Home DIY

This is great, thanks. I’m sure lots of systems have it, but i may not need the extra tech they provide.

Thanks bro, could have said that earlier. Considering we won’t be out the house much, geo fencing seems a bit Ott. What is it btw?

I would have but you just kept talking at me. Geo fencing will be good for the after times. It knows if you're home or not so doesn't just run the heating all day if your at the studio, if you're working from home you're toasty. Never have to remember to turn the heating on or off. Ever.

But tado or nest? Do they both sound like tiny robots?

I imagine both TRVs will. I went tado cause of geofencing. Nest probably have it now too.

If you don’t have TRV’s on the Rads do that(stick danfoss ones they are the best), if yiu want control over each floor you’ll need to zone it.

Motorised values and a smart thermostat, nest won’t do multiple zones you’d needs a couple of them but a Wiser would do it you could run traditional wall mounted ones but you’d need to run cables back to the boiler far too much hassle and cost prohibited by the time you’d do it.

Smart thermostats keep getting mentioned in here, I think there pish personally, for people with too much time on there hands and a fad at Best but each to there own.

Geo fencing will be good for the after times.

I'm hoping some sort of open or hackable smart TRV becomes available before the after times so I can roll my own control system. I don't like the cloud based systems that have control issues if your Internet line goes down or stop when the company running them disappears or discontinues the product.

They look nice, innit.

Table saw arrived at 6.45am. Thanks Amazon.

To make doubly sure, they phoned me at 6am to tell me.

You could be in A&E before 8am with your finger in a bag of frozen peas

That’s one way to ruin the white seats in the car

I realise that having the heating on from 7-8 and 5:30-10 is not a practical solution.

Then have it available for heat from 5am to 1am. With working dumb TRVs on the rads this is an acceptable solution.

You could even have it available for heat 24 hours a day - it will only fire when its own internal thermostat for the water circuit requires it to.

And with the TRVs preventing hot water circulation in the radiators when the room is the 'correct' temperature there is low water volume and nowhere for the heat in the circuit to go , save for bleeding from the pipes and towel radiators - but most people want the later on and the surface area of the whole lot is tiny compared to the entire system.

Boost buttons are weird; if you have TRVs controlling the temperature, a boost button won't really do anything. Assume they just override the timer / house thermostat but if you've set those up properly a boost button shouldn't be needed.

I had no fucking clue about any of this stuff until I went down the rabbit warren when replacing our central heating system, hot water storage and controller. Even the simplest system comprising of a timer and TRVs is adequate but conceptually too difficult for a disinterested consumer to really understand and get the benefits from and it doesn't benefit the fitter to recommend this solution and explain it, hence proliferation of 'smart' thermostats and complicated controllers.

@konastab01 I don't see the point in a single 'smart' thermostat unless it's in a small flat. I guess the geofencing thing is kinda useful and weather compensation is good but overall it feels limited compared to the control a smart TRV that can call for heat gives you and just adds complexity over a properly set up 'dumb' system.

tl;dr either go super simple - timer & dumb TRVS which is an easy fit to your existing system - or go balls deep and fit smart TRVs that call for heat on their own schedule everywhere to get the benefits of zoning without having to rewire and replumb. There are comfort benefits to going balls deep and if you have a requirement to keep a specific room at a specific temperature then it's justifiable but if you don't it's probably not worth the extra grand it will cost you.

Would be helpful in our school to stop the lower achievers passing the time by dismantling the sockets.

You call them lower achievers, we call them plumbers.

In my case I'd like smart TRVs as I want different rooms at different temperatures at different times of the day. As an example my bedroom is currently being used as an office from 9-5 which means sitting still so I want the temperature fairly high, maybe 21. At bed time I want it cooler, perhaps 18. So something that can let it cool down in the evening would be great. Meanwhile the living room needs to stay nice and toasty until 10 or 11.

Yep this is how we have ours set up. It's great being able to have each room on its own heating schedule and being able to control it from the app. It is more expensive than having a dumb TRV and just ignoring the fact that you are heating an empty room though!

The 'kids bedroom' use case for smart TRVs is the deal maker for me.

Yeah, but out and out insulting students is frowned upon these days.

I’m braking Howard’s Rule. Smart thermostat in the living room where we spend all our time, one smart TRV in the bedroom on its own schedule to stop us cooking when the heating comes on at 6am, then off during the day, little boost before bed. Works great.

Not looking forward to when tado get bought / go bust, but maybe we’ll have moved by then. Or it’s already malfunctioned and we’ve been cooked.

Mix and match systems are fine and it’s probably what you’ll end up with if you had a dumb timer / thermostat combo to start with - my suggestion is for CJRs context of what to do with an existing dumb system that has no thermostat.

I think Tado are as confused as everyone else as to what their thermostat is actually for. As soon as you add one smart TRV the thermostat stops making sense and should be replaced with another or more smart TRVs. Their survey they sent out the other week alludes to this.

Ain’t they pretty? From Westfield Fasteners, my supplier of choice.

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why would an electrical socket have low power?

we have a double socket that is branched off another (working) double socket and it doesn't work. I put a volt finder tester on it today and it lit up so there must be some power. then I got a lamp and plugged it in but it didn't come on despite the tester saying there was power in the cable. the lamp works elsewhere.

we got the electrics updated about 6 years ago but I'm not sure these sockets have ever worked. they're not in a very convenient location so I've ignored it but now I've realised that it's probably the only place that the kids wouldn't hear a turbo trainer from their bedroom.

is it likely to be something as dumb as loose connections in one of the sockets?

Smart thermostats keep getting mentioned in here, I think there pish personally, for people with too much time on there hands and a fad at Best but each to there own.

The main reason I bought mine was I lived by myself and traveled a lot for work. I often forgot to turn the heating off when I went away so would be heating an empty house for a couple of weeks.

Also, I've got to say that the voice control is nice.

Anyone know what fitment I'm missing?

It's a flat pack convertable cot bed we've been gifted.

The only remaining fixings look like they are for the conversion to bed.

Cheers.

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Loose terminations, faulty accessory, damaged cable. If it’s never worked it could be a load of things tbh.

One easy way to do some diagnosis would be to spend a tenner on a socket tester.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/lap-ms6860d-socket-tester/91596?tc=FB3&ds_kid=92700055262507126&ds_rl=1244066&gclid=CjwKCAiAjp6BBhAIEiwAkO9WuqEjn3UPiMnbvygYcdKkBA6M9_9mTGC5mcBHHDJYaMt8bB-YgpwU2BoCHeAQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Also as a bonus question, anyone have any ideas on how to prevent wobble and squeaking?

No.1 is an absolute bruiser and shakes his cots to bits.

I wondered about a thin smear of silicone on touching parts to form a sort of gasket/rubber washer.