Central Heating Control

[neonplanet40]

Hi folks,

I currently have the Nest thermostat in my house. We really like it, however, we don't like having no real control over individual rooms/radiators.

There are a few rooms in the house which are colder. Ideally, we were looking at some of the radiator valves you can get which turn on or off at certain temperatures.

At the moment, if the room is cold (but the rest of the house isn't really) the heating stays on. What we would like, is individual radiators to turn off when the temperature has reached our set limit.

We do have the manual temperature valves but they have limited functionality really.

The problem I have is finding any that integrate with the Nest thermostat. If I could go back, I may have bought a different system. But I am keen to try and work with what I have now. We have a gas combi boiler. It's only a few years old (Baxi Platinum).

We have a 7 bedroom house but some of the rooms aren't in use (and those radiators are turned to low with doors closed).

Any ideas?

[smargh]

Why are those few rooms colder? Less insulation than the others, or poor seals in windows etc?

[neonplanet40]

I have no idea to be honest. It's mostly with our bedroom which is above the kitchen. It takes longer to heat up. House is only 10 years old and has roof insulated etc.

[rich835]

According to the Nest website, the Energenie TRV's work with Nest: https://workswith.nest.com/uk/compan...enie/energenie

I was thinking of fitting these myself, as I also have a Nest, but my radiators suffer with air that needs bleeding when I mess around with the TRV's too much, so I'm not sure yet. Maybe I'll try out some of those self-bleeding valves which are available.

Another idea if you wanted to go with another brand, is maybe trying to do some automation with IFTTT ?

[neonplanet40]

I'm trying to find videos of this being used with Nest. But haven't really found any yet. It does seem to be the only one which works. I don't have much experience with IFTTT.

[Butcher]

Have you balanced your radiators? That might be the cause of the cold spots.

[neonplanet40]

To be honest, the radiator in the room is hot (and gets hot fast). The room is always colder than the rest. But I can find no easy way of figuring out why. Above it (in the roof space), insulation looks fine (it is thick and covers the whole ceiling of the house from what I can see. There is no easy way for me to see if builders forgot to put some insulation in a section of the wall or something without ripping them out. Obviously noone would want to do this without good reason.

There doesn't appear to be an issue with the window (double glazed) as no wind etc gets through when windy.

I had thought about replacing the radiator with a bigger or thicker one. But I guess that doesn't really fix the cause. ...

[876HX]

Two years ago I've installed Honeywell evohome as I had lot of issues with the single thermostat. Bought the pack called "Honeywell evohome Wi-Fi Connected Value Pack B" around £400 and that includes 8 control units that goes on the TRVs and the main hub/display and unit that connects to the boiler and how I got individual temp control, works really well when I work from home for example, all other rooms stay cold except the study. Each radiator control runs on two AAs and most of them lasted two winters and I only replaced them recently. Unlikely that they work with Nest controller.

[Zak33]

To be honest, the radiator in the room is hot (and gets hot fast). The room is always colder than the rest. But I can find no easy way of figuring out why. Above it (in the roof space), insulation looks fine (it is thick and covers the whole ceiling of the house from what I can see. There is no easy way for me to see if builders forgot to put some insulation in a section of the wall or something without ripping them out. Obviously noone would want to do this without good reason.

There doesn't appear to be an issue with the window (double glazed) as no wind etc gets through when windy.

I had thought about replacing the radiator with a bigger or thicker one. But I guess that doesn't really fix the cause. ...

the particularly cold room - is it above a garage, for example? ie is the ROOM physcially colder by design than the others
or
is the heating in that room less effective?

describe the room, it's location and where the radiators are in relation to windows, furniture etc

[neonplanet40]

The room is above the kitchen. It is on the first floor (front left) of the house. It shouldn't be any colder by nature. " walls are external (of the house) and 2 are not.

There is one radiator for it below the window - like most of the other bedrooms. It appears that the room (the heating of it) is less effective than others. I can not fathom why (in ym limited experience/knowledge). The radiator doesn't need bled as it gets as hot as the other radiators.

It also cools down quicker than other rooms (or at least it feels like it does).

The bed is in front of the radiator - however, there is a 1.5-2ft gap between it and the radiator. I don't have a headboard so it doesn't block heat in. There is a built-in wardrobe in the room (stage left wall), 1 chest of drawers and 2 bedside tables. No other furniture. The room also has an ensuite (at the far end of the room) - it has its own radiator. Heating in the ensuite is fine. THe doors are always kept closed.

[Andeh13]

Sorry for the late reply, but I can really help here!

We have ''Evohome'' which does just what you want, individual radiators controlled with their own thermostats, all controlled centrally or via mobile phone.

Doesn't rely on a separate server, unless you want remote access but it does work very well. Works best with an ''Opentherm'' compatible Boiler which allows the boiler's output to be more carefully controlled based on the demand - ie 1 room needing heat vs entire house. Our boiler isn't so we loose some efficiency saving but in all in it works well.

We also have UFH in a few rooms all seamlessly integrated.

All the help you could ever want can be found via:
https://theevohomeshop.co.uk/13-honeywell-evohome

Others have entered the market, inc Tados, but I've not looked at them.


Big benefit for us, was originally the wife liked her rooms very warm, I liked mine very cool. When 'doing our own thing' (cooking, films, gaming, phone, etc) we could control the individual rooms independently. Now that we have kids we can keep the house ''off'' but their rooms at a controlled temperature at night.

When the family is away and it is just me, I can keep the whole house ''off' and just wear a jumper, or house 'off' except keep the lounge (where I spend all evening, eating on lap, TV, gaming etc) warm.

In the morning I heat only our bedroom up, as I get up for work, then pre-heat the kitchen/snug where family will descend whilst turning off the bedroom Rads/spare rooms/lounge which will not be used.

Evohome does lack graphing & statistics which bugs me, I would love to pull all the data off it.

Happy to answer any questions!

[neonplanet40]

The only problem is, that it doesn't integrate with the Nest. It replaces it. ideally, I want to use what I have to keep the costs down.

[RobTi]

check to see if the skirting is sealed behind the rad, and is the room of a similar size to any others that are warm and if so is the rad the same size

[Zak33]

The room is above the kitchen. It is on the first floor (front left) of the house. It shouldn't be any colder by nature. " walls are external (of the house) and 2 are not.

There is one radiator for it below the window - like most of the other bedrooms. It appears that the room (the heating of it) is less effective than others. I can not fathom why (in ym limited experience/knowledge). The radiator doesn't need bled as it gets as hot as the other radiators.

It also cools down quicker than other rooms (or at least it feels like it does).

The bed is in front of the radiator - however, there is a 1.5-2ft gap between it and the radiator. I don't have a headboard so it doesn't block heat in. There is a built-in wardrobe in the room (stage left wall), 1 chest of drawers and 2 bedside tables. No other furniture. The room also has an ensuite (at the far end of the room) - it has its own radiator. Heating in the ensuite is fine. THe doors are always kept closed.

OK- here goes - two things.

1) Get in the loft and see if that corner of the house needs another layer of insualtion? If it's boarded, it might have none under it and if it does, it might be compressed too much. Loft insulation makes an IMMEDIATE noticable improvment and is really cheap.

2)Is there any chance that, for a few days you could move that bed right away from the radiator?

Radiators are a badly described item. They DO radiate.. but mainly they are to create convention currents and with a bed in the way less than 2 feet from it, you have no hope of that workings.
Here's how it SHOULD work:
The cold air from the window drops onto the radiator, which warms it fast and it then blooms slowly up into the room.. it is forced along the length of the room and ceiling as there's more warm air coming up and then down the far wall... the cooler air is pushed along the floor and into the warm updraught near the radiator.. and it gets a bit quicker and the room warms. Some of the warm air curls into the window eventually and warms the glass a little, so their is less cold coming from it and then the room is warm and the radiator thermostat can click off for a while

With a bed in the way, the cold air cant move

like this

[neonplanet40]

Thanks Zak33, I'll try it this weekend!

[Andeh13]

The only problem is, that it doesn't integrate with the Nest. It replaces it. ideally, I want to use what I have to keep the costs down.

That's fair enough!

For what it is worth, you are looking at approx £50-60/radiatior & £250 odd for the main controller. It is an expensive solution - but it does exactly what you want!