First smart heating system - need some advice

[DrPips]

Hi All,

My first post here, so I apologise in advance for any silly questions. My house is as follows:

Ground floor

Boiler is downstairs, with programmer and one thermostat.
Living Room (2
Kitchen
Dining Room
Hall
Utility
Toilet

First Floor

Second thermostat in master bedroom that controls first and second floor.
Master bedroom and ensuite
Sons bedroom
Spare room
Office
Landing
Bathroom

Second Floor
Playroom
Home cinema

I would like to control both current heating zones, but also add additional controls, for example, the spare room, playroom and home cinema would be off for most of the time, unless we wanted it, in which case, I could go on my phone and dial in a temporary temperature for the room. I would also like to be able to control the kitchen separately as it gets very hot when cooking, so no need to have heating on at those times. I know that some systems can have individual TRVs. One of my questions is do with this individual room control, and may highlight my ignorance. Say most of the upstairs rooms are to temperature and the heating therefore off. If I then decide I need the spare room, how does the heating system send heat to that one room, without overheating the other rooms that are already at the desired temperature?

I like the idea of the Tado system as it has the geofencing that I like and the individual TRVs without being over the top expensive. My plan is to buy the starter kit and the additional thermostat to start with, then add TRVs as and when. I presume this is possible.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

Dom

[top brake]

What boiler do you have? What smart home platform do you have or likely to get?

[DrPips]

I have the ideal logic heat 24 and I'm thinking of the tado

[top brake]

What I meant was are you Apple or Samsung or Amazon smart home user? Have you considered Honeywell evohome. Very popular on this forum and wins lots of smart thermostat awards

[DrPips]

Oh I see, apple definitely, as I already have a lot of apple stuff running streaming with plex etc. Yeh I've read good things about evohome, but love the idea of the way the tado works, and the cost.

How about my question on the trvs and how they work?

[top brake]

I can answer any questions that you have about evohome.

[top brake]

Evohome with OT Bridge will modulate the Ideal boiler and also offers a wireless cylinder sensor solution for stored hot water. Smart radiator zoning can be added. Geofencing through IFTTT and voice control through Amazon Echo. It's the daddy.

[g6ejd]

I have my house set as 12-zones with 18 HR92 TRV's and there are occasions when the house has achieved all set temperatures, then maybe just one radiator is the only boiler load if that's the zone demanding heat, so that answers your query regarding heating an unused room, also don't forget when a TRV has reached temperature it won't allow any further flow or demand. Only if your spare room does not have an HR92 would you have to wait for another zone to demand heat to get some or all the heat required for your spare room. Evohome is great system and is well designed, it does everything I want it to do, can't believe I've only just discovered the system.

I've just changed from the NEST and geofencing is OK but when I leave the property the system reacts, but my family are still in the house, so I switched it off, it tends to assume just one person use of the heating, I had a lot of trouble getting two phones synchronised to prevent that happening, ok for some but not my usage.

[G4RHL]

I concur with G6EJD's comments. Evohome works. The relatively recent upgrade to the app makes it much better particularly when going away and returning as I have found in the last few weeks. I don't need to be concerned about switching it on when returning home after being away as it can be set to do that in the app. Individual rooms or zones are all easily controlled. It cost me about £250 more than the LightwaveRF system I was contemplating back in mid 2014 and am delighted I did not go that route!! My only quirk is battery life. It is not consistent and I have one TRV where I need to change the batteries about every 3 to 4 months. I suspect it's a fault in the HR92 and I ought to check that out by changing it with one in another zone but have been too lazy to do so!��

[DBMandrake]

The relatively recent upgrade to the app makes it much better particularly when going away and returning as I have found in the last few weeks. I don't need to be concerned about switching it on when returning home after being away as it can be set to do that in the app.

What's this ? Are you saying the total connect comfort app now has automatic presence detection support ? I just had a quick look and I can't see any new options, at least in the iPhone version of the app.

My only quirk is battery life. It is not consistent and I have one TRV where I need to change the batteries about every 3 to 4 months. I suspect it's a fault in the HR92 and I ought to check that out by changing it with one in another zone but have been too lazy to do so!��

Does it sound any different to the others ? If it sounds like its turning slower than the others perhaps the pin in the valve is a bit seized up ? As motor draw is probably the signal biggest battery user a seized pin could potentially drain the battery a lot faster. Just speculating though as the shortest battery life I've experienced is about 18 months.

[G4RHL]

Thanks (DPMandrake's response). No, sadly no presence support, it is just that it is easier now to set the duration of a custom menu function, e.g. "Off" in the app.

Interesting thoughts on the possible reason for battery drain. They all do sound the same but that may not mean they are all equally operating with the same ease. I have left things alone for I plan to replace all valves with Honeywell's as and when the boiler needs to be replaced. Next month will see us having had 19 years of use out of it. Borrowed time passed long ago! It still works OK and in the 19 years has only needed the fan replaced twice. I accept its efficiency will leave a bit to be desired but a replacement will need many years before the cost is recouped and from what I read today's replacement may need replacing before I recoup the cost!

[happy days]

High battery drain can be caused by poor wireless signal strength or interference. Do you have any regular comms loss messages?

[G4RHL]

High battery drain can be caused by poor wireless signal strength or interference. Do you have any regular comms loss messages?

No. Checked all that long ago. The control panel is nearer than it was originally and further away from other HR92s that do not drink juice and are more frequently active. Am reasonably sure the issue is either a faulty HR92 or as dpmandrake has mentioned, a sticky valve.

[happy days]

Not necessarily about signal strength, message corruption will cause it to resend. Try swapping to another position, if it stays with location look for surrounding issues, eg signal reflection.