Smart heating, which one?

[Acuity31]

Currently have a Logic ESP1 35kw combi paired with a single wired thermostat. Looking to replace for a smart thermostat and make use of the boilers opentherm potential.
Really not fussed about setting different temps for different rooms, i'd be happy with one smart TRV located somewhere upstairs to act as a dual zone thermostat.
Basically narrowed it down to either one of the new Hive models which now do support Opentherm, or a Drayton Wiser kit with their gen 2 hub which is also opentherm compatible. The ability for the heating to turn itself off when I leave the house would be nice but not essential. Needs to be compatible with home assistant which both are so I suppose it boils down to which one has the best app and best reliability

[No ideas for a name]

Maybe a bigger system than you are looking for, but I have Honeywell EvoHome running an Ideal boiler via OpenTherm - also integrated with HomeAssistant.
Very happy with it. All this Hive/Nest stuff isn't going to be around as long as 'proper' established heating controls manufacturers (in my opinion).

[Wish]

Had Hive for years. I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone. When it was a start up it was better than it is now.
Wish I never went with them.

[davek_964]

No ideas for a name said:

Maybe a bigger system than you are looking for, but I have Honeywell EvoHome running an Ideal boiler via OpenTherm - also integrated with HomeAssistant.
Very happy with it. All this Hive/Nest stuff isn't going to be around as long as 'proper' established heating controls manufacturers (in my opinion).

Nest is already 'not around' I think at least in the UK.

Annoying - it's in my house and a good product.

[Sheepshanks]

Acuity31 said:

Really not fussed about setting different temps for different rooms, i'd be happy with one smart TRV located somewhere upstairs to act as a dual zone thermostat.

Of course there wouldn't be any zoning as such, so you could (probably) just use a second thermostat for that.

I have the original Tado (V3) which I do zone by having smart TRV on most (all but the bathrooms) rads. The temperature sending of the TRV is very vague.

With a combi, of you get the European version of the V3 controller then it can connect to the boiler bus. I don't know about the latest version, X, but it would be odd if it can't. You'd need to check boiler compatibility.

Edited by Sheepshanks on Saturday 3rd October 11:34

[Tymb]

If it’s just for heating could have a look at Netatmo, I’ve used the standard unit as a direct replacement for my old wall thermostat (to make my home system programmable) for years with no problems, they now do an opentherm compatible version.

https://www.netatmo.com/en-gb/smart-modulating-the...

I put a Hive unit in at my mums about 6 years ago, I don’t think we have had any problems but I’ve not got any ‘smart’ features set. I set the schedule on the App and she can adjust it on the head unit if she is feeling a bit cold.

[Belle427]

I put hive in and its been ok for me really but the father in laws one is a bit glitchy on reboot if the wi fi is powered down.
They had 2 nest failures so I put the hive in for them, picked it really as it was in stock at screwfix.

[OutInTheShed]

AIUI, Ideal boilers with their own Wireless timer/controller/stats will do 'load compensation' quite well.

This is similar to what we use.
Basically the timer/stat senses the room temperature and adjusts the flow temperature according to the shortfall.

So if the house starts off 5 degrees below target, the rads start off hot and reduce as equilibrium is approached.

It works OK for us, but we do cheat a bit using old school TRVs to do the final trimming of the temperature, and it took a while to find a place to put the timer stat which works.

There are a lot of mixed opinions about 'smarter' systems, what works well depends on your house and how you want to control it. It helps to understand the basic control logic you are going to implement. Our heating spends a lot of time switched off, it's comfortable here now with a window open. Some point around sunset we will shut the windows and think about whether to turn the heating on.

[ashenfie]

Tado v3+ work well and are a great price

[mikey_b]

I put Hive in and it works OK. I can just bark at Alexa to do something with the heating, and it does it. Same goes for the hot water if we need to boost the tank. A bit annoying that they have taken away the ability to use Holiday Mode, where it just pauses all schedules for X number of days - unless you're a subscriber to Hive Plus that is, but who the hell wants to pay £40 a year to save a couple of quid's worth of gas?

[fooman]

I went with Drayton Wiser one of the reasons is no ongoing payments. I probably would have gone Tado but Wiser was cheaper at the time. Getting a smart TRV on all radiators is a game changer - you can have different rooms heated at different times of the day and the temp control is solid unlike a single room thermostat. You can stagger so say warm just bedroom first thing so it's quick, then kitchen. I don't even use the Wiser wall thermostat any more just the room measurement from TRV and control house with app. Saved loads mainly not heating all the house, for instance my wife works from home and you can just turn the office on. If I had one gripe it is the battery life is poor and the TRVs don't like rechargeable - at least the version I have. I bought a big box of AAs from CPC instead.

[Audis5b9]

Ive had Drayton wiser for 3 years now, without any issues. Also set it up at mums house, and shes had it a year without issue.

As the post above says, battery life is a bit short, but it's a 1 min job to change them over so no big deal.

[Sheepshanks]

Audis5b9 said:

Ive had Drayton wiser for 3 years now, without any issues. Also set it up at mums house, and shes had it a year without issue.

As the post above says, battery life is a bit short, but it's a 1 min job to change them over so no big deal.

I've no idea how similar they are, but I went through a period of some of the Tado TRVs eating batteries, I contacted Tado and they told me they could see the batteries were OK, but not enough power was getting through as the contacts needed cleaning.

I was extremely dubious, and the contacts looked clean, but I cleaned them with contact cleaner and sure enough the issue went away.

Changing batteries in the Tado can be a faff - I think probably it's a timing thing, if you try and do it too quickly, or the valve doesn't go cleanly back onto its mount, the auto-calibrate might not work. Sometimes it's fine, other times it just doesn't want to work and you have to walk away and leave them off for a bit.

[Unexpected Item In The Bagging Area]

We’ve found Hive to work very well in both of our houses. I haven’t tried any other system however.