Owning your own home

Super quick one - Getting a new boiler installed next week.

Best Smart Thermostat for a combi?

Have a look at Heatgeeks

I got right down the rabbit hole on this and ended up with a Wiser by Drayton as it should stick to schedule even if the internet goes down. A lot of the others seem to need wifi to work properly.

I was also looking at one that worked properly with the right boiler protocol for controlling modulation via Opentherm but lost the will to live

I think the hive is the best, someone below suggested a wiser and as much as I think the 711 drayton is one of the best time clocks ever made Ive had 2 wisers installed do weird things after a while and took them out for the customers.

Fan favourite on here is the tado but its fuckin shit to install.

Depends on your usage. We are just in a small flat, ten year old bosch boiler (doesn't modulate afaik) but was good at the time.
Had a regular old clock on it and did normal heating things. Put tado on it 3 years ago, and then smart trv on relavent rooms. Made a fair difference to heating cost, and keeos the rooms you actually use the warmest. Also nice piece of mind you can be on another continent and just check that you haven't left the heating on, keep an eye on dew points etc.

From a pro gas installer pov, yeah as Kona says, they prefer Drayton wiser as a system. From a diy smart home geek pov, hive or tado is the favorite.

Fan favourite on here is the tado but its fuckin shit to install.

How come? Am about to pull the trigger on it.

Thought i'd follow up (7 months later) to this post of mine (TLDR - sellers tried to get £50k out of us 2 weeks before exchange and collapsed the sale).

We're a couple of weeks in to living in a better house, so it all worked out in the end. Those sellers fell out with the estate agent, who made them wait the ~ 6 weeks or so before they could relist. By a funny coincidence, they ended up relisting with the agents who sold us this house. So we continued to get updates on it.

They listed for £25k more than we were going to pay (50k? lol), and they ended up geting £13k more. Plus they'd have had double solicitor fees. So they were stuck in the UK, unable to emigrate for 5 months for an extra ~£10k. Apparently the house was absolutely filthy for the new buyers too.

We were lucky enough to be able to still sell our flat and move in with my parents. Us two and a toddler in a room for 6 months wasn't great, but we're in a way better house and probably a better location.

We actually found the second house pretty soon after. The purchase took forever (5.5 months) because of issues further up the chain. But throughout the whole process everyone behaved like adults and no one tried to dick around. It was refreshing.

TLDR some people are dicks and some people are sound. Good luck out there to anyone in the middle of a sale/purchase. It was shit and I'm not going through it for at least 10 years.

Thanks very much for this - I'll give her a call next week

It’s fine if you’re not doing three a week. Think the terminals are just a bit small or something.

Sweet cheers, going to order tomorrow.

Someone on here mentioned that if you buy direct from Tado you can get the euro version that modulates the boiler rather than just on/off (UK version that retailers here will have). Probably not a big deal unless you’re getting deep nerd.

The wiring part is too small and fiddly imo

As someone ready to move, waiting for our sellers to find a property in a fairly small geographical location due to their circumstances while we are chomping at the bit to get in, this is painful waiting. So far all has been ok other than that though.

I have an arts degree and managed to wire in a Tado, so I'm sure you'll be fine. You just copy the wires over.

Thought the wiser 1 channel did opentherm with combis?

Also worth noting how many rads you have which need trv valves as they can get spenny

We used to have Hive, then my OH canvassed colleagues and we got Nest in our new places. Its UI is so shit. Turns out the reccos were all people who’d never had another smart thermostat. And my OH has to do user research at work, for shame.

Thnx all for advice.
Spoke to insurance broker who gave details of the insurance claim handler because the insurance underwriters don’t mention it in their policy. Easy to get lost in this corporate
jungle of unaccountability. Still unsure if to make a claim.
More helpfully spoke to Citizens Advice bureau who explained there’s 2 options: take it up with the contractor under the consumer rights act (I ordered a waterproof house) or take it up with the roofer under common law as a breach of contract (not acting on his guarantee). Either of these could go to small claims. I sent the roofer a letter from a template Citizens Advice gave me.

Anyone know good roofers who do flat GRP roofs in London?

I could also use a name… similarly not great experience in the past

Good shout, thanks

bing AI reckons:

Bosch Series 2 HHF113BA0B built-in single oven in black could be a
suitable replacement for the Whirlpool AKP 207 IX oven

but

couldn’t find information about whether the Whirlpool AKP 207 IX oven and the
Bosch Series 2 HHF113BA0B built-in single oven are plug-in ovens or
direct cable ovens. However, I found that both ovens are designed to
be built-in and require professional installation.

It is so confusing. If a sparky turned up and they were different is it a huge job to retrofit to the other type?

The oven datasheet says it's 13amp which would suggest it works off a plug. Apparently the Grill uses 2500w which is around 10amps.

Been quoted £475 for labour to replace 4 old radiators. I’ve already ordered the replacements, due to the age of the old rads it was hard to get an exact size match.
One is almost exactly the same width as the old one. One is maybe 5-10mm wider than the old one (so I’m hoping existing pipes can be used but possibly not),two are a few inches narrower so will definitely need pipes moving.

Does that quote seem reasonable? Bristol-based. I could probably do it myself but I found the whole process so stressful last time I did it that I was keen to get someone in to do the 2nd lot.

I’m guessing it’s including all material if they need altered in sizes.

I’d say it’s reasonable.

Reasonable.

Yup reasonable and should cover copper and inhibitor etc. it's always worth getting multiple done as the main time drain is... draining the system then testing.

If you don't have a drain down valve get the plumber to fit one!