then yes you're right, it is better to have a fully programmable system on a room by room basis. It's normally more beneficial in larger properties, and can be sometimes the easiest way of zoning a system of it's not done any other way.
For most normal domestic properties a single programmable thermostat and normal trvs is enough.
Unless something is in the pipeline, Nest doesn't control wireless trvs.

We've fitted quite a few Honeywell evohome systems for people and bar a few teething troubles are quite good systems, not the cheapest though.

You need to ask yourself whether it's worth the cost for what you're going to gain. Most efficiency is saved by having a condensing boiler, then trvs that are correctly used ( it's amazing how many people just leave them on full or off) a programmable thermostat that is set correctly and not just wildly up and down. All together is enough to run an efficient system.
Then moving to a programmable trv system, but like I said this has a more important role with larger systems where it's very difficult to control the heating from one location due to the size of the property.
 
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Thanks for the reply Flying fish, you're obviously in the business from what I can gather, so allow me to take full advantage of your knowledge!:o:D

The property is a 4 bed detached house. It has one radiator in each bedroom, one large towel radiator in each of the two bathrooms, two in the hallways (one upstairs and one downstairs), one in the kitchen and then there are 3 radiators plus 2 x double radiators in the "living space" (dining room, conservatory and living room which are all adjoined and open plan). I have deliberately listed it like that as that is how I see the zones, i.e. kitchen as one zone, both bathrooms as another, hallways as another, each bedroom on it's own zone and the "living space" as a zone. 9 zones (consisting of 14 radiators) in total. Boiler is oil fired and also feeds a 200 litre Megaflo for hot water.

The thermostat that we had, was on the wall in the living space between two of the adjoining rooms. When home, I would have the thermostat set to 22 deg C and then adjust TRV's in the various rooms accordingly. It is on a timer program, i.e. I believe at the moment it is 6-9am and 4-10pm.

We make frequent trips, often at a moments notice and we could be gone as long as 3 months at a time. e.g. We left at the end of October last year and returned just last week. The heating was totally off during this period (which I wanted). It would have been fantastic if I could have switched it on one or two days in advance of returning home using my phone whilst I was on the other side of the world, rather than wait a day for the house to heat up! Going away during the colder months for extended periods of time is something I could get used to, already planning something similar for October this year as well.

What system would you recommend I consider?
 
I'd recommend the evohome for your setup and life style. It will give you the flexibility you need for your coming and going, remote access from anywhere using the app and the ability to monitor remotely the system and react to your location of you want, even if you have guests stay while you're away, you can cater for that.

There are other systems that do the same as the evohome, but we like using a large brand like Honeywell for good support even if it's not the cheapest.
 
i know nothing said:
I presume that you just set the temperature on the wireless TRV and it regulates the temperature accordingly?
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as you say flyingfish knows the in and outs -
my experience of TVR's on radiators is that because the temperature measure is so close to the radiator, it is not accurate for the air temp - it is poor at bringing the room up to the required temperature quickly (you want overshoot), so a well positioned thermostat in the room would be best.
Even the wireless TRV would suffer the same issue, without the ability to overshoot.
Once temp has stabilized you can have some confidence in the TRV eg you set it at 18C because, from experience that gives you 22C where you want it.
(EDIT ; not to mention that the room with the thermostat is turning the global heating on and off and how that perturbs the other rooms)

i know nothing said:
Totally happy to change the TRV's myself. Not so happy to change the thermostat controller etc
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The controller is just a few wires so personally fewer problems with that than plumbing.
 
If you go down the road of wireless radiator valves, then you need to do the whole lot, as each valve has the ability to run the boiler, and any without a trv will heat up. Not a problem for towel rails for most people's needs. Just not ideal for other radiators with no control.
Although rare to see, you can have individual radiator control by a wall thermostat in each room similar to how under floor heating is controlled, but it's an expensive setup.

Mick
 
None ;)
The Lyrics aren't good enough, and the others don't do what ultimately you should aim for.
Get the evohome base unit, it will give you a place to start and can run on it's own, just run the heating and gives you control through the app etc. At a later date when the budget allows you can add the hot water control (if you have a cylinder) and the wireless radiator thermostats.

If you commit to any other type you may (depending on what you fit) lose the ability to upgrade at a later date.

Mick
 
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