Radio frequency heating controls

[Jamesplumber92]

Are radio frequency heating controls any good or should I try to go for wired one's?

 

[Chuck]

They are usually fine in a typical house. In some circumstances better than wired. In others, not so good. Should definitely be on the menu of things you can offer customers.

There seems to be a lot of demand for 'smart' systems these days. Not a fan myself but a lot of people like them and there's money to be made if you can install them and offer well-informed advice as part of the package.

Can you be more specific about what the job involves? How long is a piece of string, etc.?

 

[Jamesplumber92]

They are usually fine in a typical house. In some circumstances better than wired. In others, not so good.

Can you be more specific about what the job involves? How long is a piece of string, etc.?

3 zones, smart controls. House is two stories, old thick walls I think they're stone and concrete.
I'd say they'll be fine

 

[Chuck]

3 zones, smart controls. House is two stories, old thick walls I think they're stone and concrete.
I'd say they'll be fine

Certainly easier than installing wiring if none already exists. Always worth doing a test before committing. Put a 13A flex and plug on the receiver[*] and plug it in near the proposed location. Take the sender up to the farthest point and check for correct operation and signal strength.

*Don't create a 'death lead'. Attach it to a small piece of plywood and sure the connections are properly shrouded and the flex is strain relieved. Get a sparks to assist if you're not sure. If you stick to one brand for installs it's useful to have a pair like this for fault finding.

 

[Aquarius]

Salus and Tower are supposed to be crap, so steer clear. A lot can depend on your end user - some can’t do complicated.

 

[Murdoch]

Hard wired is best

 

[Ric2013]

I have experience with what I'm 90% sure was a Salus one (installed by others, but I ended up getting paid by the customer to rectify the fact that the wires were loose and fell out). Wiring it requires holding the receiver in one hand with the wires poking out of the wall, holding the cable cores in between two fingers of that same hand, and then use the screwdriver in the other hand. What a pain. No mounted terminal backbox, you see, so you're wiring something that doesn't stay still. Also customer had problems with a nearby house being on the same frequency and interfering. In fairness, the firm actually provided good technical support and enabled her to alter the frequency by giving her advice, something the original installer should have done really! Since then she's been happy.

Honeywell seem to come with easy to wire terminal backboxes so you wire the cables to a solid thing on the wall and only then mount the front: much more civilised an arrangement. However, a friend of mine recently had an HC60NG relay module (receiver) that I fitted less than 5 years ago fail on him. Which I'm not impressed about, to be frank, seeing as I think the receiver and transmitter together cost about £80 at the merchants. No issues with it until it failed, however.

Unless paying the labour cost of running wires is an issue, or you really can't make up your mind where you want the thermostat to be and want to be able to move it, I'm not sure what the possible advantage is in a wireless device. But then I do generally prefer anything mechanical which shows its faults (if any) openly.

 

[Jamesplumber92]

Salus and Tower are supposed to be crap, so steer clear. A lot can depend on your end user - some can’t do complicated.

Ya that's a big consideration. It's for my Dad's and he wont try to learn how to use it, couple that with the ever changing work schedules of the two people in the house means a basic 7 day programmer is out of the question.

I'm thinking something like Ember which seems to be all RF controls which is a shame as I've got a systemlex wiring centre for the systemzone manifold which is already in place