Considering tado, but know nothing of boiler systems, so some noob questions
HI all Originally from a country where central heating doesn't exist , so I know very little about boilers and how they work. So forgive the questions.
I am with ovo and they sent a flyer for discounted Tado smart thermostats
https://www.ovoenergy.com/smart-home/smart-thermostat
I have been considering going the smart route for a while considering we already have Alexa pretty well embedded in everything else.
I currently have a greenstar Combi Boiler with a Drayton Thermostat
The thermostat is in the hallway in the same place as the airing cupboard and boiler. This definately looks like a wired thermostat given the conduit running into the floor. Ovo suggests this can be replaced by either the wired, or wireless option. So not sure which.
Then I have a question around the radiators and their thermostats.
How does a boiler thermostat work in tandem with individual radiator thermostats? In our house there is a radiator in the hallway. So essentially the heating for the whole house seems to dependent on the levels of heating in the hallway. If the hallway gets to temperature the boiler itself goes off regardless of whether the rooms are still freezing or not. If I want my office in the far corner of the house to be switched on without heating up the rest of the house, how would that be possibe if you have one central thermostat?
Then with smart radiator thermostats, is it an all or nothing approach? Or can you just replace those that you want more control over?
Apologies if I havent phrased my questions very well but still trying to understand these things.
Comments
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In a conventional set up the boiler is controlled by a thermostat put on the wall somewhere well used, in your case the hallway. The temperature there is what dictates whether the boiler comes on. Most modern houses also have trvs on the radiators which can be used to reduce the temperature in rooms that might get too hot when the heating is on.
If you wanted only your office to be heated you would have to go around turning down all the other trvs in the house except for your office.
Tado works differently. You could replace your existing thermostat with a Tado wired thermostat in the hallway but you can also add Tado trvs or wireless temperature sensors, each of which can tell the boiler to call for heat. In this way you get room by room heating control, though there’s some debate as to whether this is more efficient.
If you have a hot water cylinder and want to control the hot water timing, you will need the wireless starter kit (as you have a combi this won’t apply to you). You’ll also need the wireless starter kit if you want to replace your existing wired thermostat with a wireless one.0 -
Many thanks for your response. So the normal TRV's basically control the maximum temperature a room can get when the whole system is on.
Interesting your point about the debate on the efficiency of this. Will need to read up on it further.
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Johnny gives a god description. The main wall or wireless room stat sets the temperature. Dumb rad trvs simply limit the room temperature . Smart trvs can call for heat and limit the other room temperatures. much more efficient. After 18 months our annualised saving is 45%.
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