What “smart” heating control features do people actually use?

[ericmark]

In the heart of Winter, I am sure gas boilers can turn down to 6 kW output. But Autumn and Spring, likely looking at 2 kW, can without using a mark/space ratio a gas boiler turn down that low?

With mark/space regulation I have found a small problem, when the boiler turns off, the TRV opens, as room not warm enough, and it keeps opening more and more, then the boiler fires, and too much water flows into the radiator before the TRV has time to close, so it causes a hysteresis.

It does work, but not as good as it would have done, with a smaller boiler. And this opening and closing also results in a shorter battery life.

I am sure TRV heads vary make to make, I have eQ3, Energenie, Kasa, and Wiser, but my attempts to get people to compare how their heads work has failed, there was one report about an Aqua head I think, but since the report prices have changed, so what may have seemed value for money, is no longer the case.

The eQ3 were cheap (£15) and although better than mechanical, are nowhere near the quality of the other three, the Energenie were the first I used, and had no option for manual setting, but did have two sensors one for air and one for water, and batteries last well.

But without some report, people are in the dark, how does Wiser, EvoHome, Tado, and Hive compare?

 

[denso13]

But Autumn and Spring, likely looking at 2 kW, can without using a mark/space ratio a gas boiler turn down that low?

Vokera Pinnacle is 1:13

 

[ericmark]

For me, one problem, no gas.

 

[denso13]

For me, one problem, no gas.

Yea, you can get oil ones as well.

 

[ericmark]

When we talk about controlling rooms with electronic TRV heads, the results do depend on the size of the home. So it is unlikely in a small home the use of electronic heads will help that much, all they are basic doing is stopping over heating, a mechanical TRV head, set to say 2.5, will start to open around 22°C and be fully open at around 18°C where the electronic set to 20°C will likely start at 21°C and fully open at 19°C, but I have never really had an area where I could adjust the temperature to know exactly when they start and finish.

But the main advantage is you have °C marked on the device, not some silly *123456 and some chart to show approx what they mean. So one looks at a radiator with no idea if the lock shield valve or TRV head needs adjusting.

Where the lock shield was adjusted with an electronic head, which was latter changed for a mechanical head, the mechanical head worked well, only disadvantage is can't set a schedule, we have bedrooms set 17°C overnight, we don't like it hot, and 15°C in the day, but in real terms the rooms never cool that much anyway, so mechanical TRV heads would likely work just as well.

But in the living room, the electronic TRV heads do a good job, stopping on cold nights, the living room being heated after we have gone to bed, but to change the room temperature, really need to use voice command, as that way the wall thermometer and TRVs are all changed together, hey google set living room to 20°C works well, but to use the phone even with the google app, you have three things to change and if not using google three different apps, as both TRV heads and wall thermostats are diffrent makes. Up to date heating has not been turned on this season.

The graphs the TRV heads produce, does it really help?

 

[endecotp]

really need to use voice command

Ah, voice control! I actually built a voice-controlled TV box back in .... checks .... 2011! Time flies!

I feel I may have asked questions here about how to make its walnut case:

Note the big red button to start a voice command - none of this "always listening" nonsense!

So if I wanted this for the heating - which is not a bad idea in principle, things like "increase the temperature in the bedroom" and "I'm going to the pub, back at stoopid o'clock" are easy to express verbally and use a simple constrained vocabulary - then where would I put the microphone?

Anyway not something I'll be doing immediately but thanks for mentioning it.