Smart thermostats everywhere!
- Thread starter ajsdoc
- Start date
Sponsored Links
I have a home office. So I use "smart stats" to have the bedroom heating on early morning and late evening, the living room on in the evening, and the office during the day. I could have done the same thing using zone valves, but it's quicker, less disruptive and probably cheaper to use TRV replacements. My main complaint about the valves is that they are much noisier than normal (wax cylinder) TRV heads, to the extent that they wake me up in the morning; but I'm a light sleeper. They have undoubtedly paid for themselves compared to heating all of the flat all of the time - but I probably wouldn't have done that; I would have manually gone around turning TRVs up and down twice a day.
I can agree with the range extender opinion, it really is daft that they dont make and haven't since made a device to resolve this. Other Zwave or mesh network devices look to resolve this problem and I would think if they ever did an Evohome Version 2.0, this would go the same way to resolve range issues.
After the initial faff on my part there hasnt been any involuntary action required, I chose to mess with the settings on a zone to try something else out, and also the optimum startup. I could just as easily have left it. Though I remain to be convinced that the same level of efficiency can be achieved by using TRV's and a single thermostat alone.
As an example, in an evening when the kids are in bed, we heat their two bedrooms to a comfortable level, and the lounge that we sit in. Later on, the heat in the lounge is switched off, and our bedroom heated for a short time before dropping off overnight. At any time during the evening and night there are three rooms being heated, there are another 20 zones/22 rooms not being heated at all. Come morning time, then we heat six rooms and the entrance hall, and the zones we were previously heating in the evening and night are switched off.
The gas usage has dropped, however the level to which it has is difficult to measure in our home because we had a large extension almost doubling the size of the house at the same time as the evohome went in (and we didn't live in it for over a year). Also prior to the extension works the boiler had an iffy frost stat causing it to fire in the middle of summer for no reason, it was also replaced for two more efficient units during the building work
There are reasons .
Evohome is not a mesh network .
They're on version 3 already .
Sponsored Links
As people will simply cough up for an additional controller, and it would take some engineering on their part to prevent double messages etc from any repeater then I can see why there isn't one. However as the system arguably delivers greater efficiency the larger the install, then it seems an oversight not to have included one into the design from the off.
I know. My point is that other manufacturers and devices look to overcome range issues by utilising mesh networks. I can imagine the next itteration of Evohome will likely do the same.
Im talking major revision, not slight tweaks or intorduction of wifi etc. A rebuild of the system utilising zwave or similar.
Hey what do I know? 
With the short responses to my disected post, I don't know what you know. Just giving my impression and opinion of Evohome based on my experience as a consumer using it, and comparing to a previous single thermostat installation (albeit an older inefficient one).
I can't speak with any experience of trying to achieve the same using TRV's, and although I don't doubt that the same is possible using them, my interest in technology and unwillingness to wander round adjusting a couple of dozen valves drove me toward Evohome as a system. Evohome has also been embraced by She Who Must Be Obeyed, and even referred to in conversations between the wife and her friends as "probably one of the most, if only, useful gadget he has bought in a long time". That'll do for me.
I can't speak with any experience of trying to achieve the same using TRV's, and although I don't doubt that the same is possible using them, my interest in technology and unwillingness to wander round adjusting a couple of dozen valves drove me toward Evohome as a system. Evohome has also been embraced by She Who Must Be Obeyed, and even referred to in conversations between the wife and her friends as "probably one of the most, if only, useful gadget he has bought in a long time". That'll do for me.
I was totally sucked in by the marketing, never again.
The thing thats really annoying is that despite all my bad experiences my sister bought one. Her boiler is in the loft and shes had to go up there a few times to try and get the base to talk to the thermostat.
Some of the folk in Currys have "PC World" written on their shirts, but I wouldn't go to them for my IT problems
In all seriousness though the connected specialist that did our install spent some considerable time talking to Honeywell regarding overcoming the range issues. We ended up extending some of the wiring to the relay boxes to get them into a location where the controller could link to those and to the furthest radiators on the floor it controls. Had the boilers been central rather than at one end then many of the range issues would likely not have occured. Solid walls and large house, 1st world problems and all that.
In all seriousness though the connected specialist that did our install spent some considerable time talking to Honeywell regarding overcoming the range issues. We ended up extending some of the wiring to the relay boxes to get them into a location where the controller could link to those and to the furthest radiators on the floor it controls. Had the boilers been central rather than at one end then many of the range issues would likely not have occured. Solid walls and large house, 1st world problems and all that.
Yes, it would be possible.
But you clearly cannot imagine the problems an installer has. The owner has screwed him down to an installation price of £84 and does not expect to pay a penny more!
The owner has nicely decorated the house with expensive fitted carpets. So where can he add extra cables all around the house?
It is possible in an empty old style house with proper wood floor boards which can be taken up. And with either an airing cupboard or other ducting between downstairs and upstairs.
In practice and at any reasonable cost its usually not possible!
Tony
Easy to do but not without drilling holes in the freshly plastered ceiling and channelling walls etc to hide things.
Yep, went through it with my installer for Evohome, but running a business myself I dont expect an installer to stick to a quote if I start moving the goalposts - thats not cricket.
We actually enjoyed working together to solve the issue and if it took drilling holes and pulling cables to areas where there weren't any before, then thats what it took. Even on a newly built extension. It was a handy experience for my installer that he could draw from when installing in similar properties, and gave me as a new customer to the system a lot of experience that I can use if I ever need to troubleshoot it. It cost me more than the original quote, but I had more work done than the original quote.
We were lucky enough to be able to route round a garage where I wasn't bothered about the cables/conduit looking pretty, and through a wall into a cupboard in another area of the house where the signal was strong enough.
In the case above where the base station is in the loft, then Im assuming there could be a suitable room accessible from the loft where the unit could be installed on the wall and cables either run down the inside of a partition wall or on conduit (airing cupboard or similar?). Obviously the customer should be prepared to pay for this though as its a non standard set up.
DIYnot Local
Staff member
If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.
Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.
Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local
Sponsored Links
