What is "Smart" central heating?

[ericmark]

I did look at making my central heating what I call "Smart" and ended up with most functions disabled.

I had all great ideas, Nest Gen 3 would connect to my existing Energenie TRV heads, one only intermittent connection, and two it seemed to work the wrong way around, wall thermostat set the TRV head.

It was surpose to learn, the schedule it generated was daft.

And geofencing had to be nearly home before it switched on, and when the ee mast was damaged we lost heating on one of the windiest coldest days.

I fitted Wiser in parrellel and found the TRV turns on too early as next to cold outside wall.

I have 10 programmable TRV heads, but the result is no diffrent to an oil filled radiator with built in thermostat and time clock, not what I would call smart.

OK, I can alter some of the TRV and wall thermostats with voice control, but this was due to poor FM radio reception and the Nest Mini does both.

But I see a post about making a heating system smart, and wonder what is ment by smart?

 

[CountryFan]

I think they just determine the thermostat as “smart”, as in Nest is learning thermostat, so considered “smart”. Some just work on algorithms.

 

[flameport]

In most cases, 'smart' anything is a solution looking for a problem.

 

[ericmark]

I must agree. Until low energy lighting a programmer seemed to be enough. The tungsten lights did impart some extra heat in the evening, but the CFL resulted in a need for programmable thermostats.

I think the first programmable wall thermostat I fitted in my own house was last century. The first programmable TRV head around 2017, but would not consider either as being smart.

Neither do I consider adding telemetry to the system makes it Smart.

The Drayton Wiser TRV head is claimed to work out how far in advance it needs to turn on to get a room to temperature by a set time. This, if it works, could be seen as smart.

However as I found with the Nest thermostat, it needs conditions to remain static. So a door left open one day, and closed the next, completely messed up Nest.

The integrating with our mobile phones, to work the likes of geofencing one could class as smart, if it works, but again my experaonce of Nest, showed it simply did not work, and can't see how it would ever work.

It takes around a hour to reheat a room in my house. So an hour away would be too far to include a day volunteering on the railway. So all the standard radiators would need swapping with fan assisted types to reduce the reheat time. So in real terms it does not work.

I can set a timed schedule so critical rooms heated first, but that is hardly a "Smart" system.

But I do wonder what people perceive as being "Smart"? Hense the question. Adding telemetry I do not see as being smart, I did look at a PLC and wonder if I could use it to control heating, but the question is, if it goes wrong who can repair it? So decided to stick to standard domestic controls.

I looked at a post where some one wanted smart controls, and I could not work out what the aim was, so general question, what do people regard as smart, the smart meter I do not regard as smart.

 

[ChrisJP]

And geofencing had to be nearly home before it switched on, and when the ee mast was damaged we lost heating on one of the windiest coldest days

Making the operation of your heating dependent on a good mobile phone connection seems to me to be very unwise and is certainly not "smart"!

 

[ericmark]

Making the operation of your heating dependent on a good mobile phone connection seems to me to be very unwise and is certainly not "smart"!

It was easy enough to turn off. However as we walked towards the Nest gen 3 thermostat it senced us and moved to comfort setting, and when we walked away back to eco setting. so was not until I looked at the PC did I realise what was going on.

Now I have three thermostat which can turn the boiler on. And I don't use geofencing. But again what is smart heating? I did not want Nest Mini's to take control, but I note they have.

OK, nice when cold to simply say hey Google turn living room heating to 22 degrees C. but is that "Smart"?

 

[ChrisJP]

OK, nice when cold to simply say hey Google turn living room heating to 22 degrees C. but is that "Smart"?

Well I suppose it's nice but, personally, I've never had any problem with manually adjusting a thermostat!
As for "smart" it's just a label to imply something is better, when often it isn't - like smart electricity meters

 

[Londoner2]

I did look at making my central heating what I call "Smart" and ended up with most functions disabled.

I had all great ideas, Nest Gen 3 would connect to my existing Energenie TRV heads, one only intermittent connection, and two it seemed to work the wrong way around, wall thermostat set the TRV head.

It was surpose to learn, the schedule it generated was daft.

And geofencing had to be nearly home before it switched on, and when the ee mast was damaged we lost heating on one of the windiest coldest days.

I fitted Wiser in parrellel and found the TRV turns on too early as next to cold outside wall.

I have 10 programmable TRV heads, but the result is no diffrent to an oil filled radiator with built in thermostat and time clock, not what I would call smart.

OK, I can alter some of the TRV and wall thermostats with voice control, but this was due to poor FM radio reception and the Nest Mini does both.

But I see a post about making a heating system smart, and wonder what is ment by smart?

Yep, too many variables, tis why i only have a smart thermostat connected via internet with preprogramed times, it just works. Manual TRV's, no smart crap.

 

[aveatry]

But I see a post about making a heating system smart, and wonder what is ment by smart?

What's smart about them is that they are very good at taking money out of peoples pockets.
The phrase "smart" has been used on just about everything you can think of but that's now changing to AI as the marketing tool, loads of stuff being labelled AI when it is nothing of the sort

 

[ericmark]

Yep, too many variables, tis why i only have a smart thermostat connected via internet with preprogramed times, it just works. Manual TRV's, no smart crap.

I use electronic TRV heads because I understand ºC but not *123456 and I don"t want any area heated 24/7 at the same temperature. The eQ-3 units were £15 each in 2019 so it did not break the bank to have programmable TRV heads.

The Nest Gen 3 selected as it claimed to work with the Energenie TRV heads I already had, and would work with just 2 wires, down to heat link (hub) at extra low voltage.

Having had problems with wireless, I liked the hard wired option.

But having two thermostats in parrellel it does not matter so much if one fails, the linked TRV will fail with a power cut, as it needs a socket adaptor to relay the info. But that may mean just one room cold in a power cut, the rest will still work.

But sitting in a caravan on holiday I have no need to adjust heating. I could, but do not see that as a smart function.

 

[Dereekoo]

I have smart heating, when I am cold I turn it on, when I am hot, I turn it off, how smart is that?

 

[karlbbb]

I have smart heating, when I am cold I turn it on, when I am hot, I turn it off, how smart is that?

Mine's even smarter - it actually turns on a set number of times each day when one of us is most likely to be at home I think this timer idea should definitely be spread around!!

 

[ericmark]

I agree with a timed change in temperature being in the main better than geofencing.

But what I am looking for, is what people perceive as being "Smart" or "AI" I personally see nothing smart about a so called smart meter, it is doing the same as the old teleswitch, maybe 48 times a day where teleswitch was only twice a day, but still the same thing.

So some may see a programmable thermostat as smart? And this is the question.

If someone says they want smart controls for their central heating, is this a simple programmable thermostat. Or is it a device which works out which rooms will be used at diffrent times of the day, and ensure the rooms are warm when required and not heated at other times?

To do that it would need a built in PIR to know when the rooms are likely to be used, or some other way to track the humans in the home, and I have never seen such a system.

The Nest Gen 3 thermostat does have a PIR built in, but it is a single unit, so will only work in one room, so for most homes a bit useless.

So what is considered as smart heating controls?

 

[Mister Banks]

Just forget about the smart label, today’s heating controls are merely a better way of controlling the comfort of your home. Some are better at it than others.

 

[SimonH2]

But I see a post about making a heating system smart, and wonder what is ment by smart?

In most cases, 'smart' anything is a solution looking for a problem.

That sums it up for me, and these days the fad du jure is to add the "AI" label. In much the same way, while most "smart" things are anything but, I see many "AI" things reported which are anything but - mostly just machine learning.

My option for controls is (for the time being) to just put a programmable stat in each room. It takes a bit of effort to work out a schedule which is a reasonable default. But as already suggested, if you're cold, turn it up; if too hot, turn it down.