Remote Thermostat, value for money? Featured

For around £100 you can find a central heating controller and a wireless thermostat. These are typically set-up/controlled by a App on a mobile phone (or via the thermostat module) and you can schedule multiple on/off times each with a unique CH temperature. These times and temperatures may be same each day or may be different each day.

Example

If you don't mind fishing the depth of Aliexpress you can buy that kind for about £20, usually using the Tuya app. (Sometimes they also do RS485 and/or you can reprogram them with alternative firmware giving a web interface if you don't like apps)

The easiest install is to fit its relay in parallel with your existing thermostat. You set your existing thermostat to a 'frost' temperature like

(this assumes you have a basic on/off thermostat and no OpenTherm or anything like that)

Theo

The issue with a single thermostat is that the temperature of the room it is sited in determines the temperature in the rest of the house. So for instance if it is the lounge and you are spending most of your time there then that room will eventually reach the set temperature and the thermostat will knock the boiler off, however other rooms may not get sufficient heat even with TRVs. We had a similar issue when we moved into our present bungalow as we had a bedroom that had a conservatory added and made into one through room. In the evenings despite the lounge which had the thermostat being comfortably warm, the bedroom/conservatory became uncomfortably cool despite the conservatory being double glazed even the roof and had two radiators, the roof we later improved with an insulated roof. Even now the amount of glazing still loses more heat than any other part of the house.

We solved the situation by installing a smart thermostat and smart TRVs throughout, in our case the Hive system but there are others. The system allows you to set temperatures for each individual room and for different times of the day. The smart TRVs can demand heat unlike your bog standard TRV, so now when the TRV in the bedroom/conservatory detects the temperature has fallen below the set one it can fire up the boiler and direct heat to that room alone without affecting any other room in the house except the bathroom whose radiator is the official bypass for the system.

The system comes at a a cost with each smart TRV @£50+ and the smart thermostat Is getting on to £200 so that’s many bottles of rum and whisky I am afraid, but we have never been as comfortable about the house as now and are able to control our comfort by voice control to either raise or lower temperatures of individual rooms as required .

Richard

For info, I recently bought a couple of Tuya branded from Axs, about £10 each IIRC. Work very well so far. Obviously don't integrate with the main Hive system, but fine for what I need them for - switching the heating off in rooms I won't be using.

Interesting for sure. But overkill for my modest needs, the only improvement I wish for is what I described. Rooms that do not need heat have their thermostats set for low temperatures, so they don't go down to freezing level, but do not usually use heat. And as regards other suggestions, I don't do 'apps', so all those suggestions will be ignored. Thanks, but no thanks.

Jacking the whole house temperature up for a little bit of extra heat in the bedroom seems like overkill to me. Your bed is one of the easiest places to add a bit more insulation to. If you have a dog, they can supply a fair bit of heat too. ;-)

Tim

Tim

Well, it isn't the whole house, by any means. It is the temperature of the living room, but that is the only one heated directly. Other rooms will get some heat, but certainly not the whole house. Because I have a sleep apnoea mask and air pump, the bedroom air temperature is more important to me than if I didn't. As for dogs, ours all died years ago, on a different continent. We had a cat, brought back from the US with us, but he is long gone. None of the dogs slept on the bed, they all preferred their own baskets. But I appreciate your thinking.

I’m a fan of Hive.

A bit more than just a remote thermostat, it replaces your existing CH controller and connects to the internet.

Assuming you have a modern controller, fitting is DIYable and quick. The old controller unclips, new box on, then it is into setting up.

Check you buy the right system, either for a Combi or a dual system ( CH and HW with tank)

Not only remote but you can control from your phone etc, even via Alexa.

I fitted one to our dual system several years back and reckon I’ve paid for it several times over.

Thanks, but the last thing I want to do is connect my heating system to the internet. And my 'phone doesn't do anything other than make 'phone calls and take photos, and it's staying that way. But I will look at Hive, just in case it might do what I am looking for, while staying incommunicado from the outer world. Thanks anyway.

Look at Drayton or Danfoss. They both still work when there is no internet.

Also Honeywell Evohome

Most home automation systems are designed for numpties, and the easy way to make em work - especially remotely - is to put the smarts in the cloud.

I've home rolled mine with a selection of Raspberry Pis and a 3D printer for the cases, and its actually quite hard to make a 'plug'n'play' solution based on a home network of uncertain configuration.

Fortunately I don't have to do that. I can hard wire things like SSID and password and IP addresses into the units, and do remote access by messing with my router and so on.

But that's probably beyond the average numpty.

Which is why commercial units all 'phone home'. You can hardwire a server address into the units and all that is left is SSID/Password and you can probably set those with bluetooth

I looked at this myself and decided that the amount of code to make them easy to set up exceeded the amount to make them work by a significant amount

So I have left them hard wired for now. Life is too short.

Will do, thanks. When I was looking before, for just a 2-setpoint wireless 'stat, most were above £100, the one I mentioned in my OP was the only similar one for ~£90. As I said, I have no problem pressing a couple of buttons for that amount.

Remembering that if you have an older wired thermostat or have replaced it with a wireless thermostat where there is just a thermostat receiver where the old thermostat used to be you have may have to short out the "old" thermostat connections.