Which Smart Thermostat? Evohome, Tado, Ideal Touch or Nest?

VforViennetta

But it's one thing to need internet for the firmware updates and quite another to need it for day-to-day functionality. So  Tado doesn't work without internet, right? That's one of the things that really grates me about this whole smart-home stuff - I see no technical reason why this stuff requires an internet connection to just send a banal signal from my phone to the thingy, if I am home and there is wifi

Toki

Well I decided to go with the Drayton Wiser option and a great deal came up on Amazon for £110 with 2 radiator thermostats.  Rest priced at £35.  So far so good.  

Main reasons for choosing Drayton for me were that all programs are stored locally and were a lot cheaper than Honeywell Evohome.  As mentioned above, I ruled out Tado as a result of everything being on their servers.  Evohome looks good but much to dear in comparison to Drayton Wiser.

It has only been in 3 days so too early to form a full opinion until it learns the thermal properties of the house.  Early thoughts below.

Plus Points
Value for money compared to other options.
Local storage of programs.
Overall I like the app.  Its easy to use and see all temps in each room on one screen.
Opentherm option is working and the boiler temp goes down from 60 degrees once the rooms reach desired temp, down to 37 degrees.

Negatives
TRV temp readings accuracy.  1 in particular seems around 2 degrees high all the time.  Last night, which was minus temperatures here, they all seemed to go really low.  11 degrees but could be accurate being at floor level rather than old stat on the wall.  The old one never went under 14 degrees.
Unable to copy timings and temperatures from 1 room to another on the app.

Puntoboy

I'm glad you went with that. I've been looking at that system as well.

I just don't understand why the EvoHome system is so expensive. I priced a system up, £383.96 to allow me to control two zone valves and DHW with no TRVs. I'm still not sold on TRVs and the EvoHome seems to be geared towards these instead of zone valves.

Compare that to £139.99 for the Drayton system. OK I lose out on some features, like controlling the DHW temp, but it's not night and day different, they both do a similar job.

Toki

Its early days with the TRVs and not sure if I've done the right thing or not yet.  

The very nature of them is they come on when required in each room so the boiler so far is rarely off.  Heating 1 room then another.  It seems to me it would be more efficient heating them at the same time, so may end up grouping them together anyway.  For example, having "Bedrooms" rather than "Bedroom 1" and "Bedroom 2" each able to call for heat.

So far I would recommend the basic system and see how you get on, especially at the current price which compares well against Hive, Nest, Evohome, Tado etc.  Still only £105 without TRVs for Multizone 2 with HW and £161 with 2.  Can always add TRVs if you feel you need them.  Otherwise setting manual TRVs could be good enough obviously not able to change temps during the day though.

Puntoboy

Yeah I get the benefit of smart TRVs, I just don't think they'd been of benefit in our house. We use all the rooms, throughout the day so I've found it perfectly reasonable to have a constant temp/schedule for zone 1 (downstairs) and a different schedule/temp for zone 2 (upstairs). Maybe this will change so I can always add them later on.

The equivalent Hive system will cost me £249 for the new house.

Lesmor

In the last week I removed Hive along with 10 Hive TRV's and installed Drayton Wiser and there is no comparison DW wins hands down

paid £75.00 for the 2 channel Heating and hot water and the TRV's were £34.00 each

what I find handy is that with the DW Room Thermostat set with a low set point so that it doesn't fire the boiler you can move it from room to room to confirm the accuracy of that rooms TRV temperature

Also if you name the TRV the same as the Room Thermostat the Room stat becomes the Master and it can control up to 4 TRV's with the same name

I would like some additional features but nothings ever perfect

Puntoboy

What features do you think are missing. I’m really interestedin the Wiser system. Have Hive currently but moving house and have to pay either £150 to get it removed and refitted or £250 for new stuff in the new house.

Lesmor

If your moving and have an old CH controller you should be able to remove Hive your self at no cost
I kept my Hive Hub just to control Hive bulbs

Anyway back to DW most things I would like are nice to have

one thing to note is that you cannot set a local temperature on the TRV it only has a  /- 2 deg boost dial

although it has an away mode it is not as good as Hives Holiday Mode

No Windows 10 app so you can set up schedules on a Laptop ( you could use an android emulator)

you cant turn Off the call for heat and have the TVR as stand alone only reporting and controlling the room temperature

you cant tell if a device is on schedule or manual from the Home screen

there is no Off mode this has to be done by turning each device temperature to zero then the device shows Off

No temperature off-set

it seems like a lot but considering how bad Hive TRV's are its not enough to put me off

Puntoboy

Ah ok. Mostly TRV related. I have no plans to fit TRVs. We currently have two Hive stats, one for each zone valve. Works for us.

I do have the original stats and programmer but the BG engineer that fitted Hive had a nightmare fitting it and suggested the wiring wasn’t standard. We live in a new build, sonot sure why. £150 was for another engineer/plumber to come out, removeHove, then refit in the new house. To be honest, I’m also using it as a bit of an excuse to look at another system. I don’t like that Hive’s API is cloud based as well so something local would be better.

Lesmor

Yeah just as well writing it off and start fresh