With extension work on the house nearly done, I'll need to fit smart valves to all of the new radiators and suchlike. And as that's going to be an expense and some work, I thought it was worth having a look at what the alternatives were.
So I had a look about, and then felt disappointed, and thought I should write down what my requirements are, and match things against them, to explain why all of the options are disappointing. And see if anyone could recommend a system which was better than I was finding.
I've split it into hard and soft requirements - as some of them are things I can live without, they're just nice to have.
Hard requirements
Temperature control - Obviously, I want to control my radiators individually. Because there's no point heating the bedrooms during the day, or the living room and kitchen overnight.
Controls the boiler - There's no point the radiator valve turning off and on if the boiler itself isn't on. So the radiator valves need to talk to the boiler controller and turn it on when necessary.
Physical door and window sensors - I live with a variety of people, and they tend to open windows to let in some fresh air. There are many valves which claim to be able to spot a window opening by temperaurte drop - the reviews for all of them are terrible. So physical window sensors are a must.
Soft requirements
Anticpatory heating - I want to be able to say to the value "Heat the living room up for 17:30" and have it work out when to turn on in order to make that happen. I don't currently have that, but it would be nice.
Separate heat sensors - Having the thermometer be built into the valve means that you risk having the radiator heat up a small patch of the room by the radiator. It would be nice if the sensor could be somewhere else in the room.
Systems
Hive - this is our current system. It talks to the boiler. It has physical sensors that allow me to turn off the radiator when windows open. In a kludgy kind of way (I can set actions for the doors and windows opening, and change the radiator to on/off. But that doesn't work for multiple windows in a room. Doesn't have separate sensors or anticipatory heating.
Eve home heating - Looks lovely. Currently Apple only, but will be based on Matter (the new spiffy home standard) at some point soon. However, won't turn my boiler off and on, so no use.
Honeywell Evohome - No window-sensor integration. Despite them selling those for their security systems. You can get a physical attachment that allows you to run a cable to your window. Which I am totally not doing.
Tado - No physical window sensors
Netatmo - Window sensors can't be hooked up to the smart radiators.
So, Hive (which is what we already have) is the best of them. But it's still not ideal. Anyone recommend anything better?
