What would you like to see in evohome? (have your say)

[paulockenden]

It says on the controller screen exactly what it does.

[HenGus]

It says on the controller screen exactly what it does.

Agreed, but it is easy to miss some of the sub menus which only appear when the QA button is pushed/held. I am thinking of AWAY.

[g6ejd]

I'm indebted to this forum as it answered my query quickly and with clarity. Probably for those who don't use this place the installer explained it all to them. Thanks chaps.

[Rameses]

Ah yes but to me Heating off is not the same as DHW off as nearly every system has separate controls for HTG and DHW. I'll try 'away' ironically the only one I have not tried as it says temperatures are turned down to 15C but no mention of DHW but it transpires it does, therefore there are gaps in the User Guide and I think Honeywell should augment the user guide accordingly.

Away quick action does this. - I dont know why yours says 15c. Default is 7c from memory (which you can change in quick actions settings). Remember 15c isnt off. Neither is 7c for that matter. It just reduces the probability of a call for heat or a foreseen demand for heat, by both disabling the schedules and lowering the temps.

[paulockenden]

I think Away is 11c and DHW off.

Enough to avoid mildew.

[killa47]

My QA "Away" setting is showing 15c and as I have never altered this, that must be the default. I normally turn CH "off" and switch DHW setpoints to off for holiday periods but I like the sound of using "Away".

Anybody know whether 15c is a reasonable temp for avoiding mildew? Last summer, the dining room curtains attracted some mildew having been in contact with the double glazing when setpoint temp was left at 10c.

So I guess whilst it can be modified per installation, the lowest temp for avoiding mildew may well be around 15c unless someone knows otherwise.

[mylesm]

Browser Control

Ability to see which Zone is calling for heat

[DBMandrake]

Away quick action does this. - I dont know why yours says 15c. Default is 7c from memory (which you can change in quick actions settings). Remember 15c isnt off. Neither is 7c for that matter. It just reduces the probability of a call for heat or a foreseen demand for heat, by both disabling the schedules and lowering the temps.

Default away temperature is actually 15 degrees. I lowered mine to 10 degrees and left Heating Off at 5 degrees.

The logic behind this is that Heating Off mode is for use during the summer when the house is occupied, so you still want DHW following its normal schedule. (I still want hot water in the summer!)

The away action is for use when we are away from the house at a time when the schedule would normally have the system on, (typically when we are out on weekends) regardless of whether its summer or winter. Hot water is off because we're not in the house to use it, and the higher 10 degree set point is useful in the winter to help avoid the house getting really cold during for example a 1-2 day absence.

BTW another item to add to my wishlist - in the summer turning on just one zone is a right pain in the backside. We have either Heating Off set (if we are in the house and don't want heating on) or Away (if we are away from the house) however neither one of these modes allows single zone overrides, at least not officially via the control panel.

The typical use case is that one radiator alone needs to be turned on - either the bathroom radiator for a shower/bath, or one other radiator to dry clothes.

To do this via the control panel the heating off action needs to be cancelled, and then every other zone except the desired one needs to be manually turned down to 5 degrees, which is very, very tedious with the current UI that doesn't allow the quick selection of predefined favourite set points, nor the application of a set point change to multiple zones in one action.

The alternative is to manually turn up the HR92, but this will only work if local override is enabled, and the fact that the radiator is turned up will not be shown on the control panel so its very easy to forget this has been done since the control panel still says off for all zones.

A quick fix that would cover most scenarios would be to allow timed zone overrides to be made in the away mode - unlike heating off away still shows the set points of each zone, including any manual override made at an HR92, it just doesn't allow you to change the zone set points from the controller.

There are plenty of uses for this - say you are leaving to go out for the day so you want the system to be in away mode, but you want one radiator turned up to 22 for 2 hours to dry some clothes and then drop back to the away temperature - you can't do that at the moment with the restriction on zone overrides in away mode.

How do other people deal with this all off but one radiator on scenario ?

Most of these kind of issues would go away if the UI was changed to allow quicker selection of temperatures, (some predefined favourites, or some other way that was faster than pressing an up or down arrow 20 times) and there was an option to apply the selected set point and override end time to any arbitrary selection of zones at the same time instead of just the currently selected zone.

[mtmcgavock]

Default away temperature is actually 15 degrees. I lowered mine to 10 degrees and left Heating Off at 5 degrees.

The logic behind this is that Heating Off mode is for use during the summer when the house is occupied, so you still want DHW following its normal schedule. (I still want hot water in the summer!)

The away action is for use when we are away from the house at a time when the schedule would normally have the system on, (typically when we are out on weekends) regardless of whether its summer or winter. Hot water is off because we're not in the house to use it, and the higher 10 degree set point is useful in the winter to help avoid the house getting really cold during for example a 1-2 day absence.

BTW another item to add to my wishlist - in the summer turning on just one zone is a right pain in the backside. We have either Heating Off set (if we are in the house and don't want heating on) or Away (if we are away from the house) however neither one of these modes allows single zone overrides, at least not officially via the control panel.

The typical use case is that one radiator alone needs to be turned on - either the bathroom radiator for a shower/bath, or one other radiator to dry clothes.

To do this via the control panel the heating off action needs to be cancelled, and then every other zone except the desired one needs to be manually turned down to 5 degrees, which is very, very tedious with the current UI that doesn't allow the quick selection of predefined favourite set points, nor the application of a set point change to multiple zones in one action.

The alternative is to manually turn up the HR92, but this will only work if local override is enabled, and the fact that the radiator is turned up will not be shown on the control panel so its very easy to forget this has been done since the control panel still says off for all zones.

A quick fix that would cover most scenarios would be to allow timed zone overrides to be made in the away mode - unlike heating off away still shows the set points of each zone, including any manual override made at an HR92, it just doesn't allow you to change the zone set points from the controller.

There are plenty of uses for this - say you are leaving to go out for the day so you want the system to be in away mode, but you want one radiator turned up to 22 for 2 hours to dry some clothes and then drop back to the away temperature - you can't do that at the moment with the restriction on zone overrides in away mode.

How do other people deal with this all off but one radiator on scenario ?

Most of these kind of issues would go away if the UI was changed to allow quicker selection of temperatures, (some predefined favourites, or some other way that was faster than pressing an up or down arrow 20 times) and there was an option to apply the selected set point and override end time to any arbitrary selection of zones at the same time instead of just the currently selected zone.

Completely agree with this, there needs to be a mode where you can override the zone independently when all the rest are off from your phone/controller.

My solution to this is my custom quick action I have named 'Summer' then all the zones are set to 16oc (You can set this to anything you like). This allows you to boost a zone without having to turn the whole system back on. I have also set various set points during that day at 16oc so if we turn the towel rails on it will revert back to 16oc at that set point (E.g. 8am - 16oc, 10am - 16oc, 1pm - 16oc, 6pm - 16oc, 11pm - 16oc)

[fergie]

Apologies if already suggested, but a couple of things I would like:

1. Option to let the hot water temp drop more than 10 deg before kicking in again. This would be useful where I only want it to reheat after say a bath has been run.

2. To be able to see the commands / figures Evohome is sending to the boiler via OT and the signals / figures the boiler is sending back.

[DBMandrake]

Apologies if already suggested, but a couple of things I would like:

1. Option to let the hot water temp drop more than 10 deg before kicking in again. This would be useful where I only want it to reheat after say a bath has been run.

Just adjust the hot water differential ? The default is 10 degrees but you can change it in the system configuration.

I actually have my differential reduced to 5 degrees as I only have my hot water set to 54 degrees and a 10 degree differential would let it get too cold.

[fergie]

I can change it by 10, but it would be good if I could vary it by 15 or 20.

My understanding is the water should be heated to 60-65 to prevent bacteria etc.

So basically I'd like to be able to heat to 65, then let it drop back to 45 or 50 before kicking in again.

[paulockenden]

But in this case when the water has dropped to 46, say, the tank will contain a lot of water that hasn't been heated to 65. (When you've used the very hot water the tank has been replenished with cold).

Legionalla thrives and multiplies quickly in the mid-40s. I think that's just asking for trouble, especially if the tank is likely to remain at that temperature for some time.

P.

[DBMandrake]

I can change it by 10, but it would be good if I could vary it by 15 or 20.

I don't understand what you mean ? Are you saying you cant set the differential to any more than 10 degrees ? I'd have to check mine when I get home but I'm pretty sure you can set the differential to at least 20 degrees.

My understanding is the water should be heated to 60-65 to prevent bacteria etc.

There is a long running debate in the industry about what temperature hot water should be set to...

In theory hot water in a tank should be heated to 60 degrees or more at least once a day to kill legionella bacteria, but 60+ degrees is up into the dangerous range where people can suffer scalds and burns from putting their hand in the flow of a hot tap. Not good if you have children using taps...

Personally I can't put my hand in the stream of a hot tap for more than a moment if its any more than about 55, and even that is very uncomfortable.

The ideal solution is to have the hot water cylinder quite hot, 60-65 degrees, and then have thermostatic mixer tempering valves installed at each hot tap - the legionella will be killed in the cylinder and then when you run the hot tap it automatically blends in cold water to bring the temperature down to a safe temperature like 47-50 degrees.

http://www.ciphe.org.uk/consumer/safe-water-campaign/hot-water-scalds/

I considered installing these last year but in the end I didn't do it mainly due to the cost of the valves (even though I only needed 3) and difficulty of intercepting the pipe work to the bath to install one on the bath.

So without a mixer valve like this hot water temperature is always going to be a compromise between risk of bacteria or risk of scalding and burns.

[DBMandrake]

But in this case when the water has dropped to 46, say, the tank will contain a lot of water that hasn't been heated to 65. (When you've used the very hot water the tank has been replenished with cold).

Legionalla thrives and multiplies quickly in the mid-40s. I think that's just asking for trouble, especially if the tank is likely to remain at that temperature for some time.

P.

This is one reason why I went for a narrow 5 degree differential despite it causing more frequent reheats - to keep the minimum temperature up above the dangerous 20-45 range for bacteria multiplication without having the maximum temperature being too high.

55 (at the tap) is the hottest I can stand to use a hot tap (even for briefly washing hands or squeezing out a sponge) without blending in cold water, so I have it set to 54 (since I use a one minute hot water overrun which causes 1-2 degrees overshoot sometimes) and 5 degree differential.

A higher cylinder temperature with TMV's on all the taps to lower the tap temperatures would definitely be safer from both a bacteria and scalding point of view but absent those valves I think I've found a reasonable compromise.

On the rare occasion where the system has overshot to 62 degrees (ahem - still doing that occasionally...) it really is just too hot to safely put your hands in.