Best Wifi enabled thermostat

Best Wifi enabled thermostat

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Discussion

z4chris99

Original Poster:

11,517 posts

186 months

Tuesday 19th February 2013
quotequote all
Looking for opinions on which system is best. anyone got one of these

i like the idea of sorting the heating on my iphone

http://www.heatmisershop.co.uk/thermostats-c1/wifi...

Cheers

Chris

Ean218

2,004 posts

257 months

Tuesday 19th February 2013
quotequote all
z4chris99 said:
Looking for opinions on which system is best. anyone got one of these

i like the idea of sorting the heating on my iphone

http://www.heatmisershop.co.uk/thermostats-c1/wifi...

Cheers

Chris
I've had one for about a year. It's actually even better than it first appears. Yes, you can mess with the settings from an Iphone or from a web browser really easily, but you can also use the interface to do this:

http://code.google.com/p/heatmiser-wifi/

You can log boiler use against temperature and really get a fix on how to optimise the system.

paulrockliffe

15,998 posts

234 months

Tuesday 19th February 2013
quotequote all
Saw these, then I saw some programmable trv's for the radiators. Both look like worthwhile investments, but I'd really want them both to talk to each other for maximum benefit. Does that option exist?

NotNormal

2,370 posts

221 months

Tuesday 19th February 2013
quotequote all
paulrockliffe said:
Saw these, then I saw some programmable trv's for the radiators. Both look like worthwhile investments, but I'd really want them both to talk to each other for maximum benefit. Does that option exist?
Yes, we have this system fitted at our work offices. http://www.housetechsolutions.co.uk/

Has made a massive difference to the costs of heating the building when compared to last years bills. We have the trv units on each radiator, configured all the seperate zones (e.g each office is a zone and has own controller or an open plan area that has multi rads is a single zone with one controller). They all sort themselves out and there is a master controller linked to the boiler so when all zones are satisfied then it turns the boiler off.

Not cheap but certainly works very well. I think there maybe other makes that work on a similar principal so bit of googling may help.


SlidingSideways

1,345 posts

239 months

Tuesday 19th February 2013
quotequote all
This looks quite interesting: http://www.nest.com/

IIRC it's the brainchild of an ex-Apple guy.

anonymous-user

61 months

Tuesday 19th February 2013
quotequote all
SlidingSideways said:
This looks quite interesting: http://www.nest.com/

IIRC it's the brainchild of an ex-Apple guy.
US only I guess at present. Nice to see a different design too.

SlidingSideways

1,345 posts

239 months

Wednesday 20th February 2013
quotequote all
Should be available in the UK this year at some point apparently: http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2013/01/finally-the-aweso...

anonymous-user

61 months

Wednesday 20th February 2013
quotequote all
SlidingSideways said:
Should be available in the UK this year at some point apparently: http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2013/01/finally-the-aweso...
Excellent. I'm starting a self build in the next 2 months so looking at all new technology to help run the house and save money!

cuneus

5,963 posts

249 months

Wednesday 20th February 2013
quotequote all

miniman

26,302 posts

269 months

Wednesday 20th February 2013
quotequote all
SlidingSideways said:
This looks quite interesting: http://www.nest.com/

IIRC it's the brainchild of an ex-Apple guy.
That looks awesome, very slick indeed.

anonymous-user

61 months

Wednesday 20th February 2013
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cuneus said:
Thanks for posting. Would wired be a better solution if new build or is the wireless stuff pretty bullet-proof?

paulrockliffe

15,998 posts

234 months

Wednesday 20th February 2013
quotequote all
The Nest thing loks nice, but doe it just control the boiler rather than individual TRVs? Surely controllingt he TRVs is where the energy saving is?

anonymous-user

61 months

Wednesday 20th February 2013
quotequote all
paulrockliffe said:
The Nest thing loks nice, but doe it just control the boiler rather than individual TRVs? Surely controllingt he TRVs is where the energy saving is?
Best suited for UFH I guess.

Megaflow

9,916 posts

232 months

Wednesday 20th February 2013
quotequote all
I fear I may be getting old before my time, but can somebody please explain why anybody could need a thermostat with wifi?

Surely this is just unnecessary complication, just like the electronic handbrake.

z4chris99

Original Poster:

11,517 posts

186 months

Wednesday 20th February 2013
quotequote all
Megaflow said:
I fear I may be getting old before my time, but can somebody please explain why anybody could need a thermostat with wifi?

Surely this is just unnecessary complication, just like the electronic handbrake.
your lying in bed and it's too hot. because I'm lazy I can then turn my heating down from my phone

SlidingSideways

1,345 posts

239 months

Wednesday 20th February 2013
quotequote all
paulrockliffe said:
The Nest thing loks nice, but doe it just control the boiler rather than individual TRVs? Surely controllingt he TRVs is where the energy saving is?
Boiler only by the looks of it. However, it learns your schedule so should tailor your heating on/off times to when you're actually in the house, rather than blindly following an arbitrary schedule. Plus, it will auto detect if you're not in when it expects you to be, or you can tell it remotely to turn on/off if you're going to be home/away unexpectedly.
That along with TRVs to control the temps in individual rooms should hopefully lead to significant saving over a normal system.

anonymous-user

61 months

Wednesday 20th February 2013
quotequote all
z4chris99 said:
Megaflow said:
I fear I may be getting old before my time, but can somebody please explain why anybody could need a thermostat with wifi?

Surely this is just unnecessary complication, just like the electronic handbrake.
your lying in bed and it's too hot. because I'm lazy I can then turn my heating down from my phone
From the site:

"Weather aware. Nest uses its Wi-Fi connection to keep an eye on current weather conditions and forecasts so it can understand how the outside temperature affects your energy use"

Although an outside sensor would do the job too smile

Timberwolf

5,374 posts

225 months

Wednesday 20th February 2013
quotequote all
Megaflow said:
I fear I may be getting old before my time, but can somebody please explain why anybody could need a thermostat with wifi?
A reason I've considered one is I often end up going out to the pub after work on short notice. It'd be nice to be able to fire up an app and tell the house not to waste money heating everything up to 19 degrees Celsius until a few minutes before I get back in.

(From what I've read, some of the better ones know what rate of increase your system will support given a particular outside temperature, so you can tell it when you're due in and the house will have just reached set temperature as you walk through the door.)

RedLeicester

6,869 posts

252 months

Wednesday 20th February 2013
quotequote all
I've always been a bit wary of the wireless systems, specifically with range - that Housetech one for example talks about a "35m" range - assuming that's perfect lab conditions and not through half a dozen walls, then it'd degrade pretty quickly in a larger house. Sonos hifi gets around such things by using a Mesh network, but I haven't yet seen any of these thermostats that do much the same.

I've been looking at the Heatmiser ones, and whilst I like the idea of the ease of wifi, I can't help but think the wired options are more robust.

NotNormal

2,370 posts

221 months

Wednesday 20th February 2013
quotequote all
RedLeicester said:
I've always been a bit wary of the wireless systems, specifically with range - that Housetech one for example talks about a "35m" range - assuming that's perfect lab conditions and not through half a dozen walls, then it'd degrade pretty quickly in a larger house. Sonos hifi gets around such things by using a Mesh network, but I haven't yet seen any of these thermostats that do much the same.

I've been looking at the Heatmiser ones, and whilst I like the idea of the ease of wifi, I can't help but think the wired options are more robust.
Our office is split over 3 floors and everything talks to each other perfectly wirelessly.

The Nest thing really is a style over substance and bit of a gimmick when you think about it. It still only detects temperature where the unit is installed and does not take into account different rooms or areas. The HouseTec (and similar solutions) that control each rad based on a "zoned" sensor point is far more effective in controlling temperatures throughout different areas of a large building.

I'm so impressed with the system here at work i'm most likely going to install in my new house once the sale completes and I get the keys.