Smart Heating Options - Help me understand my house

Rowley Birkin QC

Hi, I'm interested in upgrading my home to smart heating but know very little about how my current system works to be honest.

Hoping to save money and also get a handle on how the system works by moving to a smart setup. Have already moved lights over to Hue and have Google homes so want to take the next step.

Any advice appreciated.

Current equipment;

• 1 x Vokera Vibe20A gas boiler
• 1 x Analogue timer, looks the same as this
• 2 x Robus thermostats, looks the same as this. 1 upstairs and 1 downstairs
• 1 x Bath / Sink + On / Off switch, what I would call the traditional "immersion" switch. I never use this.
• 1 x hot tank in the upstairs bathroom. This also has a device (Danfoss HPA2 - set to manual) that doesn't seem to be connected to anything (electrical wires hanging loose) on one of the lines. You'll see stains on the hot tank from a leak that I need to have looked at aswell.

The house is very well insulated so I've never spent much time fussing over the heating. Usually in Winter I have it set to come on in the morning and evening for an hour via the timer and then once it gets into Spring I turn the whole thing off via the timer and just use the electric shower.

I'm on a bit of an efficiency drive so looking to get visibility and control of as much as possible so looking at smart heating options. Have spoken to EI this morning about moving gas & electricity over and they reckoned I'd need 2 x Nest or 1 x Climote. Any thoughts here?

Do those devices replace all of the wall controls I currently have?

Ideally I'd like to still get hot water during the summer without having to heat the whole house up and as I travel a bit with work, set the heating to come on in the airport when I'm arriving back during winter.

(I'm also a bit of a victim for tech so there's that too )

Thanks for reading.

whizbang

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057758281

lot of reading to do..;)

Rowley Birkin QC

Any of the 3 years or 1,300+ posts that the thread spans that I should pay particular attention to? /s

whizbang

Ha.. Just thought your tech sense would suck you in..

Seriously, I have been trawling through that thread for a while, and the conclusion is nobody appears to make a simple 2 zone heating controller.


But when you add in a second zone 'expansion' or even 3 zones, the cost skyrockets, the options are not clear, the systems often conflict with each other, etc, etc. Other than the supplier has to maintain a server, the cost of the units should be buttons.

My House is very poor insulation/heatwise, so boiler tends to be ticking over continuously. I dont find the need for separate up/dn thermostats. Hot water is based on a thermostat on cylinder controlling water valve, while heating is on.
Immersion only in Summer but now looking at ways of getting HW due to higher cost of electricity.

K.Flyer

It looks like someone in the past had the right idea, but didn't know how do it properly.
Without a visit its difficult to determine how much work would be required to bring it up to the standard that you require. There might not be much involved, but then again, you can't tell from the pictures.
But it's going to be a little more than adding a new time clock.
Btw, that brown streak on the side of the cylinder is an indication of a leak.

Rowley Birkin QC

K.Flyer wrote: »

It looks like someone in the past had the right idea, but didn't know how do it properly.
Without a visit its difficult to determine how much work would be required to bring it up to the standard that you require. There might not be much involved, but then again, you can't tell from the pictures.
But it's going to be a little more than adding a new time clock.
Btw, that brown streak on the side of the cylinder is an indication of a leak.

Thanks for that. Anyone have a recommendation for someone who could come out and take a look and recommend a path forward?

Based in D3.

Also aware of the leak on the tank that needs to be fixed, it's (hopefully) the cause of loss of pressure in the system.

Thanks again.