[Closed] Honeywell Evo Home - Thoughts/Costs/Self Installation?

It's not too difficult to self install. I had a professional do mine but he didn't have a clue, so I had to do a lot of the set up myself. The only complicating factor is if you want to plumb in a hot water tank, which is a bit of a pain to set up to be honest.

Once you've wired in the control unit, everything else (apart from the hot water tank) is a 1 minute job. We're adding an underfloor heating zone this year but I'm thinking that will be just as easy as adding a radiator zone.

As to comfort, the big thing for me is keeping rooms cool. Having a bedroom that's nice and cool when heading off to bed after an evening in a toasty living room is a big plus. Saying that, I haven't really noticed a saving in heating bills over the piece and we've had ours for about 4 years.

Cost wise, you're about bang on but it's addictive ... Just one more zone.

Did mine myself but didn’t have to do a hot water tank as I have a combi boiler heating the water. As long as you can interpret wiring diagrams and figure out what’s what on your boiler  then it’s really easy. TRV’s about 1 min job, control unit to turn the boiler on and off about 30minutes, hour max. When testing it to see if it works there is a delay for the boiler to start or turn off, so don’t expect it to turn on/off straight away.

I have evohome I chose it over others because the ground floor of my house is noticeably colder than the upper floors, so I wanted to equalise the temp throughout the house. I wouldn't expect much of a return of your £500 unless your house is massive.

First off, I just bought the controller kit which operates like a standard thermostat (the controller has a thermostat inside). heating engineer who services my boiler, wired the relay box up for me, I took over from there. From memory, the controller has a start up wizard which you just follow. Bought 4 HR92 radiator controllers at a later date and installing them and binding to the main controller was straightforward. I now have 4 main rooms controlled (kitchen, lounge 2 x bedrooms) and minor rooms are just on standard TRVs, at some point I'll maybe add more HR92's.

I bought my kit from evohomeshop for the reason that they promise full tech support of your installation for peace of mind, which I had to use a month or two after I'd installed, but I could argue that it was because I couldn't be arsed reading the manual and working it out for myself, easier to phone them (it was a comms issue with the relay box which they sorted in a few mins). I also had a problem recently with the kitchen HR92 radiator controller, involved me having the read the installation manuals and fiddle about a bit rebinding to the controller and changing the valve stroke setting on the HR92, seems to have sorted the issue. NB mine was install to a combi boiler, don't know how complex an install to boiler, HW tank and /or UF heating system would be.

One thing you need to check is your existing TRV's, whether they are compatible, if not you'll need to factor in cost of getting them changed.

https://theevohomeshop.co.uk/content/9-honeywell-evohome-hr92-radiator-valve-compatibility

Like  a lot of the others you can control it from your phone and use something like IFTTT to turn it on and off when you leave and/or return, either by location based command or something like turning the CH off when your phone disconnects from your home wifi or whatever.

The only alternative that I would bother looking into is Tado. Their rad controllers weren't quite launched when I was in the market, but I stuck with evohome because their system has been available for years so well proven and Honeywell are a massive well established company, Tado a fairly new start up and I'd be a first user of their new rad controllers. Tado kit does look a bit sexier than Evohome

if anything else comes to mind I'll post up

with an oil fired boiler

They're really expensive to run, so maybe you will see a worthwhile saving, especially if you can turn the boiler off whenever there's no one in the house. I think Tado monitors multiple phones location to control the CH. Evohome using IFTTT is a bit of a not perfect bolt on

Thanks for all the thoughts everyone! Plenty for me to look into, I would be wanting to control HW too so I suppose I need to figure out how much of a faff that is, is the existing thermostat compatible etc...will go and check the TRVs too. Phone signal is pretty patchy for us and WiFi is split over 2 networks so I need to make sure that won’t cause any problems

Favourites don't work. Replies seem to be the only way to save threads!  Looking to install something like this.  I have a combi boiler, radiator TRVs upstairs and underfloor heating downstairs,  the controls for which I've never fully understood since moving in 4 years ago!

Have a look at Genius home (Heat Genius) as an alternative. Compares favourably from my research.

I installed it myself. It's not particularly difficult. If you have a hot water tank you need to think about how you're going to do it - an invented one may have a spare thermostat pocket or you might need to sacrifice your immersion heater.

Recommend it. Got a Nest now after moving to smaller house.

Why do you need to check for phone signal or worry about WiFi?

Genius, and I expect Evohome, use Z-Wave to communicate. Lower frequency, lower bandwidth so goes further.

With regards your TRV's, if they are not on the list or none branded you should contact evohomeshop or maybe evohome help directly and they will ask you to remove the head and take some measurements. they can then tell you if it is compatible (with or without the adaptor).

the main forum for evohome is automatedhome.co.uk, heating control forum, evohome people monitor it and rameses is the main evohome person. If you wish, you can also sometimes get software updates before general release.

Why do you need to check for phone signal or worry about WiFi?

Genius, and I expect Evohome, use Z-Wave to communicate. Lower frequency, lower bandwidth so goes further.

You're referring to Z-wave comms between relay box, main controller and rad controllers within the home. phone signal/WiFi issue will be about controlling remotely, say at work or where ever. Or a set of commands from your phone turning the boiler off when you leave home and turning it on when you set off home from work or are x miles away from home and/or a multitude of other possible remote instructions. WiFi shouldn't be an issue as long as it works, but living in a remote area with patchy phone reception would potentially cause the above automated commands from your phone not to happen . It doesn't affect anything to do with the system as such, It's just an add on benefit and would be the same issue for whatever system you installed and wanted to control remotely.

Just remembered something I meant to add: if you install it yourself, read the guidelines for device positioning (the wireless relays) and stick to it. They’re very vulnerable to interference and pretty much any problem with communication in the system will be caused by incorrect positioning.

There are guidelines for both distance from metal objects and from other wireless transmitters.

Super easy for me but it was replacing some Honeywell wireless thermostats (screen dying as that model seems to) so I just reused the BDR91s and re-paired.

Our house has three zone valves (one per floor) each with a BDR91, so now use the main Evohome unit as thermostat for downstairs, then have two simple stats on the other floors. Not felt the need for TRVs yet.

I would be wanting to control HW too so I suppose I need to figure out how much of a faff that is, is the existing thermostat compatible etc

It will depend on how the system is wired, but I was able to leave the existing HW tank thermostat in place, but just set a few degrees warmer than the evohome one. Also managed to fit the temperature sensor inside the same tank pocket as the existing  thermostat.  Works well.

When I researched it all I worked out that for some of our rooms it wouldn't just be TRV's I would need as they would be behind curtains / furniture etc.

So then you need to factor in room thermostats + the TRV's

I fitted a load of these about 6 years ago with no problems as a cheaper alternative

They dont connect to a central hub as such, but you can program each valve seperately on the valve head, and you can get a small remote than allows you to change the temp up and down if necessary. The remote can link to multiple valves, and you can use more than one remote for different floors / areas.

can also program them from a laptop with the USB stick accessory.

https://gasproducts.co.uk/terrier-i-temp-i30-programmable-radiator-control.html

I worked out that for some of our rooms it wouldn’t just be TRV’s I would need as they would be behind curtains / furniture etc.

So then you need to factor in room thermostats + the TRV’s

The system comes with at least one remote thermostat included. The main controller unit has a thermostat which becomes dumb when you start adding HR92 rad. controllers, however you can activate it and use it as a remote thermostat bound to the HR92 in that room. I've done this in the lounge where the radiator is at the opposite end of the room from a window and door (the main controller sited by the window/door, obviously).

Funkydunc is right tho, to have a chance of working properly the HR92's have to be open to the room, so not behind a sofa or floor length curtains if under a window etc. TBH the big flaw in the system is that the thermostat ends up right by the radiator, but that goes for all the others as well. Having said that, it works well IME so can't be that big an issue, as long as it's not impeded..

OP did you go for EvoHome?

We are in the process of purchasing a house with oil burning heating and water heater tank. Did the install go ok, did you do it yourself ?

For our house the total system cost will be approx £1000 just for the kit! Appears daft to do it in stages as the rad without EVO will always draw heat whenever another radiator is on?

Hi FunkyDunc, yep, we got the installation done just before Christmas, was thinking I’d wait a little longer to post a reply up on here but since you ask...

We ended up getting someone in to do it. It was about £300 worth of labour, which I thought was worth it for getting it done quickly and minimising the risk of being without working CH in winter. We’ve barely had it a month so not sure of the impact on oil usage yet.

You’re correct I thinking any rads with a regular thermostat will be on whenever the boiler kicks in. Whilst not ideal we baulked at the cost of doing all the rads, we opted to do 10 out 17. We picked key rooms (lounge, kitchen, bedrooms and hallways), the rooms not changed we assumed we will leave the stats on low and manually adjust when needed, or just leave on all the time. These rooms are typically smaller, with smaller rads shower rooms, utility room, vestibule so I figured they’re going to be a small fraction of the total heating duty. Once the main controller is installed adding a new thermostat is pretty easy, just unscrew the old one and pop the Evohome one. I’m told pairing it is quite straightforward though I’ve not tried it yet. So we figured it should be easy to expand down the line if we think we need more control.

My wife and I have both really liked it so far, before we were either too cold or feeling like we had the house running too hot and wasting oil. It feels much easier to settle on just right. Not sure how much money it will actually save but I think we’ll be more comfortable! Don’t think we established a stable datum since moving here so I’m not sure we’ll ever have a good grasp of the benefit (or lack thereof).

We love:
- being able to tweak things remotely from our phones (can also manually adjust at the thermostat)
- having a minimum temp set in our daughters room and not having to worry she’s too cold on the really icy nights
- the house being just the right temp

Note when actuating there’s a little bit of noise from the stat (wee electric motor) this doesn’t really bother us

Annoyingly there’s no historian so you can’t go and geek out at trends...

Feel free to ask any more Q’s either here or PM!

Appears daft to do it in stages as the rad without EVO will always draw heat whenever another radiator is on?

Only if you have your manual trv"s turned to 11.

For starters you have to have at least one rad free flowing, so no choice. Manual trv"s do have control 0:is off, 1: will turn your rad off at approx 15°, 2: will turn your rad off at approx 17° 3: approx 19° etc. etc.
I didn't bother with hr92"s in my upstairs kit/storage room (set to 2), upstairs laundry (3) and store room off the kitchen (2).

For starters you have to have at least one rad free flowing, so no choice.

Must admit I missed that one! Is that to allow the pump to cycle after heating switched off? I guess that would be the smallest rad or one in an area without much use.

Other question is range of the system. Layout is garage (with boiler in), utility, kitchen, dining room, lounge, conservatory. All in a long row. Will communication for the system be an issue? Does the main controller act as the communication between all the devices?

mostly bathrooms apparently, I have mine thru a small rad on landing. yes for the pump I believe, so it doesn't ever hit a wall when pushing water thru, I suppose.
I think the range is pretty decent, I have a 3 storey house without issue. I believe you bind controller to relay box at boiler (relay box is wired to boiler so wire can be as long as you like I expect), HR92 rad controllers are individually bound to the controller. Once you start adding HR92's the Controller thermostat becomes dumb, so controller can be sited where ever (you can reactivate the controller thermostat and bind it to the HR92 in that room if you wish) best Phoning The Evohome Shop for more advice.

I installed our evohome system a couple of years back. Wasn't too difficult - certainly the time I spent working it out from scratch was less than the installation quotes I was getting.

Range is from the control unit, yes.

I'm very happy with the evohome system, but if I was doing it again, I'd have a good look at the Drayton Wiser system. Seems pretty similar, but a bit cheaper.

Whilst not ideal we baulked at the cost of doing all the rads, we opted to do 10 out 17. We picked key rooms (lounge, kitchen, bedrooms and hallways)

I left the hallways and kitchen on standard TRVs, and the bathroom (towel) radiators open. I figured that if I was running heating anywhere, I'd want those spaces to heat.

best Phoning The Evohome Shop for more advice

I wasn't that impressed with them when I contacted them ahead of purchase, led me to buy elsewhere. Maybe I caught them on a bad day, though.

I fitted the system myself. It's not difficult but you would need a reasonable understanding of how the typical S or Y plan work. Depending on how hold it is, consider buying a new wiring centre and four core cable for the BDR91s, as doing it from scratch will be much easier than trying to bodge it into an existing system.

Wago do a really nice one with their push-fit connectors, but you will massively help yourself in the future if you (a) label everything first and (b) use right-angles in any links or connectors. I appreciate that it sounds neurotic but there are a lot of connections to make and you'll no doubt discover when you take the lid off your existing one that plumbers don't make good electricians.

I’m very happy with the evohome system, but if I was doing it again, I’d have a good look at the Drayton Wiser system. Seems pretty similar, but a bit cheaper.

The Drayton Wiser also has range extenders so in theory should communicate over a greater distance. What Evohome has over all the others is maturity, 16 years I believe. However, the downside of that is some of the software and protocol stuff has majorly moved on, which newer entrants have taken advantage of and evohome can't, without ditching Rameses II and starting again from scratch (a bit like STW with this forum a few months ago).

My EvoHome kit has arrived, now just waiting for a sparky to come fit it as not a straight forward install unfortunately.

I know this might sound daft but do the valves communicate to the controller via your home WiFi or EvoHome own network?

I’m a bit concerned as our new house is an old cottage extended length ways, so what was once a thick external wall is now a thick internal wall ! The boiler is in what was the old cottage and most of the house the other side of the wall. WiFi signal barley gets through the wall

Installed my first Drayton Wiser today.

Quite liked it, user interface looks nice, reasonably easy to install, room units are nice.

Will be adding some radiator thermostats soon so will report how that goes.

FunckyDunc
1 My belief is that it uses radio frequency(RF) comms with the HR92's and boiler relay box.
My instruction and my installation manuals refer to RF comms and:
RF Communication
RF operation band ISM (868.0 – 870.0) MHz, RX class 2
1% Duty Cycle
RF communication range 30m in a residential building environment
I believe the RF security protocol they use is called Rameses II

2 Your relay box, which is wired to the boiler, in theory could be sited anywhere you want. obviously you still need it wired to the boiler but I dont think there will be a restriction on the length of wire.
Equally you can site the controller anywhere you want ie middle of the house (the thermostat in the controller becomes dumb once you start adding HR92's, so doesn't affect the system. you can reactivate it if you wish to use it ie bind it to a HR92 in that room)

2 Your relay box, which is wired to the boiler, in theory could be sited anywhere you want. obviously you still need it wired to the boiler but I dont think there will be a restriction on the length of wire.

That was my thought to run the cable all the way through the loft space and drop it back down again more centrally in the house.

Hopefully the radio frequency will be stronger than my WiFi to reach outer rooms

Hopefully the radio frequency will be stronger than my WiFi to reach outer rooms

i had this concern but it does seem to be much better than my (tp-link archer c9) wifi - the farthest rad thermostat (5 walls from controller, wifi needs a powerline) has a comms issue once every 6 months ish and i bring it closer to the controller to get get reacquainted and it's alright again

All fitted and working with some initial teething problems. The valves are not all the same and I’ve had to fit adapters and change TRV settings

How can you tell from the app if the boiler is actually on? I think 1 valve may be faulty. The temp in the conservatory goes up dramatically in the day time even though it hasn’t been sunny this week!

Also during the day/night when not in use are people putting room temp down to 5deg or leaving around 15 ?

Thanks