real world benefits of these fancy pants thermostats – nest, Tado etc.

Been reading up on these over the past few days. Costs aside looks like good functionality but can’t understand how they save you money. I like the idea of controlling via an app – not necessarily something you’d use frequently, but handy on those odd occasions, but in terms of saving money i’m not sure how that works. I sort of set the thermostat and leave it and the CH timer obviously controls when the CH is actually active, so not sure how the thermostat can learn your habits and adjust to save energy. I can see some benefits for my under floor heating zone as I guess it would learn the lag between demanding temperature and the system actually delivering, so you could teach it to crank it down during the day and crank it back up again for hometime when people are coming back from work and school, taking into account the lag.

Would you normally bypass/remove the timer and rely on the smart thermostat to suss out when your out or in – but then what about hot water?

What are peoples experiences on here? Sort of feels like a solution looking for a problem, or a solution way ahead of its time.

Cheers.

I think they are a first world solution to something that isn’t really a problem.

I always turn my thermostat down to 16C when I go out, effectively switching the heating off. If it’s cold weather I turn it back up to 19 or 20 when I get back and if need to, leave my fleece on until the house warms up.

I could do this remotely with an app but I would burn more gas to avoid a slightly cool house for 15 – 20 minutes.

My house is only a 3 bed bungalow which is well insulated, holds heat well and warms up quickly. I guess in older, larger and colder property the functionality may be useful but still can’t see how it really saves money.

If you want to save money turn the heating off.

If you already have a timed thermostat then not a great deal. If you don’t then they are a marked improvement but then so would a basic timed thermostat.

I got mine cheap in an Amazon Lightning deal (Netatmo) so made it an easy descision.

Thanks, thought so, just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing something. The Thermostat does get set to about 15 degs if were out for a long period or away and i’ve managed to creep the dial down to a sensible temperature away from the sub-tropical temperatures my wife wants the house to be, so for me seems like any savings would be marginal at best. Certainly can’t see me clawing the cost back within a year as per their marketing claim.

Honeywel Evohome can save upwards of 40% on gas, but obivously significant initial outlay. Worth it for the convenience factor though.

we bought hive, the boiler is in the garage and we needed an intelligent thermostat and Hive was on sale (*combi boiler so not using hot water facility), the only bell/whistle we use (over daily timeslots) is switching it on when we are an hour from home and switching it off on holiday (if we forgot before we went).

Honeywel Evohome can save upwards of 40% on gas

Really? I’m struggling to believe that without real world figures.

So claim Honeywell in the adverts. Not worked mine out but obviously going to save significant amounts if not heating all rooms whenever house thermostat calls for heat.

One of there selling points seems to be the ability to adjust the temperature of your central heating from the beach when on holiday.

For me, i’d pay extra to NOT be able to do that, as tbh, i’ve yet to sit on a lovely beach in say Thailand and think “hmmm, i wonder what my central heating is doing right now” as opposed to “ooh, this cool long G&T is going down well, and gosh, she’s got a rather nice ar*e” etc etc

Honeywel Evohome can save upwards of 40% on gas,

Only if prior to fitting you left the CH on when you went to work and post fitting you used a timer so it was only on when you are at home….

You’d be lucky to save 10% if you already have TRVs and a time based room thermostat before getting a slightly more intelligent controller.