 You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
I currently have a wired Honeywell boiler clock with a Y plan configuration that controls the three way valve in the airing cupboard. Â There is no thermostat in the house but all radiators have TRVs. Â There is also a frost stat in the garage near where the boiler is located.
I would like to install a smart boiler clock / controller along with a number of smart TRVs to have greater control over the heating in certain rooms. Either a HIVE, NEST or the Drayton Wiser.
The questios is are smart boiler clocks and controllers compatible with the Honeywell Y plan and three way valve? And can I simply replace the existing boiler clock (which doesn’t have separate timing control for the heating and hot water) with a smart boiler clock of my choice?
I can't answer your question but can offer you some advice based on my Nest stat that I have had for a round a year.
I'm not sure about the others but the Nest tries to get your home up to temperature based on your routines so if you set it for 20c at 7am it will try to get the house up to temperature for that time. In my case I found the heating was coming on really early and in the first week I was actually using more gas than I was before.
I have now configured the Nest so that it can only start to call for heat 1 hour before the set time, not 4 hours which was the default time.
What I have also done is to set the target temperatures a little lower.
Overall I do not think I have saved any fuel whatsoever but I do have more control and the ability to control it away from home. My previous stat was a Honeywell wireless unit with 7 timezones per day so maybe if you are coming from a very basic set up you might be able tisane some fuel.
I have have it set so that if my wife comes home during the day and turns the heating in it will turn it off when she leaves the house. Now this feature has saved me money!
I don't think the nest or the hive would work well with smart TRVs.
I think the 2 zone Drayon Wiser should work. might need to rearrange the wiring a bit. I've got an Evohome system working on a Y-plan configuration.
I run a nest on a single zone system and it halfed my gas bill. One thing is the thermostat should be in a room with a radiator that is always on (no trv) otherwise your rads could start to close before it's reaching it's temperature. In 3 years I've had one issue with it where it kept heating for no reason, deleted the schedule and started over with no further issues.
Thanks for the responses - I will look at the Evohome in more detail.
Any reason why you are not looking at Tado? When I was buying a couple of years ago they were the only one that worked off your actual location rather than trying to learn your routine (how is the better than a timer?), and also the only one to have smart TRV's if you wanted to make a fully zoned system. The others must have improved by now but worth having a look.
I was just looking at the Tado - looks good. The Drayton Wiser is similar and has smart TRVs.
I need to work out the components that are required and whether any of the existing Honeywell kit is reused (including the three way valve)
I was an early adopter with the MK1 Tado, it's saved us a lot of money, location on 4 phones and the house is always warm when people are home, but not when they're not, it's simple, effective and totally autonomous. I fitted it myself as a competent DIY'er with no electrical qualifications, it was easy.
I've been looking at smart thermostats recently but they all seem to do almost what I'm after but not quite...
I would like something with a schedule that doesn't bother to heat the house when nobody is in. This would save energy most weekends and on my wife's weekly day off.
Tado used to do it, but now (since v3+) only does it if you pay a few quid a month for the "auto assist" skill (or something like that); otherwise it just sends you reminders to turn it down, but doesn't do it itself. I don't want to pay a few quid a month, so there goes that.
Nest sort of does it - the "auto away" feature won't turn the heating on unless someone is home, but in doing so it also stops the schedule turning the heating on before getting back from work, so when you walk in the door it won't have started trying to warm the place up yet. Annoyingly it didn't do this until an update a while back...
I haven't looked properly at any others yet.
It's annoying as Tado seems to fit the bill but I'm not happy about having to pay a subscription for something it used to do and what in many ways is the whole point of the system...
There should be user info on MSE etc - that's where I'd look into it.