Wireless room thermostat: wiring for the receiver.

[Myson700B]

Currently I have a Drayton Digistat 3 progammable room thermostat wired in my hall that is next to my kitchen.
The result is that the heat from the kitchen heats up the hall even when all doors are closed and typically when the thermostat shows 18 deg C (in the hall) my lounge temperature is 15 deg C.
So I want to have a wireless room thermostat in my lounge, remove the wired Drayton Digistat 3 and wire in a receiver.
Q1. Would wiring the receiver using the wires currently connected to the Digistat work? If so what are the wiring connections please?
Q2. What make and model wireless thermostat and receiver does the team recommend please?

 

[Taylortwocities]

If your Digistat is a battery model it only needs two wires (live and switched live).

The wireless receiver needs those two plus a neutral so you'll need to see what wires are available behind the existing stat.

Wireless receivers are not exactly pretty so i would not put it there.

Usually you'd install it at the boiler's wiring centre.

 

[EFLImpudence]

I want to have a wireless room thermostat in my lounge, remove the wired Drayton Digistat 3 and wire in a receiver.
Q1. Would wiring the receiver using the wires currently connected to the Digistat work? If so what are the wiring connections please?

Probably not - unless you have an unused neutral (an actual neutral, not just a blue or black wire).
Any way that would be a silly thing to do. You need to have it near the boiler where there are all the connections necessary and it would be out of the way.

Q2. What make and model wireless thermostat and receiver does the team recommend please?

Any good make. If you are satisfied with your present Drayton model they make what you require.

 

[Myson700B]

The Digistat only needs two wires (live and switched live).

The wireless receiver needs those two plus a neutral so you'll need to see what wiresa re available behind the existing stat.

Wireless receivers are not exactly pretty so i would not put it there.

Usually you'd install it at the boiler's wiring centre.

Thanks for the prompt reply.

There are three wires available; Yellow, blue and red. The Digistat has the following wiring to its connections:
1. Yellow
2. Unwired
3. Red

If the receiver will be installed at the boiler's wiring centre the wireless transmitter signal will have to go through 3 walls.

 

[Taylortwocities]

You will need a test meter to check if the wires have the correct connections. But that is acememic if the receiver is to be near the boiler.

3 walls should not be a problem, do you think there may be?
Is your house made of steel and concrete, perhaps?

 

[Myson700B]

You will need a test meter to check if the wires have the correct connections. But that is acememic if the receiver is to be near the boiler.

3 walls should not be a problem, do you think there may be?
Is your house made of steel and concrete, perhaps?

The walls are made of Breeze blocks AFAIK.

 

[Myson700B]

Also the boiler has its own timer programmer that is set to always on 24 hours so perhaps I could dispense with that after wiring in the wireless receiver appropriately to the boiler centre.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Q2. What make and model wireless thermostat and receiver does the team recommend please?

Any good make. If you are satisfied with your present Drayton model they make what you require.

I've got one - I'd not recommend it.

It has an "interesting" way of implementing temperatures at different time - it stores the delta from the previous time period, not the absolute for the new one.

So say overnight you have it at 16° and in the morning you have it set to 20°, and for some reason you're up and about earlier than usual, so you manually override the temperature to 20°.

Come the programmed time to go to 20° the benighted thing thinks "Aha - we need to go up by 4°, and takes your house to 24°....


It also keeps losing the link between transmitter and receiver, and you have to go through the learning process again.

Other than that it's marvellous.

 

[EFLImpudence]

Also the boiler has its own timer programmer that is set to always on 24 hours so perhaps I could dispense with that after wiring in the wireless receiver appropriately to the boiler centre.

Yes, just as well.

The new one MAY just fit on the same backplate but
you will have to adjust the present thermostat connections

 

[DetlefSchmitz]

Come the programmed time to go to 20° the benighted thing thinks "Aha - we need to go up by 4°, and takes your house to 24°....

It also keeps losing the link between transmitter and receiver, and you have to go through the learning process again.

Exactly which model is that then? Mine does neither of those things.

 

[b33k34]

I've got one - I'd not recommend it.

It has an "interesting" way of implementing temperatures at different time - it stores the delta from the previous time period, not the absolute for the new one.

So say overnight you have it at 16° and in the morning you have it set to 20°, and for some reason you're up and about earlier than usual, so you manually override the temperature to 20°.
Come the programmed time to go to 20° the benighted thing thinks "Aha - we need to go up by 4°, and takes your house to 24°....

It also keeps losing the link between transmitter and receiver, and you have to go through the learning process again.

Very odd - sounds like yours is faulty. I've had one for about 7 years and have no problems with it at all. Transmits happily over at least 12m horizontally and 1 floor up. I think there are 3 brick walls between and a few steel beams about as well. As wireless connections go it's one of the better ones. I've never seen it have that temperature problem either - when it reaches the next program junction it reverts to whatever that programme is whether higher or lower (certainly as far as the display shows and the house feels).

The receiver box is no uglier than a thermostat but as others have said, there's no advantage in having it in the hall so you're better off putting it at the boiler.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Very odd - sounds like yours is faulty. I've had one for about 7 years and have no problems with it at all.

Mine is older, and I thought it was faulty, but the replacement behaved in exactly the same way - it's a design flaw.

It's a Drayton Digistat Optimiser, and I think it's the Mk1. (Actually badged Worcester).

I'd never buy that brand again.

//www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=199503

//www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=194975

//www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=163384

 

[b33k34]

Hmm. I reckon mine must be the Digistat 3RF (with the 7 day timer). Decided against the + model which is the one that's supposed to have the 'intelligent start' as at the time our heating system was struggling to keep the house at the temperature we wanted it at. As an aside ultimately may have been that our boiler was never working at full efficiency due to low gas pressure - no-one who serviced or repaired it really raised this though one did once comment that the pressure was 'a bit low'. New boiler fitter said he couldn't commission and eventually the gas supplier dug up the pavement and fitted a new supply.

Anyway, I wonder if it's the intelligent function that screws it up?

I'd probably not buy another one now down to the horrible new design - http://tiny.cc/8uyii WTF? What have they done to that? Un-necessarily large, odd curves, crappy looking buttons. Yuck. Compare to the old one - http://tiny.cc/6ys4g

 

[Taylortwocities]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

I prefer the new curvy one!


PS Do you drive a Land Rover, by any chance?

 

[b33k34]

No, and wouldn't want to, but have a certain admiration for any piece of equipment that looks better as it ages and is damaged in use. A battered Defender looks good in the way an old pair of jeans does while a threadbare suit or battered Ford Mondeo will always just look crap.

No problems with curves but just think they're badly implemented on that stat.