Can I keep my ESi wiring centre with Drayton Wiser Kit 3?

[MichaelBurgess]

Hi,

I've got a new-build house from 2018 that has an S-plan system with 2 heating zones and separate hot water.

From new:

- The gas boiler is an Ideal Logic Heat H15
- The programmer is an ESi ES3247B, which is on the wall close to the gas boiler
- Both upstairs and downstairs there is an ESi ESRTD3 wired thermostat
- All zone valves / programmer / stats / etc are wired into an ESi ESWCPCB3CB wiring centre mounted on the hot water cylinder
- Each room has a radiator and every radiator has a Mason TRV 2 Way (except each zone has 1 pass-through radiator with no TRV)

I've tried swapping the programmer out for a Drayton Wiser 3-channel with wireless thermostats, as the lack of any smart / remote / flexible control with the ESi stuff is just not working for us. Ideally, I really want to be able to heat rooms more independently with Smart TRVs, but even just being able to control the stuff without having to physically walk over to the wall would be a start.

The heating control for the Wiser works as expected - when the Wiser says heat, it heats and turns off when instructed also.

The issue I faced is that only the wired ESi thermostats are able to turn their heating zone on/off (e.g. temp higher than recorded temp) and it doesn't matter whether the Wiser zone says to heat or not (so if the ESi CH1 stat says ON, the heating is on for that zone, regardless of whether the Wiser says ON/OFF for that heating zone). I first tried removing the wired stats and capping-off the wires with WAGO 221’s, but that with hindsight just created a permanent "off" scenario.

Is anyone aware with the ESi ESWCPCB3CB whether there's any way to keep this but bypass the wired stats e.g. only when Wiser says CH1 ON or CH2 ON should that zone heat? Or is it just an inherent "feature" of this ESi wiring centre PCB that you must have wired stats, or how it’s been wired? Or do I need to bite the bullet and get this replaced with something a bit more flexible?

The wiring centre is a bit messy so it's hard to make some stuff out, but here's a picture of it and also a picture of the schematics from ESi.

I can send some specific pics if helpful. Thanks in advance!

 

[MichaelBurgess]

What I didn’t try yet was unplugging the room starts completely from the wiring centre. I’m not sure if them being plugged in is somehow creating an override from what the ESi or Wiser programmer says. It seems like the programmer heating zone schedules get ignored, as when you turn the room thermostat up, it has always called for heat regardless of what the programmer schedules are.

I rolled everything back so was hoping someone may have some insights before I try anything again?

 

[DIYSC]

Hi, I also have this scenario and am looking at doing the same. Did you ever get it sorted?

 

[MichaelBurgess]

Hi, I also have this scenario and am looking at doing the same. Did you ever get it sorted?

I did, but I returned all the Drayton Wiser kit and now have a full Tado X install.

- Tado X wired room stats x 2 replacing the ESi room stats (straight replacement)
- Tado X wireless receiver replacing the ESi programmer (straight replacement, aside from I didn’t wire anything to CH NO - this purely controls hot water signal via HW NO and also acts as the Thread Border Router for the Tado X system as you need a thread border router in your network for Tado X devices to talk to)
- Tado X TRVs replacing every manual TRV (14 in total)
- Tado X wireless stat from the starter kit that had the wireless receiver in it - I’m using in a room with 2 TRVs, so that acts as the temperature measurer and controls the 2 TRVs

The only modifications I made in the wiring centre were removing the CH1/CH2 wires coming from the programmer wiring and capping them in wagos (did the same at the programmer end also), as the permanent live for the wired stats means they can call for heat whenever they like via the zone valves.

Only took about an hour to do the wiring and has been great so far. Solved all the issues I had and the house is now a pleasant temperature where and when I need in to be and the stats are much more attractive on the wall and premium feeling than the Wiser stuff which felt and looked pretty cheap.