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Climote Alternative

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  • 06-02-2017 3:54pm
    #1
    frash
    Registered Users Posts: 2,564 ✭✭✭


    Hi all,

    Sorry if this has been answered before but....

    I have a timer for the heating in the utility room that I'd like to replace with a smart alternative.
    Climote looks like it would do the job but I don't want to have another bill coming in for their cloud service.

    From what I can see Nest works more with thermostats of which I have none.

    Is there a non-subscription alternative to Climote?

    Thanks


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    #2
    Doodah7
    Registered Users Posts: 3,721 ✭✭✭Doodah7


    Nest, Hive, Tado, Netatmo... take your pick!!

    Forget Climote, their business model/system is ridiculous and completely out of date at this stage.


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    #3
    bk
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,486 Mod ✭✭✭✭bk


    frash, to add to what tallpaul says above. All the ones listed, are modern, smart, combined thermostats/timers/programmers.

    It isn't that Nest and the others work only with thermostats, they simply integrated all the separate functions of old heating systems into one box.

    Traditional heating systems had a separate programmer/timer and a thermostat. The fact you are missing the thermostat is pretty poor, all heating systems should really have a thermostat, in addition to the timer/programmer.

    So it would be good for you to replace your old timer with one of these smart "thermostats" which would not only give you smart abilities, but would also give you the advantage of adding temperature control to your system.


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    #4
    frash
    Registered Users Posts: 2,564 ✭✭✭frash


    bk wrote: »
    frash, to add to what tallpaul says above. All the ones listed, are modern, smart, combined thermostats/timers/programmers.

    It isn't that Nest and the others work only with thermostats, they simply integrated all the separate functions of old heating systems into one box.

    Traditional heating systems had a separate programmer/timer and a thermostat. The fact you are missing the thermostat is pretty poor, all heating systems should really have a thermostat, in addition to the timer/programmer.

    So it would be good for you to replace your old timer with one of these smart "thermostats" which would not only give you smart abilities, but would also give you the advantage of adding temperature control to your system.

    Thanks for all that.

    I do have thermostats but they are on a per rad basis and not electronically controlled. They are these type

    The timer is one of these

    Even if the 'Nest' has a thermostat how can that disable certain rad areas?

    I don't want to start getting involved in plumbing but would like to replace the existing timer with something smarter that can be controlled remotely.


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    #5
    ted1
    Registered Users Posts: 23,283 ✭✭✭✭ted1


    frash wrote: »
    Hi all,

    Sorry if this has been answered before but....

    I have a timer for the heating in the utility room that I'd like to replace with a smart alternative.
    Climote looks like it would do the job but I don't want to have another bill coming in for their cloud service.

    From what I can see Nest works more with thermostats of which I have none.

    Is there a non-subscription alternative to Climote?

    Thanks

    The Nest is also a thermostat and timer, as is the Climote, the climote is a subscription and has an annual cost unlike the NEST


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    #6
    bk
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,486 Mod ✭✭✭✭bk


    You can replace your existing timer with any of the above and leave you existing TRV's (that is what they call the vales you currently have on the rads) in place.

    That is basically exactly what I did, as like you I already had TRV's in place.

    What that means your boiler is controlled by the smart thermostat.

    So lets say you have three rooms:

    - Room 1, The TRV set to 20c
    - Room 2, The TRV set to 22c
    - Room 3 the new smart Thermostat

    Now lets say that the temperature in the house is currently 18c overall. Now lets say you set the temperature of the smart thermostat to 21c. The boiler will fire up and keep heating until the temperature in room 3 reaches 21c and then the smart thermostat tells the boiler to stop.

    In Room 1, the temperature will reach 20c, but the TRV, will then stop the room from getting any warmer by cutting off the flow of water from the boiler to the rad in that room.

    In Room 2, it will reach 21c too, but it won't reach the 22c set on the TRV, because the smart thermostat in room 3 stops the boiler from continuing to 22c, at least in that room anyway.

    So you could think of your TRV's as a maximum that room can hit, but it may not ever hit that. Most people use this sort of setup where they set the smart thermostat to have the temperature of the main living room and usually only use the TRV's to limit the temp in less frequently used rooms.

    You can get smart thermostat systems that also have smart TRV's, so that you can control the temperature in individual rooms by app. EvoHome is an example of such a system. Smart TRV's are also supposed to be coming to Netatmo soon, but they aren't out yet. The downside is that buying a bunch of extra smart TRV's is expensive.


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