Keeping your home warm / heating / energy crisis / insulation etc

Does anyone know where I can get some of the latest Tado TRVs with a discounted price? I unfortunately underestimated the amount we would need to get a set up that actually achieves the desired effect of reducing bills by creating independent zones 🙃😣

Apparently everybody had the same idea/issue as all deals have dried up recently... eBay has a 15% off thing today, find a 4-pack deal the offer applies to and go from there.

My price history with the tado purchases is:
1st order / 4-pack: £199 from toolstation (£50/each, super nice)
2nd order / 3-pack: £159 from amazon (£53/each), lost/cancelled/refunded (no they won't give me a voucher)
3nd order / 4-pack: £239 from ebay (£60/each) before the 10% and 15% coupons hit eBay, so missed an opportunity by ordering quickly

refer a friend thing on the tado site? maybe you could buy one valve then refer to get 15% off both purchases.
https://www.tado.com/gb-en/refer-a-friend

Thanks 🙏 @Mr_Smyth and @disq currently trying to get the set up an running before Xmas 🎅

if you want to save 15% i could do the offer with you? I'm looking for a few valves

Great! Send me a DM

Had a horrific nights sleep, but too knackered to really think about it.

Turns out the radiators have been on all night. I had a feeling the thermostat was a bit off, but I guess it must be fucked. It's a particularly awkward time for it to happen.

It's this old BG one. Does anyone know if these are the sort of things you can reset, or do they need to be replaced?

If I need to replace it, where do I start?

Our downstairs is cold because the sitting room only has a gas fire and there's no heating in the kitchen, our upstairs is usually warm. So in a way I'm never really sure how the temperature is measured or how it should be measured.

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We have that one. Assuming you've set your week/weekend times and temperatures, do you not just want to turn it off manual with the left/right arrows?

Our downstairs is cold because the sitting room only has a gas fire and there's no heating in the kitchen

Let me guess though - the ‘stat is downstairs…

Imagine pretty much any basic stat will do as a replacement but you could eBay search the model number of that one if you want a like for like replacement- if it is fucked

We had one of those on our old boiler, you need to make sure it's paired with the wirless receiver on the boiler.

There should be a 1 and 2 button on it, I think you had to take the batteries out of the thermostat then hold the 1 and 2 buttons in the receiver down until they flashed the put the batteries back in the thermostat whilst standing about a metre away from it then it paired.

I only had to do it once so I might be remembering wrong.

Hard to do in the middle of the night when you're asleep tho ;)

Yeah it's downstairs.

I think I'll give the re-pairing a go first. Although I'm not sure as I can still get it to manually override - which would suggest the BT works but something is up with the temp regulation.

I guess the follow up question is if I want a smart thermostat, do I just need a smart thermostat - which will include everything?

Or do I also need some extra gubbins to actually make it work?

Oh, so it went to manual by itself? I assumed you changed the mode without realising :/

I have the same one. Yeah it will have gone manual because someone pressed the plus or minus buttons to manually set a temperature.

As said earlier, press the right button to take it back into auto mode. Then consider placing it upstairs where you have the heating so it'll turn itself off when the upstairs reaches the desired temp.

Nothing broken about it, so no need to replace unless you're looking for an excuse to do so.

Is that BG one wireless? If so, (based on experience with Tado and Hive), you'll need a smart thermostat and a new controller at the boiler. Tado will also want a little bridge/dongle plugged into your router, but they come as a kit.

It is DIY-able if you're confident (you'll need to turn the electric off and follow a step by step guide).

Bonus is you can then start fucking around with TRVs and get really anal about heating individual rooms.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/tado-v3-heating-hot-water-wireless-smart-thermostat-starter-kit/141kt

downstairs

You need to position it where the temperature is directly influenced by the boiler. If there are no rads downstairs it will just call and call* but never shut down because it thinks it still needs to burn because the temperature is not being controlled. All the while overheating the upstairs.

* during the period where it’s timed to call.

Try repairing it and moving it upstairs, preferably to a position where there’s no TRV on the radiator.

Also, this looks to be a rebadged Drayton Digitstat +2RF, if that helps.

Knowing the model of the controller by the boiler will help work out what thermostats would be compatible. It may even be that a newer, smart Drayton stat would work. Maybe.

Cheers all. Idk why but I'd always assumed the thermostat was in BT box next to the boiler.

The black colour option is nearly half the price of the white, unless I'm missing something?

https://www.screwfix.com/p/tado-v3-black-edition-wireless-heating-hot-water-smart-thermostat-starter-kit/701kg

As an aside, does anyone actually use their Alexa / Google Home to control the heating?

Sometimes. "Alexa set the heating to x" gives a boost for a few hours.

But I also use it to control my lights and TV.

For info, 6kw solar PV array, 10kWh battery, since middle of the year, 300l direct HW tank to run bath and showers.

Cost around 14k, paying back over 12 years loan term, payment is around £78 a month, zero interest.

Electricity demand also includes charging an electric car (Nissan Leaf 30KWh).

Battery, HW tank and car allows us to use TOU tarrif to charge overnight on very cheap electricity during the winter.

Also had cavity insulation fitted which cut a third off gas bill and only cost £1400.

Located neat Dundee.

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and now amazon have cocked up the delivery for 8 tado TRV's and if it doesn't turn up today they will refund. bit annoying as will happily wait and don't need them until late Jan/early Feb. not sure if we should wait for january sales if they are the sort of thing to be discounted or buy from city plumbing or try and do the 15% thing.
I guess there was a lot of demand.