Smart heating controls

[Murdoch]

Wow £3500 a year for gas .... that’s painful.

I have a fairly simple Salus it 500 installed (for over 5 years). Easy to set up with different temperatures at 6 points during the day. My misses is on shifts so she can adjust it , but have been known to adjust it down from my phone!

The price of gas is what is driving our bills higher as our metered usage isn’t really changing ..... I wish I had got 2 zones plumbed when we refurbished our house.

My final observation is that winter weather varies .... so it’s impossible to compare year to year

Smart meters won’t save you money unless you change your habits, turn your room stat down and wear jumpers in the winter!

 

[Brambles]

I sell Evohome Systems, so read what I say with a pinch of salt.

Realistically, Evohome is an investment of around £1k. For smaller properties, it is a nice to have ( well some people think so), but is not cost effective.

For larger, older properties, particularly those where some rooms are not used on a daily basis, it can be very cost effective.

It zones individual rooms and over time can be tweaked to keep a condensing boiler operating at a very high level of efficiency ( keeping the return flow at sub 54 degrees C)

My mains gas fuel bill ( in cash terms) is around £3k, three years ago it was £4.8k. The changes I have made are Evohome and upgraded condensing boilers ( I went from one to two, splitting CH and HW (unvented to two tanks) to separate boilers). The logic there being that two 25KW boilers were significantly cheaper ( capital cost) than one 50KW, and they have better (lower limit) modulation.

In summary, I think that I have achieved reasonable cost savings, but I certainly do have a much more comfortable controlled heating temperature across the house - much better than constantly going from too hot to too cold all the time.

Some would say, just downsize and they would be correct!

Evohome is not for everyone, but in the right property it can pay its way.

 

[jcs8215248]

Got Evohome, full rad valves etc. Transforms your heating and bills. Bite the bullet and go for it. House is pretty well insulated, but we like it warm and our gas bill is around £90 a month in winter on a non condensing boiler with Unvented tank.

All the customers I fitted it for say it transforms their systems too, one guy said it saved him 11% on his gas bill yet his house is a lot warmer and comfort levels are a lot better.

I have had an Evohome for 18 months - I initially had a problem finding a local installer but am very satisfied with the one I eventually chose. They understand the system but have not installed many systems. They now do all of my CH and plumbing jobs.

Evohome is not a cheap system but my heating costs have significantly reduced by about 20%. I think this is mainly because we can control each room separately and we don't use some of the rooms all the time. It will however take several years before this reduction pays for the cost. Our gas bill for a 3 bed bungalow is about £1100 annually.

I am by profession and IT security consultant. Honeywell seem to understand that intelligent controls can add risks (they sell alarm equipment as well) as some of the systems on the market use insecure communications and it would be possible to monitor occupancy of a property from a few hundred metres away by picking up the set points on the valves (in winter and they are all set to low = property is not occupied). One vendor confirmed that they had not considered this in their design and that such an attack was easily feasible but would consider my comments. I did not charge them a fee for my security advice!

The Evohome batteries have all needed replacement during this time but the overall saving more than compensates for this cost. The wireless operation avoids any installation issues. Overall I am very pleased with my investment.

 

[EvilDrPorkChop]

The Evohome batteries have all needed replacement during this time but the overall saving more than compensates for this cost. The wireless operation avoids any installation issues. Overall I am very pleased with my investment.

If you use lithium batteries and set it to the lithium setting on the HR92 they last much longer. Standard AA batteries only seem to last around 12-18 months.

I fitted a system with lithium batteries about 30 months ago and they're still on the original set and all showing 3 bars on the indicator.

 

[jcs8215248]

If you use lithium batteries and set it to the lithium setting on the HR92 they last much longer. Standard AA batteries only seem to last around 12-18 months.

I fitted a system with lithium batteries about 30 months ago and they're still on the original set and all showing 3 bars on the indicator.

I have recently replaced about £5 of batteries (13 Evohome radiator valves) in the 18 months I have had the system (I don't know the quality of the batteries that were fitted by my installer) and that is not too expensive considering the saving. I am not sure that lithium batteries would save money and it only takes about 30 seconds to change, and you do get two week warning of low battery om the controller display. I don't think this is a bit problem