replacing boiler programmer with something modern

steinooo

steinooo

steinooo

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Stoke on Trent
Hi all,

Has anyone any experience of replacing their central heating and hot water programmer with something more modern?

It appears to my untrained eye to be a mains power supply going to it, and that's pretty much it.

My end goal is to provide my house with a "Room thermostat" which I haven't got at the moment, I'm relying on the manual thermostatic valves on radiators, but I would like some cool functionality on the programmer if possible.

I was thinking perhaps an Android / iOS app or web interface for it? SO I could set the heating to come on early from work if it looks cold.

Interested to hear if anyone has anything like this , or even if it exists?!
 
Pretty much a gimick really.

If it's cold then just set your timer to come on when you want and the thermostat will sort the rest out. I looked into it but found a great deal of people saying that the novelty wears off very very quickly.
 
Fair enough about the novelty of the ubiquity, but I don't know where or what my themostat does control though. I know I have a thermostat on my hot water tank in my airing cupboard, but I don't think there is a room one, which means surely I'm reliant upon my radiator's thermostats, and I would prefer a room one preferably wireless.
 
There's various options available but as Maccapacca says it's just a gimmick really. As long as you have a decent programmer - ideally one with fully independent controls over the heating and hot water; and one touch overrides (ie with a single press of a button you can put the water or heating on for an hour without messing up any programming you've done), then you're most of the way to a decent heating system.

As for a room thermostat, your probably best of getting a wireless one, the base unit will wire into your heating system near the electrics (mine would be in the airing cupboard) then the thermostat is battery powered and can be placed wherever you like. You can get ones with network access or ones with wifi to go along with and android or ios app but they are more expensive and it's not really a feature I can see being used a great deal as the thermostat is quite likely to be placed in an accessible and sensible place (ie somewhere you spend most of the time in the house) unlike old ones which were sometimes inaccessible so you can simple go and press buttons rather than messing about with an app etc.

Check out heatmiser who make a range of nice looking thermostats
 
I literally just had THIS installed.

For the price an engineer comes out, supplies and fits a wireless thermostat controller and you get a hub for your router and you can then remote control your heating using an ios or android app. It's really very good.

Initially I discounted it as I get my gas/electric with Swalec, but it doesn't matter who your supplier is. Really happy with it.
 
welshdragon said:
I literally just had THIS installed.

For the price an engineer comes out, supplies and fits a wireless thermostat controller and you get a hub for your router and you can then remote control your heating using an ios or android app. It's really very good.

Initially I discounted it as I get my gas/electric with Swalec, but it doesn't matter who your supplier is. Really happy with it.
Click to expand...

that's what i'm talking about!!!!

That looks great! What does the wireless room thermostat look like?
 
welshdragon said:
I literally just had THIS installed.

For the price an engineer comes out, supplies and fits a wireless thermostat controller and you get a hub for your router and you can then remote control your heating using an ios or android app. It's really very good.

Initially I discounted it as I get my gas/electric with Swalec, but it doesn't matter who your supplier is. Really happy with it.
Click to expand...

I have this installed too, BUT its been causing no end of trouble, can you tell me does the green light stay on on your WR1 receiver next to the boiler?, and if u press override does the boiler come on immediately? , I`m starting to suspect the receiver is at fault.
 
Newbiejim, ive also got the same system.

Just had a new boiler fitted at the same time so still getting used to it all.

On ours if the heating is on schedule and every thing is at the correct temp, ie its set to 21deg and its reading 21deg on the thermostat then there is no light on the wr1.

If I then up the required temp to say 23deg then the red receive light will come on and then the green on light will then come on (red light now goes off) and the boiler will fire up.

If I then turn the required temp back down to 21deg on the room stat the red light will come on and the green light will off and the boiler will also turn off..

Usually there are no lights on on the WR1 even when the heating is on only when I change the temp on the room stat (or via the phone app or internet) and it takes about 2 mins for any changes to be sent from my phone to through to the WR1.

As for the override button ...I press it but it doesn't seem to do any thing at all ?
 
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Attu90 said:
Newbiejim, ive also got the same system.

Just had a new boiler fitted at the same time so still getting used to it all.

On ours if the heating is on schedule and every thing is at the correct temp, ie its set to 21deg and its reading 21deg on the thermostat then there is no light on the wr1.

If I then up the required temp to say 23deg then the red receive light will come on and then the green on light will then come on (red light now goes off) and the boiler will fire up.

If I then turn the required temp back down to 21deg on the room stat the red light will come on and the green light will off and the boiler will also turn off..

Usually there are no lights on on the WR1 even when the heating is on only when I change the temp on the room stat (or via the phone app or internet) and it takes about 2 mins for any changes to be sent from my phone to through to the WR1.

As for the override button ...I press it but it doesn't seem to do any thing at all ?
Click to expand...

Thanks m8, I have observed sometimes when heating on the green light is on all the time............... and sometimes it isnt, Ive got BG coming tomorrow morning, they better get it fixed or I`ll be apoplectic lol, thing is my boiler goes into 'anti-cycling' mode if it keeps getting switched on and off (to save energy and wear) so this intermittent issue is a nightmare, anti cycle casues it to not fire for 20 mins or so............. :mad:, many thanks for taking the time to help m8, cheers
 
Update on this, BG just been and witnessed the issue...........he called their tech guys who support remote central heating etc.......apparently these thermostats actually are so inaccurate (whether that be in hardware or software) that tehy will trigger CH off before it reaches the displayed temperature target, yes really. So in my case what is suggested has been happening is......... I set target of say 17.........it gets near that........boiler gets switched off AND the Vaillant anti-cycling mode kicks in.........which switches teh burner off for a set amount of time (factory set to 5 mins, configurable from 1 min to 60mins), then after this if the thermostat is within 3 degrees or so of your target temp it may or may not demand heat, and yes this is apparently known and not fixable....and then if it does it will repeat the same cycle of coming on for a little time and goin off again........ so advice is to set thermostat to higher than u actually want to ensure heat demand....which to me seems mental, so configured anti-cycle time to lowest of 1 min and will see how it goes.Not happy mind.
 
Have you got optimum start set to on in the installer options (option 6) ?
It may be worth trying it for a few days with it set to on, if you've already got it set to on try with it off for a few days.

We've only had ours in for less that 2 weeks but from what ive seen so far its very accurate. our boiler is a Worcester 30Si btw.

One problem I do have is creaking pipes, much more than we used to have with out old boiler. its driving my wife which in turn causes me grief :mad:
 
Attu90 said:
Have you got optimum start set to on in the installer options (option 6) ?
It may be worth trying it for a few days with it set to on, if you've already got it set to on try with it off for a few days.

We've only had ours in for less that 2 weeks but from what ive seen so far its very accurate. our boiler is a Worcester 30Si btw.

One problem I do have is creaking pipes, much more than we used to have with out old boiler. its driving my wife which in turn causes me grief :mad:
Click to expand...
Cheers for the reply m8, this option on the actual thermostat?, its dawned on me also what I had been doing that would invoke this weirdness, I had been just setting slider to continuous in app and putting temp to just above indoor temp just to bring it on and if I forgot it wouldn't be on all day etc, little did I know I was unwittingly hitting the issue sweet spot so to speak
 
Hi, yet the option is on the thermostat, hold the < button and the + button at the same time and you get to the installer options.

Then use the < and > buttons to go through the menu, option 6 is "optimum start" press the + or - buttons to change it form yes or no then press > to go to the next option to save and < and + to exit back out (or wait 1 min)

It may be worth a go to see if it helps.
 
Attu90 said:
Hi, yet the option is on the thermostat, hold the < button and the + button at the same time and you get to the installer options.

Then use the < and > buttons to go through the menu, option 6 is "optimum start" press the + or - buttons to change it form yes or no then press > to go to the next option to save and < and + to exit back out (or wait 1 min)

It may be worth a go to see if it helps.
Click to expand...

Thanks m8
 
U can have a fancy front end as you want, but ultimately all any of these products do is sent a switch on and off signal to the boiler. If you have an old boiler then the control overall will still be poor, as the older boilers don't modulate too well.

I have a Siemens (landis & gyr) Rev200 fitted, and its touch screen and glows blue, I only got it cos work for them and had a field trial version back in the day! but the novelty value wore off a long long time ago!
 
I agree. Heating and water should not be something you have to think about much. Program them to account for usage and then leave it. In my old house we had a decent programmer, room stat and cylinder stat for water temp. Set it all up once and then only tweaked to see what I could get away with in terms of saving money.

New house sadly has an old skool analogue/mechanical timer/programmer with no independent CH/HW control. For now I just have it set to come on in morning and evening.
 
jaybee said:
I agree. New house sadly has an old skool analogue/mechanical timer/programmer with no independent CH/HW control. For now I just have it set to come on in morning and evening.
Click to expand...

Your existing programmer will use the standard universal mounting plate, so it's a simple job of replacing it for a digital model.

Nearly all digital programmers can be used on fully pumped or gravity systems, just by adjusting a few dip switches on it.

Usually it doesn't involve any wire changes with modern boiler,programers, it's a straight swap.
 
Nightglow said:
Your existing programmer will use the standard universal mounting plate, so it's a simple job of replacing it for a digital model.

Nearly all digital programmers can be used on fully pumped or gravity systems, just by adjusting a few dip switches on it.

Usually it doesn't involve any wire changes with modern boiler,programers, it's a straight swap.
Click to expand...

Thanks Nightglow. This is indeed being changed by landlord in the near future. On his to do list. Luckily he happens to be a great landlord. Yes I said that. They do exist!
 
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