Wireless Room Thermostat & Apparent Boiler Issues

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Advice for anyone using TRVs in all rooms and notice their boiler appearing to cut out leaving them with no heating and an apparent boiler issue.

Setup: We have Tado TRVs on all rads except one and the Wireless Room Thermostat (WRT) had been linked to the TRVs in our living room. Each room in the app has it's own schedule.

Issue: We noticed that there were periods of time where our boiler light would be on, the TRVs were calling for heat, but the boiler would not fire up. It seemed to occur at regular times each day, leaving our bedrooms freezing. We had assumed it was an issue with our boiler.

Cause: I stumbled across a post suggesting it may be a thermostat issue and after playing around, identified that the WRT is the device that controls the boiler and if the WRT is linked to a room that is not scheduled to heat, no matter what the other TRVs are set to, the boiler will not work.

Solution: I set up a virtual room in the app called "Thermostat". I set the schedule for it to come on at the earliest time any of the rooms need to be on (e.g. 6am) and to go off at the last time any of the rooms need to be on (e.g. 11pm). Temperature was set to highest (25C). What this means is that the WRT is turning the boiler on from 6am until 11pm but without making the boiler fire up. Only when one of the TRVs is actively calling for heat does the boiler fire up as per schedule in the app. The result of the time (6am-11pm) the boiler sits with boiler on light but not firing up, unless TRV tells it to. Between 11pm and 6am boiler is completely off with no lights on.

I couldn't find the above anywhere as Tado Q&A assumes you have regular TRVs and gives advice for the WRT as if it were a standard thermostat. The Q&A doesn't seem to work on the assumption you have TRVs in all/most rooms.

Hope this advice helps at least one person out there. We were close to upgrading our entire boiler since it is of the age it could do with being upgraded. Luckily we avoided this or any other costly gas engineer call-outs. :)

Comments

  • Montage
    Montage ✭✭✭
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    That makes it sound like the thermostat is acting as a main power switch for the boiler.

  • cbd20
    cbd20 ✭✭✭
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    @ielk2001 there sounds like there's something fishy going on with your setup...

    You said you've got a wireless room thermostat, yet you then say it's "controlling" your boiler, which would imply it is in fact a wired thermostat...

    Do you have a wireless receiver or extension kit physically connected to your boiler?