Aqara Radiator Thermostat W600 Review – Quiet, Accurate Smart Heating what about the rest?

[ericmark]

Full marks on the review google shows around £50 so not cheap, and the app looks very similar to the Kasa TRV head.

Two year battery life is good, the Energenie has a two-year battery life as well.

"you also get six adapters in the box, covering Danfoss RAV/RA/RAVL, Caleffi, Giacomini, M28x1.5 and Oventrop M30x1.5. " This varies, Kasa, and eQ-3 come with the kit, the Wiser has less but a free adapter is available, the Energenie very much reduced, and seemed to have a problem with working out pin travel, the eQ-3 gives a code for under or over travel so you know if working or not. (automatic calibration)

"The W600 works with Zigbee 3.0 and Thread, it can easily be integrated into Apple Home, Google Home, Samsung SmartThings, Home Assistant, Alexa without an extra hub." The Wiser is also zigbee, but I could not link to other zigbee devices, but would link to Google Home, but needed the Wiser hub. The Kasa and Energenie also needed their own hub, the eQ-3 is Bluetooth and does not need a hub, but it will only connect to 1 phone. One point is some including eQ-3 can be paired with other TRV heads, where more than one radiator in a room.

The working with voice commands has a second advantage, in that three different makes (Wiser, Kasa and Energenie) in my case, can be adjusted with a single command.

The app seems the same as one used for Kasa.

The window open detection has not been found with Energenie, but is included with the rest, even the eQ-3 which only cost me £15 each in 2019. I use it to detect the door open when unloading shopping into the kitchen. One can set the time it will switch off for.

The problem with TRV control is radiators often placed against outside walls, if not linked the valve may open, but radiator will not heat unless the boiler is running, but with the linked TRV head, it can cause the boiler to fire. In theroy we don't need wall thermostats, the TRV head can do it all, but where the radiator is on an outside wall, the likes of Kasa allow the use of a wall thermostat to control the TRV head, I don't know if it can also fire the boiler?

At 74, I find working out how to control central heating is not as easy as I first thought. Each house I have lived in has been diffrent. With a modulating boiler I would say control with TRV is required, but with simple on/off boilers, the problem it to get boiler to fire when the programmable TRV head calls for more heat. And we need multi devices which can cause the boiler to fire, so we are looking at how to link the TRV to the boiler.

 

[denso13]

And we need multi devices which can cause the boiler to fire, so we are looking at how to link the TRV to the boiler.

Not me. Simple Hive is all we need, if we feel cold we turn it up, if too warm we turn it down. Simples.

 

[ericmark]

Not me. Simple Hive is all we need, if we feel cold we turn it up, if too warm we turn it down. Simples.

For the flat under my main house, I have a simple thermostat, bi-metal strip type. And that's fine. But the main house is a lot larger, it would cost a fortune to heat all rooms 24/7, so we heat rooms as required.

I would not call Hive simple. And I know it does connect to the TRV heads, I was undecided as to Hive or Wiser, I went with Wiser, I know with Wiser there is no need to have a wall thermostat, not sure if Hive needs them. Maybe as you have Hive, you can explain how it works?

 

[denso13]

Maybe as you have Hive, you can explain how it works?

Just like any other wall stat, turn it up and down as required. TRV's control the individual rooms but they are rarely touched.

 

[ericmark]

Just like any other wall stat, turn it up and down as required. TRV's control the individual rooms but they are rarely touched.

That is rare, not like any other wall thermostat, my thermostats both can turn up and down, but the boiler can't, so the OpenTherm option is not used.

I don't touch my TRV's much either, neither do I touch the wall thermostat, once the schedule has been set, I just leave them to follow the schedule.

But originally I had a problem, the wiring was to the hall, so did not really have an option, but the hall cooled down too slowly, but did not want to rely on a wireless thermostat, so I fitted Wiser and Nest, so still got the hard-wired option of Nest, but the Wiser monitors the living room, and wife's bedroom temperature, but I am not relying on the Wireless, heating will work, although not as good, even if the batteries go flat.

 

[denso13]

That is rare, not like any other wall thermostat,

Eh? Do you know of any wall stats that don't turn up or down as required?

 

[ericmark]

Eh? Do you know of any wall stats that don't turn up or down as required?

Most will not, they turn the power on or off, very few connect to the boiler's e-bus and turn the heat up and down.

 

[denso13]

Most will not, they turn the power on or off, very few connect to the boiler's e-bus and turn the heat up and down.

I turn the stat up and the boiler comes on. I turn it down and the boiler goes off. You are overthinking it again.

 

[ericmark]

There are two control methods to control central heating, on/off which gives one a high hysteresis the other method is to turn the heating up/down which is far better a TRV turns the heating up/down, and OpenTherm is up/down, but most wall thermostats turn it on/off.

 

[ericmark]

Not sure why I have just received thanks for this. I have just started a thread saying how it is now outdated. There are two ways to control central heating, and a lot more items, up/down or on/off, in some cases we turn it on/off that rapid it works similar to up/down, other times the mixing of analogue and digital completely messes things up.

So with analogue control the TRV slowly opens and closes to regulate the flow though the radiator which can remove the hysteresis found with digital systems, it will as it closes, cause the by-pass valve to open, so non-cooled water returns to the boiler, and the boiler detects this and turns down the output.

However, there is a problem, the boiler can only turn down so far, and after that point it starts a mark/space ratio to further reduce output, but is can never turn completely off.

So somehow we want to have an automated system to turn off the boiler. So the books tell us, to select a lower room, as heat raises, with no independent heating, and this includes the sun, and no outside doors which can cool it, and generally keep cool, and fit an on/off thermostat, we want a high droop (difference between on and off) so in the main the TRVs do all the controlling, the wall thermostat is only to turn whole system off, and in the room with the wall thermostat we don't have a TRV.

But a home where this will work is rare, one being a suitable room for wall thermostat, and other we today vary the room temperature depending on the time of day.

There is no need to heat a bedroom at midday, or a living room at midnight, so we use programmable TRV heads, but does not help to have the TRV head open, unless the boiler is running, now if you have three bedrooms, as long as one TRV head is linked to the boiler, one in the coldest room, the others can be standard heads.

But there is a second problem, we expect the air to circulate, so the return air at floor level is the coldest air, so the TRV ideally placed to measure temperature of return air, unless on an outside wall, once established great, but until then the TRV is colder than the general air in the room, so it turns on the central heating premiturly.

So in some cases we want the TRV to a wall sensor, with or without a display, so the TRV better senses the room temperature. So we have two very different linked TRV heads, some link to a sensor, and some link to the boiler.

With the latter, one can have a combined wall thermostat and hub, or they can be independent, the latter can reduce wiring requirements.

So the Drayton Wiser TRV can link to either or both hub and wall thermostat, so is very flexible, others are limited as to what they can link to, so there is no best, just the best for your home, what will work in my home may not work in yours.

Also when one tries to generalise, there is always an exception. Early Hive did not have OpenTherm and would stop taking a demand for heat after 22°C.

I find it impossible to keep up, I know Wiser is now in a second generation, but no idea of the improvements.

So when I bought Energenie TRV heads they were the bees knees, and when I got eQ-3 they were about the cheapest electronic stand alone TRV head, (£15) but now we have Wi-Fi models at same price that I paid for Bluetooth.

When I looked at Honeywell EvoHome at around the £1000 mark, I said no way, but prices have changed. Including cost of gas and oil.

 

[denso13]

But a home where this will work is rare

Works fine on mine and many/most others. Yes, there are some which take a bit more thinking about, seemingly like yours, but do you really have to go on about the same things over and over?

 

[ericmark]

I did not restart this, I got an alert. I do remember with parents home, the central heating was not used as the sole source of heating, and my dad would switch it on/off manually. And there is northing wrong with this approach, it does not need automating.

We had fires like this

for years, no thermostat of any kind it was two or four radiant sections, and an adjustment as to heat output, but no automation.

I kept the gas fire for an emergency, should the central heating fail, but dad used it daily. He used central heating to warm house before getting up, and to auto turn on with a very cold day, and he was not worried if the sitting room cooled to 17ºC.