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Home heating automation

[Deleted User]

Just starting to look into this now though probably wont be purchasing for a while unless a bargain pops up.

I know there are a number of options out there for this but many like the Nest for example appear to be mostly based around running automatically depending on temp etc or learning your usage.

What I want to know is which one is best to use like a traditional timer? I'd want to set a schedule for heating and water to come on and off and also boost it if I felt like it. Learning my usage or using the thermostat to turn on/off the heating is not something I would really use.

I do want to be able to boost the heat and water remotely so the place is warm before arriving home and have a nice interface for setting timers using an app as we change around our water and heating timing quite often and its a pain having to do this using the poor user interfaces and controls on a traditional heating timer.

I'm assuming they can all be used in this way but I wonder if any device in particular is more geared towards this type of usage?

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deezell

I'll share this also. Tado V3 kit down to £139 on Amazon

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B01MG5BION/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1513687979&sr=8-1-spons&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=tado+v3&psc=1

deezell

tweek84 wrote: »

@deezell What are your consultancy fees.......fair play to you you're providing alot of information for everyone on here

I benefited from enthusiasts' advice over the years on fora like this, everything from car OBD systems to satellite installations. It's only fair to share. I blame smart phones. They're a bit like a smartarse kid, they have an answer for everthing. Fills in the daily commute also.

tweek84

@deezell What are your consultancy fees.......fair play to you you're providing alot of information for everyone on here

Shane732

deezell wrote: »

1. Yes, you can have just one primary zone, all TRVs will sync and follow that zone schedule. The main stat or any TRV can be the measuring device.

2. Yes, 8 devices per zone, up to 8 TRVs. If you have only one zone, the main stat counts as one. It's bit vague, you can have a second zone with 8 TRVs, it's not clear if the main stat is excluded as a measuring device for this zone while still acting as the device to call the boiler.

3. Does the smart stat need to be in each zone? It's added by default to a zone, as something has to physically fire the boiler, whither it's wired directly to the stat or via the extension

You can have a single TRV as a zone , but it will still need to be associated with the smart stat in order to call the boiler for heat, so the smart stat will appear in that TRV's device list, and in all other zones' device lists. The TRV would by default be the device that measures the zone temperature and triggers the stat to call the boiler, but the stat itself can be the measuring device in other zones.
As an example, if you group all upstairs TRVs into one zone and all downstairs TRVS into another, you will only need to create 2 schedules. The single smart stat will fire the boiler for either zone, and can be used as the temperatute measuring device for one zone, both or neither. If there is a TRV located in the location where the main stat is ( say ground floor hallway with a TRV on the hallway rad), you would assign the main stat as the measuring device, and all the ground floor TRVS, including the one in the hall, would follow that schedule. You might then decide to split the ground floor into two zones, living room and the remainder say. The living room now has its own schedule, it can be off until needed and then on while the kitchen/ dining is off. Once you use smart TRVs, ideally you need them in all rooms, otherwise radiators without them will heat regardless once the boiler is called.
You only need an actual physical additional smart stat in each zone when the zones are physically plumbed separately using zone valves. Each zone now requires a device with electrical contacts ( a smart stat) to open the valve and call the boiler. (though this us easily wired back to behave as a single physical zone requiring just one stat). If you add more than one stat with its own TRVs to your system Tado support will create the zone configuration with the second stat's contacts as the valve/ heat call device for that zones TRVs, you can't configure that yourself.
With a single stat in your system it is straightforward, decide on whither a TRV is a new zone or added to an existing zone. That zone schedule is applied to all TRVS in the zone, and one of those TRVs is assigned as the measuring device. It can be a bit confusing to grasp, in that say all the upstairs TRVs might be grouped into one zone, the master bed TRV is assigned as the temperature measuring device which governs firing of the zone, but the main stat downstairs is the actual device which switches the boiler.
If HW control is added via the extension kit, the main stats relay contacts become the pair on the extension kit, but everything else is the same.

Very much appreciated this makes sense.

deezell

skerry wrote: »

.......Only got valve for upstairs fixed yesterday so have a bit more control over that but the stat is a basic dial to set temp and thats it. Is that what you mean by zoned timer controller?

Definitely want to get more control over system so I think TRV for sitting room might solve the issue there and smart stat for upstairs in the new year will help too.

Lower heat or fully off is a personal thing. Some people don't like a heated bedroom while asleep, just when hopping in and getting up.
You only mentioned that your system had stats, but does it also have a timer device to switch each zone on and off at programmable times? An EPH or similar control box. Some digital stats have the timing built in, but most zone valve installations would have a 2 or 3 zone controller which operates each zone valve in conjunction with the wall stat ( or HW cylinder stat) for that zone.
Yes, second smart stat and Sitting room TRV will improve control. Check if the slow heating of the sitting room is to do with the rad/room size, or is the heated water slower to get there as the rad might be trimmed by it's other valve. Common enough that the sitting room will have a smaller rad or restricted valve as it usually has a fireplace, so builders assume it's rad is not the main heat source.

deezell

Shane732 wrote: »

For anyone with a Tado....

Thank you for generic instructions but I have some questions...

How do people normally set these up?

I have the following setup -

One zone for heat
One zone for water

I’ve installed the tado smart system and have put TVRs on the radiators and am putting the extension kit on the water.

My question is do people normally setup the system by room? For example for the radiators in the kitchen I have a zone, for the living room another zone etc... Then if I want to put the heating in the whole house on what do I do?

Can I have the whole house as one zone?

Is there something about not being able to have more than 8 TVRs in one zone?

Can you have a tvr in more than one zone?

Does the smart stat need to be in each zone?

Any help would be much appreciated!

1. Yes, you can have just one primary zone, all TRVs will sync and follow that zone schedule. The main stat or any TRV can be the measuring device.

2. Yes, 8 devices per zone, up to 8 TRVs. If you have only one zone, the main stat counts as one. It's bit vague, you can have a second zone with 8 TRVs, it's not clear if the main stat is excluded as a measuring device for this zone while still acting as the device to call the boiler.

3. Does the smart stat need to be in each zone? It's added by default to a zone, as something has to physically fire the boiler, whither it's wired directly to the stat or via the extension

You can have a single TRV as a zone , but it will still need to be associated with the smart stat in order to call the boiler for heat, so the smart stat will appear in that TRV's device list, and in all other zones' device lists. The TRV would by default be the device that measures the zone temperature and triggers the stat to call the boiler, but the stat itself can be the measuring device in other zones.
As an example, if you group all upstairs TRVs into one zone and all downstairs TRVS into another, you will only need to create 2 schedules. The single smart stat will fire the boiler for either zone, and can be used as the temperatute measuring device for one zone, both or neither. If there is a TRV located in the location where the main stat is ( say ground floor hallway with a TRV on the hallway rad), you would assign the main stat as the measuring device, and all the ground floor TRVS, including the one in the hall, would follow that schedule. You might then decide to split the ground floor into two zones, living room and the remainder say. The living room now has its own schedule, it can be off until needed and then on while the kitchen/ dining is off. Once you use smart TRVs, ideally you need them in all rooms, otherwise radiators without them will heat regardless once the boiler is called.
You only need an actual physical additional smart stat in each zone when the zones are physically plumbed separately using zone valves. Each zone now requires a device with electrical contacts ( a smart stat) to open the valve and call the boiler. (though this us easily wired back to behave as a single physical zone requiring just one stat). If you add more than one stat with its own TRVs to your system Tado support will create the zone configuration with the second stat's contacts as the valve/ heat call device for that zones TRVs, you can't configure that yourself.
With a single stat in your system it is straightforward, decide on whither a TRV is a new zone or added to an existing zone. That zone schedule is applied to all TRVS in the zone, and one of those TRVs is assigned as the measuring device. It can be a bit confusing to grasp, in that say all the upstairs TRVs might be grouped into one zone, the master bed TRV is assigned as the temperature measuring device which governs firing of the zone, but the main stat downstairs is the actual device which switches the boiler.
If HW control is added via the extension kit, the main stats relay contacts become the pair on the extension kit, but everything else is the same.

skerry

deezell wrote: »

Settings/Heating/Devices/Smart Thermostat will give you the firmware version. My V2 is on 47.9 so if you're is not at that then ask support to push the latest
TRVs should work fine, the ability of TRVs to fire the boiler via the stat in their zone may need the newer versions. Some of the Maplin V2s had really old firmware. I'd advise a second stat if you want the smart control for the upstairs. The ability to set a reduced but comfortable temperature during the night, increase in on rising then drop it again for the daytime is one of the best features of smart. A TRV in this zone will allow a single room have closer control over it's temperature, as it can fire the boiler for that zone, but all other rads in the zone will heat when it fires. It's useful when you have a room that cools quicker than the stat location, usually the landing, it can ensure that this room's temperature is closely controlled at specific times. Other advantage of a smart TRV is to close off a room in a zone while the rest of the zone is heated. You may not use the living room at all until say 6pm, but you'll want the kitchen warm from morning, so a smart TRV can be used to turn it off until evening while the rest of the ground floor is heated earlier. As you have a zoned system I assume it's by motorised valves. The extension kit is used to control HW schedule. Your HW may have it's own valve or just be on a gravity feed and thermostat. Does your system have a 2 or 3 zoned timer controller? If the boiler is firing with both stats not calling for heat then either the HW circuit is activating it or the boiler is always on when the " main switch" you referred to is on, and it is just cycling on and off in response to it's internal stat.

Checked my V2 and its on 47.9 at the moment, I might email support to see what latest is.

Is it more advisable to have heat on lowish temp at night and increase on getting up and at key times at day like you said than to turn off heat at night and start fresh in the morning. Hasn't been too cold last few nights so had it off but takes a bit to get it heated up again in the morning. Coming from a smaller house than new house and didn't take as long to heat up.

The kitchen and dining room are joined and heat up quite well but the sitting room takes a bit longer to get up to a comfy temp. Might chance a TRV like you said as it'll help the sitting room get nice and warm in evening and reduce heat there when its not used in daytime.

System has 3 zones, upstairs and downstairs have motorised valve (Sunnvic valves) and so does hot water (honeywell valve). Only got valve for upstairs fixed yesterday so have a bit more control over that but the stat is a basis dial to set temp and thats it. Is that what you mean by zoned timer controller?

There's a thermal store tank in the hotpress which is few by solar panels also. Haven't noticed any shortage of hot water since we moved in which is great. Stat on tank is set to 45 at the moment though which I'm guessing might be too hot.

Definitely want to get more control over system so I think TRV for sitting room might solve the issue there and smart stat for upstairs in the new year will help too.

Shane732

For anyone with a Tado....

Thank you for generic instructions but I have some questions...

How do people normally set these up?

I have the following setup -

One zone for heat
One zone for water

I’ve installed the tado smart system and have put TVRs on the radiators and am putting the extension kit on the water.

My question is do people normally setup the system by room? For example for the radiators in the kitchen I have a zone, for the living room another zone etc... Then if I want to put the heating in the whole house on what do I do?

Can I have the whole house as one zone?

Is there something about not being able to have more than 8 TVRs in one zone?

Can you have a tvr in more than one zone?

Does the smart stat need to be in each zone?

Any help would be much appreciated!

deezell

skerry wrote: »

Think I might have answered my own question. Turned down upstairs manual stat and boiler firing less often now.

Thinking of ordering a Tado TRV for the little ones bedroom or maybe sitting room now.

@Deezell, do you know how I check the firmware on the Tado. It was a V2 refurb I ordered from Maplin so I'm thinking the firmware might be old. I'm wondering will the older firmware allow me to pair up with newer hardware like TRV's and Extension kit.

Also would I be better off saving up for another Tado Smart stat to control upstairs zone first before I go playing around with TRV's?

Settings/Heating/Devices/Smart Thermostat will give you the firmware version. My V2 is on 47.9 so if you're is not at that then ask support to push the latest
TRVs should work fine, the ability of TRVs to fire the boiler via the stat in their zone may need the newer versions. Some of the Maplin V2s had really old firmware. I'd advise a second stat if you want the smart control for the upstairs. The ability to set a reduced but comfortable temperature during the night, increase in on rising then drop it again for the daytime is one of the best features of smart. A TRV in this zone will allow a single room have closer control over it's temperature, as it can fire the boiler for that zone, but all other rads in the zone will heat when it fires. It's useful when you have a room that cools quicker than the stat location, usually the landing, it can ensure that this room's temperature is closely controlled at specific times. Other advantage of a smart TRV is to close off a room in a zone while the rest of the zone is heated. You may not use the living room at all until say 6pm, but you'll want the kitchen warm from morning, so a smart TRV can be used to turn it off until evening while the rest of the ground floor is heated earlier. As you have a zoned system I assume it's by motorised valves. The extension kit is used to control HW schedule. Your HW may have it's own valve or just be on a gravity feed and thermostat. Does your system have a 2 or 3 zoned timer controller? If the boiler is firing with both stats not calling for heat then either the HW circuit is activating it or the boiler is always on when the " main switch" you referred to is on, and it is just cycling on and off in response to it's internal stat.

skerry

skerry wrote: »

So I finally got the Tado Smart Stat installed and going well so far but still have to tinker with the app a bit to understand it and set schedules etc.

My understanding is I'm supposed to leave the main heat switch on and let Tado control it? I tried setting the heating to off on the app there now but my boiler keeps firing. Am I doing something wrong or is it maybe the upstairs non-smart stat calling for heat?

Think I might have answered my own question. Turned down upstairs manual stat and boiler firing less often now.

Thinking of ordering a Tado TRV for the little ones bedroom or maybe sitting room now.

@Deezell, do you know how I check the firmware on the Tado. It was a V2 refurb I ordered from Maplin so I'm thinking the firmware might be old. I'm wondering will the older firmware allow me to pair up with newer hardware like TRV's and Extension kit.

Also would I be better off saving up for another Tado Smart stat to control upstairs zone first before I go playing around with TRV's?

skerry

So I finally got the Tado Smart Stat installed and going well so far but still have to tinker with the app a bit to understand it and set schedules etc.

My understanding is I'm supposed to leave the main heat switch on and let Tado control it? I tried setting the heating to off on the app there now but my boiler keeps firing. Am I doing something wrong or is it maybe the upstairs non-smart stat calling for heat?

deezell

Shane732 wrote: »

My parents are having a nightmare trying to get a tado installed. Is there simple guide?

At this point they have the tvrs installed and the starter kit but can’t get it to work....

Generic instructions attached

Shane732

My parents are having a nightmare trying to get a tado installed. Is there simple guide?

At this point they have the tvrs installed and the starter kit but can’t get it to work....

lordgoat

deezell wrote: »

Just a small caveat to those mentioning stoves and HRVC in the same breath. Stoves, open fires and indoor boilers without balanced flies all require intake of fresh air which is not matched by outgoing warmed air from which to recover heat, as it all goes up the chimney or flue The air ifdrawn in via a HRVC will not be heated to the same extent. I'm not even sure if it's permissible to have a stove in a room vented only by HRVC system. I installed an underfloor 100mm square duct from an outside vent to an inside one located as close to the base of the stove as was possible. This at least ensures that cold air drawn in by the stove is not pouring down the back of my neck from a wall or ceiling vent.

Thanks for this. TBH we have nothing decided yet and I am only getting stuck into the research part now. Next year I'll try and get some site visits to find out the best options for the place. But all i'm hearing is insulation first and I do know this needs to be done so will start with that.

Thanks for all the info and apologies for straying OT

deezell

Just a small caveat to those mentioning stoves and HRVC in the same breath. Stoves, open fires and indoor boilers without balanced flies all require intake of fresh air which is not matched by outgoing warmed air from which to recover heat, as it all goes up the chimney or flue The air ifdrawn in via a HRVC will not be heated to the same extent. I'm not even sure if it's permissible to have a stove in a room vented only by HRVC system. I installed an underfloor 100mm square duct from an outside vent to an inside one located as close to the base of the stove as was possible. This at least ensures that cold air drawn in by the stove is not pouring down the back of my neck from a wall or ceiling vent.

Stoner

Our fellow poster here semperfi added a very nice rPi temp measurement system onto a his heat recovery system in a bungalow.

From memory the temp outside so his air intake was at 0 degrees

Before heat recovery the exhaust was 19 degrees. Where the exhaust came through the recovery system is was at 7 degrees.

His intake after heat recovery went to 13 degree's

So he was topping the fresh air up about 6 or 7 degrees and not 19 or 20 degree's.

I've external insulation in my house

Retrospectively the installer said we could have hidden ducting on the external walls with the external insulation.

lordgoat

Stoner wrote: »

TBH there is a point to be made about having too much control.

<edit>

A HRVC system would be where I'd spend my money on a house now

Great post and this is something I've been considering. We just bought a pretty large bungalow and we're trying to figure out the best way to do things.

Now we are thinking of, insulating the attic as well as we possibly can and installing a stove in the main sitting room.

After that maybe put in a proair HRVC system. And just use a Nest to turn on off the heating / HW (It's all one zone at the moment) and use regular TRV's to keep ambient temp stable throughout the house. There are only 2 of us as well so, that should be more than enough.

Basically kind of agree about the too much control.

Apologies for the off topic part of this!

deezell

Stoner wrote: »

TBH there is a point to be made about having too much control............It's most important to not unnecessarily heat areas while being comfortable in the home, that IMO should be the objective of these systems............

There you have it. The ideal system should work unattended. Every area is always just right, warm when you need it, cooler when not in use. Unfortunately every thing is a compromise. Smart users complain about increased heating bills, as previously freezing rooms are now kept modestly warm. The old experience of jumping up and down to hit a boost button has been replaced with an Hotel like ambience of comfort, but at the price of more fuel use. The real difference is that with older control (or lack of it) systems this level of comfort was really wasteful of energy, heating on full for too long etc, house freezing in the morning, overheated by the time you leave, some rooms far warmer than others tho unoccupied and so on. Smart gives you much more comfort for the same consumption, and allows you to improve your heating profile in the most economical way. The simple ability to schedule variable temperatures on a stat over the day is a huge factor. No amount of on/off scheduling and boost pressing can approximate to this level of control. If your heat bills rise you can be more stringent with times, temperatures, and zones if you have them. The old fashioned method of using the radiator valve to choke the amount of heat to a room still works, so certain rooms can be put to the back of the queue as it were when the heating is active. You have to make choices. Do I heat the the empty bedrooms the same, a little, or not at all. Should the sitting room be freezing until 6pm, or comfortable during the day. If heating cost is a huge factor, then upgrade insulation, internal lining, external cladding, better double or triple glaze, HRVC and so on. A €200 smart stat starts to look cheap by comparison.

Stoner

TBH there is a point to be made about having too much control.

I disagree with some of the comments about smart TRVs that can't call the boiler being only marginally better than regular TRVs

I've had a smart system for 4 years. It has improved but initially every TRV could call the heating on.

This did not suit me at all.

There were no soft zones as there are now.
One room getting cold could turn the heating on at night and my hot water was being heated at strange times during the day as my house is a single zone system.

I've forced my system to only turn on from the main switch

This has a movable wireless stat, remote control and an app, so in the winter I put the stat in the baby's room, if the temp drops below 17 degrees there ( box room two external walls) the heating will turn on.

It will drop here before any other room in the house.

I've upstairs and downstairs soft zones now but they exclude the bathrooms so the three toilets are on whenever my heating is on.

I've 7 rads downstairs with the 4 larger ones on smart TRVs.
Upstairs I've 4 rads with smart TRVs on 2, exclude the toilet and master bedroom.

I've a smart TRV in the Attic too.

I've forced my system so only the main stat/controller can call the heating on.

Imo in your average Irish house the more ways to turn on heating, the more your heating will be on. I'm not sure this is economical, healthy or good for the environment.

I've had app and remote access to heating for about 8 years. I've posted on this before all it's used for is turning the heating on. My wife loves it.

To compare this to being only marginally better than regular TRVs is unfair imo.

I have far more control over smart TRVs for example there's only three of us at home. I've several rooms that are occupied at different rates I've weekend schedules.

I've a boost function on my TRVs so I keep spare bedrooms and room like the office at a colder temp. It's noticably colder in these room.
When you enter press the boost button for one hours extra top up, there after it returns to the lower temp.

A smart TRV can be added to a soft zone for group on off control
Within that zone you can add different settings on each room / TRV for each weekday.

It's most important to not unnecessarily heat areas while being comfortable in the home, that IMO should be the objective of these systems.

Anyway using IFTTT you can do more so I can use Samsung temp feedback to Control the main relay too. (I don't)

I can also use my nest smoke and carbon monoxide detectors to turn the heating off (I do) the lightwaverf IFTTT heating channel is decent.

IFTTT is simple to set up, it can be a bit slow but it's perfect for heating, imo users should select a system that had an IFTTT channel, check it out beforehand for functionally.

I also have the ability to boost the rad in my home office if my PC connects to the internet, this is a decent automation feature.

A HRVC system would be where I'd spend my money on a house now

Stoner

budhabob wrote:

The stat receiver is wireless (I think) and downstairs, with the control panel in a press next to the hot press. I wont lie, I did read back on this thread but was rightly confused.

TBH all you might need is a SONOFF unit. Keep your current stat. Add in a SONOFF for 10 euro, buy one with the remote RF button. You'll have access to your heating on off Control from anywhere.

skerry

deezell wrote: »

Skerry, You can do that. The Tado and app will show the local temperature, and if you set the heating temperature alternately below this, then above, you will hear the relay click in the Tado as it calls for heat. The little wavy heat icon on the app will go solid also while heating call is on. There can be a few seconds delay after you adjust the heat up on the schedule or manually on the app before the relay clicks, as the data is passed to the server the back to the stat. Once you know the stat is clicking on and off you can pop it on the wall in place of the old one, making sure you connect the correct pair of wires. If your Danfoss is mains powered there will be more wires than the Tado needs, as it's battery powered. The custom instructions are meant to guide you in this regard, and show you which wires to use and which to park.

Got it setup there. Connected to router etc fine. Press circular button to check temp and set it below and above after I seen the little house icon and it clicks most times but takes a decent while to hear a click.

Need to figure out what the other icons do, theres a little hand pointing up etc.

At the stage on webapp that its giving specific instructions to install stat on wall so I'm presuming I'm good to go and not much can go wrong if I get the spark to wire it tomorrow evening?

Hoping it'll give better control over downstairs that Danfoss as I reckon its not the best system.

skerry

skerry wrote: »

Thanks Deezell, only seen your reply now.

I thought the Tado was mains powered and that I wouldn't know if it was operational until the unit was on the wall, didn't realise it was battery powered.

I'll proceed through the setup in the morning so and if the unit behaves as you said I should be able to get spark to install it tomorrow all going well.

skerry

deezell wrote: »

Skerry, You can do that. The Tado and app will show the local temperature, and if you set the heating temperature alternately below this, then above, you will hear the relay click in the Tado as it calls for heat. The little wavy heat icon on the app will go solid also while heating call is on. There can be a few seconds delay after you adjust the heat up on the schedule or manually on the app before the relay clicks, as the data is passed to the server the back to the stat. Once you know the stat is clicking on and off you can pop it on the wall in place of the old one, making sure you connect the correct pair of wires. If your Danfoss is mains powered there will be more wires than the Tado needs, as it's battery powered. The custom instructions are meant to guide you in this regard, and show you which wires to use and which to park.

Thanks Deezell, only seen your reply now.

I thought the Tado was mains powered and that I wouldn't know if it was operational until the unit was on the wall, didn't realise it was battery powered.

I'll proceed through the setup in the morning so and if the unit behaves as you said I should be able to get spark to install it tomorrow all going well.

deezell

OREGATO wrote: »

Hi Deezell, just a quick message to say thanks a million for all your assistance! My mate ended up installing it for me today, he did a fantastic job....
Again, many thanks for all your help! I really appreciate it!

🎄🎁🎄🎁🎄🎁

OREGATO

Hi Deezell, just a quick message to say thanks a million for all your assistance! My mate ended up installing it for me today, he did a fantastic job and it works exactly as we want it to, the installation itself was relatively straightforward to him.
Set up on the Nest was easy enough too, I'm really impressed with the unit so far. To be honest, I didn't buy it for the learning feature as we're very good at turning it off when we're not using it. The zones are really good so far although I think I had a configuration wrong as home/away assist was on and even though I thought the upstairs heating was off, it was on, so I've turned it off now and I'm just going to make sure it's all correct.
Again, many thanks for all your help! I really appreciate it!

deezell

skerry wrote: »

I registered with Tado and picked the boiler closest to the one I have on the website.......
.......If I understand so I should go through the remaining steps with hub etc and wait until it says install complete to be sure all is ok and then maybe get stat wired up. Just conscious of it coming up to Christmas holidays and don't want to be left mid install over the Christmas?

Skerry, You can do that. The Tado and app will show the local temperature, and if you set the heating temperature alternately below this, then above, you will hear the relay click in the Tado as it calls for heat. The little wavy heat icon on the app will go solid also while heating call is on. There can be a few seconds delay after you adjust the heat up on the schedule or manually on the app before the relay clicks, as the data is passed to the server the back to the stat. Once you know the stat is clicking on and off you can pop it on the wall in place of the old one, making sure you connect the correct pair of wires. If your Danfoss is mains powered there will be more wires than the Tado needs, as it's battery powered. The custom instructions are meant to guide you in this regard, and show you which wires to use and which to park.

deezell

Also you can either leave the old timer in place and set it to always on, or take it out and just connect live wire from pin 1 to the NO wire on pin 3, insulate and push them back into the wall. Sparks will know what to do.

deezell

Your system is fully motorised valve zoned. It's reasonable to assume that the live feed from the timer goes to the wiring box at the side of the boiler, and from there directly to the HW valve, possibly via a cylinder stat? It also goes to the two zone stats, and back from them to the zone valves. Call for heat live from the zone valves is brought back to the wiring box and from there to the boiler.
It's a straightforward enough wiring job to connect the Nest heatlink boxes. The boxes are powered from nearby mains, the wire pair going to the old stat is cut and connected to the heating relay terminals of the heatlink. The live that goes into the HW valve similarly is connected via the HW relay terminals on the heatlink, allowing the Nest to control HW timing. The second stat is connected the same way, it's HW relay is not used. The Nests can connect to their respective heatlink boxes wirelessly, powered by a small mains adaptor, but the redundant pairs of wires going back to the old stat location can be reused to connect a low voltage from the heatlink back to the stat location and this is used to power the Nests, and also to carry the digital signals between Nest and Heatlink, so the wireless link is not used, and the Nest doesn't need to be powered by it's little maiins phone type adapter
Yes you do need both heatlink, but only one is connected for HW timing

OREGATO

Hi Deezill

So I've done a bit more reading on this today and looked through the Nest instruction manual I found online: https://nest.com/support/images/misc-nest-thermostat-eu/gen3-install/3rd-gen-Nest-Learning-Thermostat-Install-Guide-UK.pdf

As I understand it, I will need to use 2 Nest units and 2 Heatlink boxes.

I will need to wire one Heatlink box for downstairs zone + hot water and the second for the upstairs zone.

I need to wire these into the junction box, replacing the wires that are connected to the current controller unit and thermostats:

I can leave the thermostats and controller box in place for now and plug in the actual Nest units into a wall socket in the relevant rooms to act as thermostats.

Can you tell me if my understanding is correct? Is it possible, if I have two heatlinks installed that both of them have the ability to trigger the boiler to turn on? Or both of them at the same time, without issue?

You mentioned in a previous post I would only need to use one heatlink unit for 2 Nests but reading the instruction manual above it mentions on page 10: "TIP: If there are multiple heating zones in the home, each zone valve will need its own Nest Thermostat and Heat Link."

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have a good friend who's an electrician coming to the house to take a look tomorrow, he's never dealt with Nest or Hive but I'd like to provide as much information to him as I can.

OREGATO

Thanks again Deezell.

I'm not too clued in with plumbing at all so I really appreciate your patience. I am happy to get an installer in if this proves to be beyond my skillset for sure

But I just wanted to tease it out so I have an understanding too.

Just to clarify as well, I am ok with a set up where by if the upstairs/downstairs heating is turned on, the HW is heated at the same time.
I would like to have a hot water only option too. Is this achievable?

So here are some more pictures, I hope they will help:

The controller unit:

The thermostats:

And in the boiler house, there are three valves? Each is labeled, 1 upstairs, 1 downstairs, 1 hot water. In this pic, the downstairs thermostat is on and the upstairs is off. The hot water is constantly on when the controller is set to on and the boiler will only go off when temperature is reached or the controller timer/boost is off.

The wires lead into this box:

And here is a picture of the boiler:

Does this help you get a clearer idea of my set up? Thanks again for the help!