Originally posted by paulockenden
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To install a complete heating system, the bulk of the work is a plumbing job to which most plumbers are of course well skilled at doing. Naturally there is also some electrical wiring to be done to get a boiler and basic thermostat and timer working but lets face it - as electronics/electrical wiring goes this is very simple stuff, and with today's standardised "wiring centres" it becomes almost "paint by numbers". Connect your switched spur supply here, connect your wall stat there, connect your boiler here, fit these link wires if you do or don't have zone valves, and so on.
I don't want to step on any toes but I would venture to suggest that from what I have seen a significant number of otherwise very competent plumbers who install boilers for a living get by with a very limited understanding of the electrical side of things and pretty much do the electrical side on a paint by numbers approach using a few memorised common configurations without really understanding the electrical circuits that are behind those configurations. Likewise a basic timer is something akin to programming an alarm clock and not particularly daunting to deal with especially if you are supplying and installing a few familiar models.
However when faced with something new like an Evohome they suddenly have extra complications thrown into the mix that they have probably not had to deal with before - wireless communications, including the binding process, and more sophisticated programming. (Even the TRV's have configuration options on an Evohome, let alone the controller, and the controller is basically a full computer...)
Because of the flexibility of the Evohome system, system design becomes even more important - if the system design isn't something that matches a configuration they've dealt with before they're likely to struggle.
In short, to do a good job of installing an Evohome system (at least on a professional basis) you really do need some conception of how RF propagation works in buildings, how to configure wireless devices to communicate with each other, how to program devices more complicated than a conventional timer, how do design an overall system consisting of so many different wirelessly communicating devices etc...
Some of this can be acquired by training but I think for some plumbers it will never be their thing and they will eventually retire out of the system as these smarter heavily computerised control systems become more common...
This is not a slight on the Evohome system in particular - it's a general trend towards more complicated and intelligent heating systems which simply require a broader set of cross disciplinary skills to do competently.
The same thing has happened in the field of car repairs where mechanics who are good at "spannering" and might be brilliant at stripping down an engine and overhauling it are really struggling with the increasingly complex electrical and computer systems that control and manage all aspects of a car these days...some will adapt and keep up while others will fall by the wayside.
I'm not sure that there's an easy answer, either.
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