Advice On Smart Heating Heating Controls?

We use Hive. Controls heating but also lighting and power to certain sockets all controlled from the app
Motion sensors, door/window switches can also be used. I set mine up for basic logic. Motion sensor detects = Turn on hall light for 60seconds (while its Light outside.
Push messages can be set if a sensor is triggered
Cameras can also be added
Geo mapping can instruct heating to activate when I’m 2 miles away from home or deactivate when leaving.
I’m happy with it. Our boiler is old and shite, adding Hive gave an actual achievable setting instead of a 1-5 heat dial control activated by a mechanical timer.

 

El T’s swmbo might have a couple of useful tips, going off this mornings posts!

 

I think SMART heating controls are probably a bit overkill unless you are very irregular in your times in and out of the house (need to re-set the timer every week kind of thing) but I would like the extra control myself if they weren't so expensive to install. If your going to the expense of replacing and relocating the boiler I would consider some solar water heating panels if you can as these pre-heat the hot water reducing the load on the boiler quite considerably - made a big difference for us a couple of houses ago. You would then need a hot water tank instead of combi boiler. It would also need to be cost effective on the install as it could be pricey to retrofit?
Putting the boiler outside is also good for giving you extra space inside but, again, outside spec boilers are a bit more - you can do combi outside too.
Our current house has Air-source heating, but only been there for a month so far so can't comment on running costs and I doubt your house is plumbed up for that kind of system (underfloor heating and oversize rads) all adding to install costs.

 

A house I'm looking at buying has oil heating and I'm thinking of swapping to Air-source heating if I get it. I'd be interested to know how well yours works in the colder months.
Do you receive any income through the governments RHI?

 

The previous owners said they had no problems in the winters (NE Scotland so can get chilly) since about 2012, there is a wood burning stove also which they said made it too hot... I know others who have Air-source and they all seem quite happy with performance - they also have wood burners.
Previous owners got RHI payments which I've re-applied for bit not heard yet - I think around £150/quarter was what they got?

 

I'll make two posts here...

First one - Gas/Oil heating.

Having weather sensitive boiler WILL make the biggest saving in fuel/energy and the most comfort.
The best is an outside temperature measuring device. This has to be on a North facing wall, out of the rain and wind, but insulated from the house so that it's not warmed by the inside heat.
This device is connected DIRECTLY to the boiler and changes the temperature of the water in your radiators. The hot water stays at whatever you've selected.
Once I connected this to our boiler it went from an ON/OFF boiler to one that switches smoothly across 11 different burner rates.
The radiator water temperature then ranges from 25-65°C depending on the outside temperature.
You can manually select one of 7 curves to allow for how well the house is insulated.
I went for the most aggressive as we have no wall insulation in a large detached house.

Each of our radiators have thermostatic valves and we have radio linked room stats in the master bedroom and kitchen.
IF either makes a demand then the heating circuit becomes active. Each radiator is then locally controlled and the water presented is at the appropriate temperature for the weather.

I think remote control is idea for single households or those you have an irregular home lifestyle.
Since our home is occupied 98% of the time we don't need or want remote control.

Since introducing temperature compensation in October 2016 we find that we hardly ever touch the controls or radiator valves.

 

I used to live in a 1928 farmhouse that was oil central heating. The first issue was keeping an eye on the price of oil and trying to afford to fill your tank up when it was low. The second was, we did a lot of insulation work to it to keep it toasty but we also had an open fire as a back up.

 

I will fit a dual sided wood burner as a main heating source downstairs.

 

Wood burners with back boilers are good if it's a main heating source - keep the hot water tank going

 

We use a Salus IT500. Not sure what hive charge (do you pay month by month for the pleasure of it?) Ours is retro fitted to the boiler, use it on our old one transferred to our new one a few months back. Its a one time payment (for the hardware) - i fitted mine myself and transferred it over to the new one once it was comissioned. Theres a phone app that works from anywhere. Works brilliantly.

 

I have the Hive system, just the basic remote operated thermostat. Means I can turn the heating off, or down, if I'm away from home on business etc.

Brought mine in the "Black Friday" deals, saved a decent amount and got a couple of "free" Hive light bulbs, which I sold to help cover the cost of the unit.

This works well for what I need.

 

Heat pumps come in a few flavours.
River/water, ground and air are the places where the heat can be "stolen from".

The very best is a river or water based as you can steal as much heat as you want and the temperature "ON" is relatively constant, thus allowing for efficient system design.
So if you are lucky enough to have a private bit of land, with a river flowing through it, you can steal a 1-3 °C and no one would know.....

Ground sourced is good, with a near constant ground temperature, however the ground collection "slinkies" really need to be buried deep 6 to 12 feet is best..... under 4Ft and you are going to have an alpine garden all year round.
You need a big plant room for the next stage to up the gain, so these tend to be on new big builds. I've seen a double garage being taken up with the second cascade stage for stock broker Surrey sized houses.

Air to water are the next tier down.
They are super efficient at making 35°C water. The heat from the air is stolen outside using a box that looks like an oversized air conditioner box.
A large pipe (1&1/4" typically) is then used to circulate the heated water. This can be used for low temperature emitters, like wall sized radiators or better still, underfloor embedded pipes.
The water can also be used to preheat the water to your normal gas/oil or electric boiler via a plate exchanger.
These work well down to -10°C, but the 4:1 gains over direct electrical heating rapidly drop off at lower temperatures (unless very expensive technology is used, like CO2 refrigerants).

Air to Air heating or air conditioning (reversed) are a good alternative that give you heating and cooling when required.
Just don't let the room get too cold or you'll get dew when heating.
The same goes for any heating where you are heating the air before the materials.

So for a Dad den/ garden office / den / prayer room then Air Conditioning with reverse (they should all have that now) are idea and the cheapest way to heat and cool.
Whole house systems are ok, if done during a major refurb or build...... retrofitting can be expensive and invasive.... but that's what I spend 50% of my working week doing.

 

Is hive subscription based?

 

The house I'm looking at has a barn converted into a double garage with a large room attached 40ft x 16ft which is fully converted with panel heaters for heating. I will fit AC to heat this room and the garage.

 

Any chance of quoting?... Where in the UK are you?
Balls... I've just seen you are in Nottingham, too far for us to give you decent service.
You can bounce any quotes past me and I could check for value for money.

 

Thanks I will do. I'm in the trade so I have good contacts. I pay around £900 installed for a decent brand 2.5KW wall mount but will need larger units in the room I mentioned.

 

I have fitted Hive to my last two homes. Works well, very adjustable, and as others have said you can set it up to detect your location etc. I also have lights and sockets on the app to set timers or remotely turn on/off.

Regarding cost, mine was only £139 from amazon and £50 to have fitted.

 

Weather compensation is what AC was alluding to with weather sensitive. This reduces the flow temp based upon the outside temperature. This saves money. Will need additional outdoor air sensor and 3 port control valve.

Programmable thermostat. Set a weekly on/off schedule. 20-21 is normal room temps. Remember what you 'feel' is dry resultant temp. Not air temp. All thermostats measure air temp. (except black box) In winter DRT will be around 1deg less than air temp. In summer the inverse. But set room temps to 19-20 and you'd be surprised how much a 1 or 2 deg room temp can save you. Dont keep fiddling with temp. Set it and leave it. If mildly chilly, put a jumper on ffs. You've got plenty of them.

Condensing action only occurs with return water temp of 54-56C. Make sure your boiler is commissioned as such. 70/50 and make sure rads are sized according to these. Not 82/71 as was traditionally the f&r temps. Nor 80-60. Otherwise why have a fucking condensing boiler that doesnt condense? You'd be surprised how many do and dont understand this.

Zone control. If you have a fair sized house, then get heating zones set up separately and as advised by a decent heating installer. If you have a set of rooms that are occupied with comings and goings, windows opening a lot, doors opening. Then have these on one zone. Typically upstairs/downstairs zones. Theres no need to pump heat around upstairs too if theyre maintaining a steady temp. Downstairs is where all the changes and comings and goings occur with its heat loss due to draughts etc. Save money, dont waste it moving it where its not needed.

Smart controls, in my view, are a needless waste. They save you nothing above and beyond the normal controls, that've been set up properly and left alone. They just allow clients to fiddle, then complain that its not hot/cool enough. A thermostat is not a fucking accelerator.

Get it set up and commissioned properly, then leave it alone. Even more important with heat pumps as AC will know full well.