CH programmable thermostats

[Tim Streater]

The Honeywell CM901 and similar are 7-day programmers which can supply a heat/no-heat request to the boiler. So, fine for working people who live on a weekly cycle. Then there's the CM901 which is a 1-day equivalent, so, suitable for a doddering old fossil who lives the same daily cycle.

We, however, seem not to be catered for. Retired, so mostly at home, but with a variety of cycles which don't fit a day-of-the-week schedule. Rather than schedules for the heating based on day of the week, we need a programmer with a set of schedules we can set up and apply to any given day as needed.

Anyone heard of such a device?

[Jeff Gaines]

Download the Honeywell TR3 manual. It SEEMS to allow different schedule for each day of the week although despite fitting your description I find the same schedule each day suits me fine.

[nothanks]

Look at Honeywell Evohome - an excellent system which gives total control on a per-room basis, but you would need to change the TRV heads.

[Tim Streater]

Well that's what the CM907 already does. But you don't get to set up different schedules which are not assigned to a given weekday. I want to have a suite of schedules any of which I can assign to today, with perhaps a default which suits days when I'm at home.

If this week I'll be out from early to 5pm on Tuesday but it's Thursday next week, I want to have a schedule with the heating off all day but which includes evening heating, that I can assign to Tuesday this week and Thursday next week, and after the Tues/Thurs in question have passed, automatic reversion to the default daily. Such schedules, you see, have nothing to do with a named weekday.

[Dave Plowman (News]

I used to work what was called irregular hours in broadcast. Any day of the week - and also pretty well any hours. With a roster published some time ahead. So using that roster, I could have programmed the heating for my actual needs. Not sure I could have been bothered to. A basic prog with the ability to over-ride it with a mobile phone (as you can do today) would have made more sense.

[Brian]

The Hive system only has one program active but changing it is via the app is very easy. As is, for example, turning the heating ( or hot water if you system includes it) on or off remotely.

You can even, for example, set it up so it turns the heating off when you leave home and on as you approach, assuming you are carrying your phone. It will also interface with Alexa etc.

The system is a thermostat, a box which replaces your existing CH controller, and to allow remote controller, a Hive internet hub which links the new controller to your router.

Installation is pretty easy. The supplied details are very good and, generally, if you have a controller which is mounted on a standard backplate, it will PROBABLY clip straight on.

[Tricky Dicky]

The Hive system allows you to program individual days and if you combine it with Hive Smart valves you can apply it on a room by room basis

Richard

[Martin Brown]

Learn to use the advance and on off once, twice or thrice daily. (our VH heaters actually have four periods defineable)

Careful setup will get you something like what you want assuming that you don't keep very unusual hours. I always found 5:2 programme mode more than adequate for my needs YMMV.

Smartphone controllable ones will allow you to override the programme with advance which puts it on if off and vice versa.

I suspect a combination of that sort of internet connected smart unit and if this then that app will get you exactly what you ask for but whether or not it would actually be useful to you is anybodies guess.

[Brian]

Of course, that wasn?t clear from my post. Plus you can have several ?sessions? per day- different temperatures etc. We have 4: slightly warmer first thing, lower during the day, warmer in the evening, low at night ( unless it is really cold ). As we are retired, everyday is set the same.

If we go out, we can suspend the heating and turn it on before we return remotely via the phone app.

[Jacob Jones]

He wants something quite different. A set of day programs which he can apply to particular days as required.

[Tim Streater]

Well exactly.

[Robin]

If you can get by with 7 or fewer schedules how about looking for a programmer which allows a different programme each day of the week *and* where it's easy to change the date?

[Tim Streater]

How would that help? The CM907, which I have, already does that. But as each day rolls round, it runs the programme for that day. I don't want to be fiddling with it every day, just the days that are non-standard. Course I can just turn the CH off for the day (with the programmer calling for heat in vain) and turn it on when we return home. That's a work-around for the time being, slightly more of a faff than it need be.

[Theo]

I suppose the ideal UI would be a default programme (maybe weekday/weekend) and then a series of programmable buttons:

- out

- WFH

- weekend

- bathtime

- etc

You press the button and it switches to that programme for the day, reverting to the default one at some later point.

Afraid I don't know which will do this, but I'd watch a few videos demoing some of the app-based ones as I expect one could do something like that.

(a -1 for the Honeywell/Resideo Lyric we have - it's not much different from a traditional dumb thermostat but with a touchscreen. The app wouldn't work without a login and fine grained location permissions, so I vetoed that. It is also doing braindead things in how it controls the heat)

Theo

[Tim Streater]

Yes - that's exactly it. Press the Out button and then forget about it.

You mean, app as in put it on my phone?

Well thanks for *this* response. Notwithstanding my attempts to explain, most reponses so far seem to have been along the lines of do what current units do only more so.

[Roger Mills]

Have you looked at the 'Party' function on the CM907? Although the usual use would be to keep the heating on longer when staying up later than usual - e.g. for a party - it can also be used to *lower* the temperature for a specified time. So, assuming you know that you'll be out for 6 hours, set party mode for a low temperature for (say) 5 hours just before you go out. The normal schedule will then resume in time to make the house toasty for your return.

Failing that, your best bet would be a smart system - such as Hive or Nest - controlled by an app on your mobile phone, with or without getting it to detect automatically when you're in or out. [I personally think that's a step too far - it's easy enough to turn the heating on remotely but manually when you're on your way home].

This is probably as close as you will get to meeting your requirements - I don't think a system exists which does exactly what you want.

[alan_m]

Most thermostats have a frost setting* that is selectable for periods such as when you go away on holiday. On my thermostat it is a separate button to select and when I need to turn off my daily setting I just press this button and when I want to revert back I just press another button which reverts back to my programmed modes. When reverting back within a programmed timed cycle it immediately calls for heat if the period would normally do that.

*My button is designated night time mode which switches the thermostat to only call for heat if the temperature falls to below one I have set for frost protection (I think the default value was 5C)

[Jacob Jones]

I'd be surprised if it doesn't, given how many operate like he does.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Raspberry Pi and some mains relays? And a web interface so you can program it from a smart phone etc.

Been meaning to do that myself. Would be great to bang the heating on from a laptop in bed on chilly mornings...

[RJH]

I've set mine up with a series of presets isolating particular rooms for set periods, depending on what I'm doing. No two days are sufficiently similar for me to set up any sort of weekly schedule.