Alternatives to Evohome, one could buy today?

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  • mtmcgavock
    Automated Home Legend
    • Mar 2017
    • 507

    #16
    Originally posted by bruce_miranda View Post
    Tado appear to support UFH via simple room stats and I supposed a Relay unit. So on a multi zone manifold, you will have multiple relay boxes as opposed to the Honeywell UFH controller. I don't see why Drayton Wiser, couldn't do pretty much the same thing. I think they started with a standard timer replacement and hence are limited to what is possible. But they could have made a channel capable of either using smart TRVs or room stats with their own relays.
    In my experience the latest Drayton RF stuff has always been a bit naff, so personally i'd avoid Drayton.

    With any smart system that offers a roomstat as a 'Zone' you could use on Underfloor. You'd just have to use a traditional wiring centre and have a receiver/stat for each zone. Maybe a little messy but not impossible.

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    • sharpener
      Automated Home Sr Member
      • Jan 2015
      • 78

      #17
      Originally posted by mtmcgavock View Post
      I quite like the looks of the Tado system. I've never tried it but it doesn't look a bad system on the face of it. The TRVs looks better and neater.

      I think the advantage Honeywell have though is they've been doing this longer and are a leading manufacture in controls and IMO the most reliable.
      Son installed the original Tado system (no zoning) after extensive benchmarking against Evohome, Hive and Nest. DIY installation instructions specific to his model of boiler made the job very easy. He has found the geofencing extremely versatile, it copes with three occupants of the flat coming and going at different times without them having to input any commands or liaise with each other, and this alone justifies the original choice against the opposition. It does rely on Tado servers but in three years there has only been one outage of a couple of days.

      I looked at all this again in some detail last year for our barn conversion and got very close to binning my whole Evohome setup because of repeated comms problems and false firing. But while waiting to see what would appear in the long-heralded web interface (yes, display of zones calling for heat - if you dig deep in the menu!) I managed to fix the worst of the unreliability by installing a free replacement HR80, so the urgency has passed for the moment.

      If I were starting again today I would almost certainly go for Heat Genius. Using third party TRVs and an open RF system (with repeaters!) are significant advantages. The only downside I know of is the reliance on external servers but that seems almost unavoidable.
      Last edited by sharpener; 28 April 2018, 04:06 PM.

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      • lineweight
        Automated Home Jr Member
        • Dec 2015
        • 11

        #18
        I am interested in the same question as posed in the OP, as after 3 years of it just never really working properly, I'm losing patience with Evohome.

        When i did my investigations back in 2015 Heat Genius seemed to be the main alternative, so is that still the case?

        Does anyone know anything about this system:

        https://istabai.com/ ?

        Comment

        • G4RHL
          Automated Home Legend
          • Jan 2015
          • 1580

          #19
          Originally posted by lineweight View Post
          I am interested in the same question as posed in the OP, as after 3 years of it just never really working properly, I'm losing patience with Evohome.

          When i did my investigations back in 2015 Heat Genius seemed to be the main alternative, so is that still the case?

          Does anyone know anything about this system:

          https://istabai.com/ ?
          ... and I have 4 years with few, if any issues, mostly self generated, and would certainly recommend Evohome. Once set up and left alone, it just works.

          Comment

          • paulockenden
            Automated Home Legend
            • Apr 2015
            • 1719

            #20
            I think Evohome struggles with some houses and some heating systems (under or over specified). But I suspect that the alternatives will struggle even more.

            Comment

            • G4RHL
              Automated Home Legend
              • Jan 2015
              • 1580

              #21
              Originally posted by paulockenden View Post
              I think Evohome struggles with some houses and some heating systems (under or over specified). But I suspect that the alternatives will struggle even more.
              That has to be right looking at some of the correspondents in these pages but generally it is fine. Mine system was really taxed over Christmas with family from Australia feeling the cold and constant temperature adjustments. Evohome handled everything very well.

              Comment

              • eightiescalling
                Automated Home Lurker
                • Jan 2019
                • 5

                #22
                Originally posted by paulockenden View Post
                I think Evohome struggles with some houses and some heating systems (under or over specified). But I suspect that the alternatives will struggle even more.
                Agree with this - the more modern and capable the basic radiators are the better it works.

                Our 30 year old house had original rads and generally limited to no per-room radiator override. The heating design seemed to be on the premise of a huge radiator in one room and heat leaching across the house to be topped up by small radiators in other rooms. As soon as you swap to room by room control that all falls over - the small radiators do their best but just don't cut it.

                Another point I've noticed is that old radiators on full pelt tend to heat up the space around them quicker than newer ones designed to encourage heat convection up and over. In my case that meant the small radiator on full pelt warmed the HR92 next to it nicely which then cut the heat off before it had done anything useful in the room.

                It's cost a bit replacing the radiators (always our plan so happy with that) but it has meant the EvoHome is able to work effectively room by room.

                Comment

                • jvallis
                  Automated Home Jr Member
                  • Feb 2018
                  • 29

                  #23
                  Just to add to the list:
                  - HeatGenius can do UFH, but can't do OpenTherm (though they're testing something with a brand new opentherm-supporting oil burner), and can also do >12 zones.
                  - Drayton Wiser can't do UFH, but does OT

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