Drayton Wiser Smart Heating Radiator Thermostat Works with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, IFTTT

Product Information

A smart thermostat is an internet connected heating control that allows you to manage your home’s temperature and heating schedules from a remote location, using your smartphone or tablet. Versions of both are available. The battery-operated control is used for a two wiring installation and the mains version is used for a four wire installation. require a combined programmer and thermostat with an ‘advanced’ energy saving feature. Namely: weather compensation, load compensation or smart controls that combine automation and optimisation features. (Or you can fit a flue gas recovery unit.) New installations of a heat only or system boiler: Drayton Wiser may be functional, but its plain all-white plastic design certainly isn’t stylish. If you prefer gadgets that make a design statement, this isn’t the smart thermostat for you.

The recommended setting for maximising comfort and energy efficiency is 18°C-21°C but it is down to personal preference. We would suggest trying different temperatures until you find the lowest comfortable temperature for your requirements. The output of a radiator can be controlled by restricting the flow of hot water in or out. This can be done a number of ways with manual valves, traditional TRVs and smart radiator valves. Drayton has a range of time controls that give you different levels of flexibility. Some allow you to set a 24 hour programme that will be repeated on a daily basis, others offer a 5 day/2 day programme which enable you to set different programmes for the week and weekend, and some allow you to set a different programme for each day.The third-party smart TRVs reviewed here all do much the same thing, it is the control thermostat that is the most important choice. The Honeywell EvoHome is suited for much larger properties. All six other thermostats are compatible with the vast majority of heating systems (old and new boilers) and will operate the boiler efficiently based on a learned pattern of when you need heat. A combi-boiler is typically found in smaller properties and provides on demand hot water compared to a conventional boiler that requires hot water to be stored in a cylinder. Banging or hammering in a system is caused by excess pressure or water turbulence in a system rapidly lifting and shutting the valve seat. If this is happening it would be advisable to get a qualified heating engineer to take a look at your system. Reboot. Reinsert the batteries after a short gap, e.g. 10 seconds. Make sure you get a strong red LED and that the solenoid electrically retracts the pin into the body to its maximum, so the TRV is fully open. If this does not happen, then swap the batteries out with others until it does. These smart radiator thermostats replace the TRVs (thermostatic radiator valves) on your radiator, the type that let you adjust the temperature of the radiator manually. If you don’t have TRVs then you’ll need to bear the cost of changing your current valves to TRVs on top of the cost of the smart heating system. There’s no denying the radiator thermostats are bulkier than TRVs, but we found we didn’t notice them as much as we expected to.

For heating, both relays can act as simple on/off switches, but they also support OpenTherm for compatible boilers. Where possible, you should use OpenTherm, as this technology can adjust the boiler’s output automatically based on demand, using the minimum amount of gas required to get your home up to temperature. Powered by two AA batteries, the smart thermostat can be freestanding on a table or shelf, or mounted on a wall. It has three touch controls on the front. The plus and minus button allow you to adjust the desired temperature of the room, while the middle button boosts the heating in said room by two degrees. The screen automatically goes to sleep after 15 seconds to conserve the battery, but pressing any of the three touch controls will wake it up. Both Worcester and Vaillant offer their own smart TRVS that are only compatible with their products. Advantages A cylinder thermostat is used to measure the temperature of the hot water stored in a cylinder when using aA room thermostat measures air temperature and can demand heating when the ambient temperature is below the set point. They are typically used alongside time controls and have the ability to turn off the boiler when set point is achieved. Drayton’s smart control is the Wiser system. Upgrading from a traditional system to Wiser can be as easy as swapping out the existing timeswitch or programmer for the appropriate Wiser hub. As well as giving you smart capability, Wiser also lets you add other devices such as smart radiator thermostats to give room by room control and really drive the efficiency of your central heating system. For more information on Wiser go to Wiser.draytoncontrols.co.uk Radiator Control and TRV FAQs

There’s also an Away mode, where your heating is set to a reduced temperature (configured by you). This mode is handy when you’re out or on holiday. There’s only manual operation of this, but you can use the IFTTT channel to build your own geolocation service, either for one device or, with a service such as Life360, for your entire family. From the home screen, you can also view the weather for your location and sunrise and sunset times, too. The cog icon at the top of the home screen provides access to the main Settings menu, from where you can activate smart modes such as Eco and Comfort, and set a temperature for the Away mode. What are smart radiator valves? Can they work with your current heating controls? How much are smart TRVs? However once set, it did work, and other than sun through bay windows, which no system can correct, the temperatures in rooms were within 0.5°C once set.the logic behind smart TRV's is you don't heat empty rooms this only really works if every room has a smart TRV Honeywell Evohome gives more flexibility, with its custom actions and IFTTT channel. Its radiator thermostats are also more fully featured, letting you set the temperature you want from the room. If you want the most powerful and flexible multiroom heating system, then, we’d recommend Evohome. On most Drayton programmable thermostats there is a choice of 2, 4 or 6 time/temperature periods in a day, you can simply select your preference. However, if you opt for New Digistat then you can set up to 8 time/temperature periods in a day Smart Controls FAQs It’s really easy to adjust heating schedules on the go using a smart control, which means you can reduce energy consumption by tailoring heating periods to fit in with your lifestyle and routine.

The Heat Hub is a rectangular box with two buttons. One button activates the set-up process, while the other starts the whole system heating. LEDs above the buttons glow green when these options are active. The Heat Hub should be screwed to the wall next to your boiler. The square smart thermostat has a two-inch screen that shows the current temperature of the room it’s in, as well as the desired temperature. It also displays the relative humidity and battery level, and features a flame icon to indicate if the heating is switched on. But if *any* other Wiser TRV *or* the room stat calls for heat *all* the non Wiser TRVs rads heat up (inc the 2 in the room stat room). There’s no geolocation built into the app to set Away mode automatically, although the IFTTT channel does let me automate this. I have my system turn on Away mode when the Abode alarm turns on; when the alarm turns off, I have Wiser turn Away mode off.

Auto-balancing TRV4 - angled 15mm

You can use an app on a smartphone or tablet to turn the heating on or off, and adjust the temperature without needing to be near the home – as long as you have an internet connection. For instance, if you have gone to work and left the heating on, you are able to remotely switch it off with the touch of a button, allowing for greater freedom and control over the amount of energy you are using. A timeswitch is a single channel control, typically used with a combi boiler and allows you to control the times the heating switches ON/OFF. Some manufacturers have produced a wireless TRV that can be controlled and adjusted from a smart phone, however unlike smart TRVs they do not communicate with the thermostat to bring the boiler on and off. The thermostat will have to be on anyway and the only real benefit is that you do not have to physically adjust the TRVs, they can be done from your phone. The products below are only wireless TRVs. The Tado TRVs can work in the same way. Smart TRVs Full layout is 8 Wiser TRV rads, 3 Bathroom (Non TRV rads), 2 Hall (Old TRV) Rads, plus the 2 (Old TRV) rads in the Room stat room, 15 in total. The Drayton Wiser system lets you set a schedule for each thermostat, indicating a desired temperature for each room in your home at different times of the day. For example, you can set the bathroom to warm up first thing in the morning and last thing at night, if you don’t use it during the day. As already mentioned, you can override a set schedule at any time by manually twisting the top of the radiator thermostat (turning the heating on in that room for 30 minutes) or from the app, where you can choose for the heating to remain on for between 30 minutes and three hours.