Wireless Smart Thermostat

You probably can have a nest. This was pretty much the scenario at our work - WB boiler with some kind of wireless stat - the electrician who installed the Nest wired some kind of heat link thingy into the boiler. I'm pretty sure the Nest thermostats can run off batteries? Ours is permanently plugged in via USB, which saves having to worry about the batteries running out.
Whether you really [I]want[/I] a Nest anyway is another matter! They work OK but are basic & there are much better options these days.

Nest is either hardwired or on a stand. The receiver (heat link) goes near the boiler. We have one, it's fairly good for the home/away location based thing. The learning is half decent, and once every six months or so it'll knock the heating back half a degree to see if you notice, if you don't it'll carry on at the lower temperature.

We've got a 3rd gen Nest, which was put in with a new boiler almost a year ago.

I'm not very impressed with it. We should have done more research & either stuck with a standard controller, or gone with something else.

I have a Tado system, took my boiler servicing plumber about 30 minutes to wire in the new control panel to the boiler.then you have a new valve (ease to screw on) on every radiator. then every radiator is controllable - Take used to have a demo app you can get to see how the system works - I think its brilliant - as I work from home I can simply heat one room where I am working and change that temp as much as I desire. the app is very very comprehensive regarding times for radiators on off etc, totally customisable. I got all the parts I need from Amazon as hey were cheaper than from the manuf. web site. highly recommend the system.

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

The Tado was one I'd looked at, though wasn't planning on the radiator controllers as well to be honest.

I had the nest 3rd gen. Turning on the heating while we were on our way home was great. The schedules are a bit pants doing it off your phone. It did look nice and the rotating bit to turn up the heating was nice to use. It has a box that gets wired in to the boiler and is powered off the boiler. Then the thermostat its self can either draw power from the box or be plugged into a usb somewhere.

We've since moved so considering other options. I think Tado is at the top of my list now. I like the idea of controlling each room by temp. It has a box connected to the boiler like the nest and then the thermostat can be put where ever including being powered off the box.

Imo the only ones I was considering were:
Drayton Wiser (has smart trvs but the box is ugly as sin. Optional no dependency on 'the cloud')
Hive (has smart trvs but they're ugly)
Nest (no option for trvs)
Tado (the whole shebang)

I decided on Drayton Wiser purely due to the no-cloud thing. Must admit the aesthetics of the unit didn't occur to me! It certainly looks no worse than a traditional thermostat, but yeah I guess it is not funky-looking like some of the other smart options!
(Nest I think actually looks great, and you feel like a safe-cracker when you're using it, that's probably the only really good thing about it tbh😃)

I have Tado. The main controller is good if you want app control for creating programs and turning on/off from bed, or when you are away. It's great to pre-heat the house from the motorway on the way home from a trip away, for example.

However as above, it really comes into its own with a stat on each rad. This creates instant zoned heating - not only can you shut off some rooms in the daytime, but other colder rooms can also call for more heat. e.g. we now have a warm living room and shut off the dining room in the evening, then only heat the bedrooms just before bed. With the central hall stat if the living room was warm the bedrooms were baking. That room control is where Tado really comes into its own versus just a stat.

It's modular so you could just start with the base stat, then add pieces when they come up in the sales. I got two 3 packs of TRVs for almost half price on Amamzon.

I have just bought some eve radiator valves.

Not decided quite how I will work the zones yet. Is it standard to totally switch off unused rooms, or just set a low temperature of say 10-10 degrees? I am a bit worried about damp forming as I already have a bit of a damp problem.

Netatmo for the win 😉
Mine has worked well for over 4 years and probably only 2 battery changes.
I think they do a smarter version now that works with smarter Combi boilers.

Is it standard to totally switch off unused rooms, or just set a low temperature of say 10-10 degrees?

The Hive I bought for my mum is batteries in the controller and wireless Comms to the receiver wired into your boiler. You can just operate it from the controller (either from a preset schedule or by twiddling the knob) or connect to a phone app and control it from your phone (I think you need to add a Hive hub to control remotely).

I have Evohome in my house with the fancy smart TRVs, but wouldn't particularly recommend the expense unless you have circumstances that justify it (in my old house the ground floor is cold with stone floors, the upstairs fluctuates in temp but much warmer, so the smart TRVs do a very good job of balancing the house temp out).

Another Drayton Wiser user here. Controller just fits on the standard backplate, wireless roomstat I have on a stand in the centre of the house and TRVs on all the radiators.

I left the old Drayton wireless roomstat where it was on the wall, just set it to max then the Wiser kit calls for heat as necessary. I did have to buy one of their range extender plugs 'cos one of the TRVs the other side of a thick wall kept disconnecting.

Works very well, loads of options, we did seem to use less oil last winter but I should check the bills to be sure.

but wouldn’t particularly recommend the expense unless you have circumstances that justify it

I think the rising energy costs probably take everyone into the circumstances where the initial expense is justified. I had been looking at getting some for a couple of years, but this year it became a no brainer.

Nest is rubbish if you ask me. Thinks it’s clever by detecting if you’re in using motion - trouble is if you are in the living room say for an hour and the unit is in the hall it thinks you are out and turns the heating off. It also tries to learn when you are in and out using the same method and then auto sets the schedule - fine except when someone is in (or out) at a different time to last week… 🙄 Hive is a far better solution.

I think the rising energy costs probably take everyone into the circumstances where the initial expense is justified.

Nest is rubbish if you ask me. Thinks it’s clever by detecting if you’re in using motion

Another Honeywell Evohome user here, installed <3 months after moving into our current house. Old property c.1870s, generally only using a couple of rooms at a time, made sense for us to go all-in with each room as a separately controlled zone. Nine in our case. Unsure what savings its made as we don't have a 'before' to compare it to.

You can use it with the base unit as the central thermostat and not bother with the zones as a cheaper option.

We've got a tado. Mainly because we were part of an energy trial, so didn't pay for it 🙂

Quite happy with it, does what it is supposed to & remote access is useful when you forget to turn the heating off when away for a few days.

For Tado users with the radiator valves, how do you find the range on them?
I've read some poor feedback on Tado's own site about these, worried in a large-ish house but more importantly with old thick walls, I'll spend a lot on Tado values to find they don't connect up. Sounds like Drayton work on a mesh type setup so would perhaps be a better option.

I have a Tado TRV on every rad in my house. The house is relatively big and has good old thick Victorian walls. I’ve never had any difficulty with valves not connecting, but I have got the hub central in the house hanging off a mesh node (and previously a powerline adaptor). I believe that if you have difficulty with any particular valve not connecting then you can talk to Tado support who can boost the radio system power on that valve (at the expense of battery life).

Another vote for tado here, though not done a winter with it yet.
Smart TRVs on most rads and like others have said it is truly brilliant to be able to heat only a couple of rooms at a time. Also WFH.
Not noticed any problems with range. The boiler is at the top of the house and the router+tado bridge is two floors below. No problems with connectivity noticed so far.

but I have got the hub central in the house hanging off a mesh node

What do you mean by this?

What do you mean by this?

It’s plugged into an Ethernet port on a WiFi mesh unit that’s in the middle of my house. My router is at one end of the house so wanted to position it more centrally.

I have a Nest mk2. It was fine until the heat link stopped working a few weeks ago, you can't get replacements any more. Quite annoying when you have a perfectly functional thermostat part and it's only 7 years old or so. I think I'll get a Wiser next in the hope that it will be better supported, and I like the TRV functionality of them.

Paul Hibbert reviewed the Tado stuff the other day.

It's not blimmin' cheap, mind!

It’s plugged into an Ethernet port on a WiFi mesh unit that’s in the middle of my house. My router is at one end of the house so wanted to position it more centrally.

My understanding is this doesn't help the TRV connection as they don't run off WiFi, this is my main concern, I have a decent mesh system to make sure the receiver and thermostat will connect well.

I have a Nest mk2. It was fine until the heat link stopped working a few weeks ago, you can’t get replacements any more. Quite annoying when you have a perfectly functional thermostat part and it’s only 7 years old or so. I think I’ll get a Wiser next in the hope that it will be better supported, and I like the TRV functionality of them.

Big Nest fan, had one in the old house but want radiator valves in the new place

My understanding is this doesn’t help the TRV connection as they don’t run off WiFi, this is my main concern, I have a decent mesh system to make sure the receiver and thermostat will connect well.

I know they don’t run off WiFi. I have positioned the Tado bridge (which requires an Ethernet connection) in the middle of the house so it has the best chance of reaching the Tado kit via its own system. If I plugged it directly into the router it would be at one end of the house and I think it would struggle to reach the other end (long thin house). Thermostat and receiver also don’t connect via WiFi.

Ah ok, so it's just about being able to place the bridge in a more central position rather than actually doing anything to improve its signal

We've had a Tado smart thermostat for a number of years.
I had an email from it telling me the batteries needed changing.
Did that and the bloody thing refused to work.

Ended up buying a replacement Tado thermostat (£99 from Screwfix BTW), that needed some extra wiring at the boiler!

Other than the need to change out batteries it's a pretty good system., I think.

Will maybe look into adding smart TRVs at some point!

I went with a Tado in the end. Fitted and works well, will look in to smart TRV's in the future but for now it's nice having a heating system I know I can work remotely.