We received some great feedback from Part One of our review from the team at Drayton and thought it was worth sharing the updated information for that original article. Here are the key items we noted from their feedback:
- The Range Extender – Already has peer to peer functionality
- Signal Strength – Next software feature pack to include power management in poor RF environments.
- Development Roadmap – There is wide range of developments in the pipeline including IFTTT support.
We will request additional Range Extenders to cover the entire extent of our property and report back. It has been great to have this detailed feedback from Drayton, demonstrating their ability to engage with end users.
No products found.
Here is what they had to say…
The Range Extender (RE) already works on a ‘peer-to-peer’ networking basis. ie one RE can communicate with another one in mesh and a Wiser system can hold up to 5 REs. One RE can have up to 6 devices connected to it, where e.g. one of the devices could be another RE.
Also important to note is that the plan for our next SW feature pack is to include functionality to increase the transmit power of the heating devices/Heat HubR in poor RF environments, which should greatly reduce the need for REs in standard-size homes. This feature pack is targeted for availability in the month of December, though specific availability dates of feature packs and individual features may shift.
Regarding our section on feedback from our family, Drayton had this to say…
Biomass boilers – It is true that these systems have slow heat-up times. Given the TPI algorithm that Wiser uses, supported fuel types are gas, electric and oil, out of which oil is the slowest one with 3 cycles per hour. Systems slower than that are better served by an ON/OFF heating algorithm with hysteresis, which the Heat HubR currently does not support. This is something we may be looking into in the future.
Eco Mode – Please note that Eco Mode is purely an energy saving feature. It therefore combines Optimum Stop with Weather Compensation. This is explained in our digital user guide available on our web site. The app also has improved verbiage for better understanding of Eco Mode. (The updated verbiage is in the current Android app and will be in the iOS app due to go live in the next few days).
Optimum Start is a comfort feature that, as rightly pointed out, takes the guesswork out of scheduling system start times. Optimum Start with Weather Compensation may or may not save energy depending on how individual users program their system today (i.e. whether they second-guess their system today and, if so, how good they are at second-guessing it). As we can’t guarantee that it will shorten the times that the boiler runs, it is not part of Eco Mode per se. Optimum Start with Weather Compensation is on our roadmap.
In addition they gave us the following answer (in bold) to our wish list.
Some of the items in the wish list are already supported, planned in the product road map or deemed to have insufficient demand. Here is the specific feedback on each item:
1. Peer to peer function enabled on the plug-in range extenders – essential for us to allow our full roll out. – Already Supported
2. A network map or the ability to see how the devices connect to the hub or the range extenders. – No. Not deemed to be of great interest to the majority of our customers. Customer Services will assist as required.
3. The ability to see the signal strength between the hub and the range extenders – Confirmed roadmap item.
4. The range extender looks suspiciously like a smart plug and you can hear a relay click when turning it on and off via the LED button. Can this functionality be added – Confirmed roadmap item.
5. An audit log file to show how long and often the boiler is being fired – Partly a confirmed roadmap item – Wiser will start generating monthly home heating reports. Boiler hours will be reported though cannot comment on the specific granularity as at to date.
6. The option of selecting Biomass from the heat source and the logic added to eco mode to allow for longer warm up times – Confirmed roadmap item
7. The app instantly reflects schedule changes when made – Confirmed roadmap item. App performance improvements will be released on a continual basis through feature packs.
8. Multiple user logins. Who keeps turning up the heating? – Confirmed roadmap item.
9. Geofencing as well as the manual away mode switch – IFTTT is a roadmap item.
10. Ability to nominate a weather station on wunderground.com for very local data for the weather compensation function – No. We are confident the weather service used in Eco Mode is adequate and have no plans to change this.
11. The ability to see a timeline view of all the devices and when they call for heat. When scheduling our boiler we overlap the zone schedules to prevent unnecessary shut downs and startups. At present we plan it in a spreadsheet and then implement the timings in the app schedule. – See Q/A 6 as well. Wiser targets systems with shorter rate cycles (gas/electric/oil) and in these cases the boiler switches on/off more frequently. This feature would potentially follow from A6, subject to analysis of market interest.
12. The ability to schedule, monitor and control from a web browser – Not planned at this stage based on customer feedback and data collected through usage of other connected products. This may change based on Wiser users’ feedback
Checkout Part 3, where we expand our Wiser smart home heating system and add Alexa voice
No products found.
wiser.
Read the full Drayton Wiser Review Series
Part 1 – Step by Step Installation
Part 2 – Installation Update
Part 3 – Expanding & Adding Alexa Voice Control
Part 4 – 1 Year Older & Much Wiser
Last update on 2024-04-08 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Read this with great interest.
Ive recently purchased the 2 thermostat set, and have been using it for the last couple of days in the house. So far Im super impressed. Ive just now placed an order for a further 15 thermostats so I can get the whole house zoned (2 week wait, boooo!).
I have one criticism though…This system is ultimately controlled though an app, which requires Drayton to maintain a service that is outside of my control. If Drayton go bust, or for whatever reason choose to simply not support the app then I and every other purchases will be left with £100s/1000s worth of mostly useless thermostats.
Its my understanding Honeywell produce a separate Touchscreen Display (at considerable cost) that can be used outside of a external service. For peace of mind I hope Drayton do something similar.
But past that worry, im hard pressed to find any real problems with the way it works.
Drayton have now released the new revision firmware designed to improve range. Will be interesting to hear what impact this makes to users that had problems.
@Matt
Glad you like the article. I was rightly reminded of your point at the weekend when my LG smart TV flashed up a warning to say the YouTube app would no longer be supported.
Wiser will work without needing to access the cloud. As long as you can access the hub over local WiFi then it will work. This is a good feature if you loose internet connection but in theory it means you could operate the hardware without the Wiser server. I know this cannot be said of all Smart Heating systems.
Some of the current range of Drayton Lifestyle controllers have been around since the early ‘90s so hopefully Wiser will last just as long! Judging by the pace of technological change we will have to face the fact that at some stage it will be superseded.
Drayton Wiser (Heating) officially supports IFTTT as of Feb 8th 2018, works a charm and I’m so darn happy too!
Update from my last post. I have a 2-channel Heat Hub and moved to a house where there was a combi boiler instead of a hw/ch boiler. I wasn’t sure if this would still work and contacted support, who initially said that the 2channel couldn’t be used on a combi and I would need to purchase a single channel Heat Hub, however, I went ahead and installed anyway (230v remote thermo cable from boiler to Term 4 – CH ON – on the Hub), knowing that the Hot water couldn’t be controlled. A few tweaks later, my central heating is being controlled brilliantly! Have also set up the room and radiator thermos in Google Home and geofencing with IFTTT (via Life360 app). Such a good value smart heating system – probably cheaper than any other zoning system and still just as functional with the IFTTT and Google updates. I’m one happy customer
We have now published an update after living with Wiser for 12 months – https://automatedhome.co.uk/reviews/drayton-wiser-smart-heating-controls-review-part-4-1-year-older-much-wiser.html