Teething troubles..

[Fainbrog]

Hi all,

Trying to get my head around things with the system we have set up for my elderly father. I live 100-odd miles away from him so am trying to figure things out remotely, sending my brother in occasionally to assist..

We have a BDR91 connected to the boiler, a number of HR92 TRVs and the evoHome display thermostat.

Having had some initial problems - my bad, I put the TRVs on the Danfoss valves wrong, so heating was belting out constantly, creating a tropical microclimate in his flat - we’ve corrected that, but now, I’m seeing stuff happening that I’m not expecting and wishing there was more I could do/see from the app. I’m using the Total Connect Comfort app, which I was directed to on setting things up, but it’s nowhere near as comprehensive as the Hive app (which I have at home) so I can’t for example see if the boiler is actually on and heating.

What I am seeing is the temp dropping overnight, which is as expected, we have some rooms dropping after 2230, with a target temp of 15 and, this morning, I could see things had dropped to 19 overnight and then at 0700 things started warming up. So far, so good. But, the room temps then hovered just below the target and my dad was complaining things were a bit chilly. So, I changed the schedule to a higher temp, but, the temps never rose that much. Which is why I’m wishing I could see if the boiler was firing, I’m trying not to trouble him every 5 mins to see if the blasted thing is running..plus, I’ve clearly got too much time on my hands looking at what the heating is doing.

I’m also seeing one of the zones, the living room, which has 2 rads in (all the others are just a single rad/TRV in each room) changing from a normal target temp of 22 to 5, showing ‘until’ the end of the schedule period, 2230. It’s not at target temp, yet, drops to 5 degrees. Changing the temp back, soon after, it drops back to 5 again..

It’s frustrating being this far from the action and having so little info..and not being able to do anything.

Not sure what I’m asking here tbh. Is there a better app, with more control/visibility of what the system is doing? (there’s clearly loads of info on the evoHome display). Why is that one zone going rogue and dropping to target temp of 5? Is it right that most of the rooms won’t actually reach their target temp?

I suspect I’m going to get roasted here for not being able to categorically say that the rads are actually on and heating etc.. wishing we’d just gone old school and given him normal TRVs and a twiddly dial room stat that he understood tbh.

[DanD]

Here are my thoughts as a happy Evohome user for about the last 10 years.

I’m also seeing one of the zones, the living room, which has 2 rads in (all the others are just a single rad/TRV in each room) changing from a normal target temp of 22 to 5, showing ‘until’ the end of the schedule period, 2230. It’s not at target temp, yet, drops to 5 degrees. Changing the temp back, soon after, it drops back to 5 again..

This behaviour can be caused by either the 'window' function being triggered or if the top of the HR92 has been rotated clockwise a few clicks to select OFF. The 'window' function is triggered if there is a sudden large change in the temperature being measured as might occur if a window has been opened near the radiator, the HR92 display will show WINDOW at the bottom and the controller will show a picture of a window next to the zone's setpoint, but this information isn't displayed on the app. If the HR92 has been set to OFF it will show this on its display and ignore any remote setpoint changes until the top has been rotated anti-clockwise to switch it back on, but the app doesn't report if a HR92 has been set to off apart from initially showing the 5deg setpoint.

Not sure what I’m asking here tbh. Is there a better app, with more control/visibility of what the system is doing? (there’s clearly loads of info on the evoHome display). Why is that one zone going rogue and dropping to target temp of 5? Is it right that most of the rooms won’t actually reach their target temp?

The simple answer to your first question is no, I don't think there 's a better app unless you want to spend some time setting up the Evohome system within a home automation program like HA or Domoticz. Which is probably overkill for your purposes unless you want to begin logging temperatures etc, but it still won't show you the actual boiler status. With regards to rooms not actually hitting their setpoints this can have many causes, but if Evohome has been added to an existing installation which previously heated the rooms adequately then increasing the setpoints should eventually result in comfortable temperatures. It sounds like you've already gone through the process of ensuring the HR92s are fitted correctly to each TRV and this should have allowed them to each calibrate OK. The only other issue I've encountered is that Evohome works really well when the radiators have been properly balanced and it can reveal radiator issues.

I'd encourage your father to treat the HR92 radiator controllers like conventional thermostatic TRVs and if a room is feeling cold, to rotate the top anticlockwise a few clicks to increase the setpoint. This setting will get reset at the next controller setpoint change though, so if he's having to do this regularly then tweak the programmed setpoint.

[dave.harding100@gmail.com]

" I can’t for example see if the boiler is actually on and heating."

I had this frustration as well when Evohome first installed (3 yrs ago). The answer is buried in a hidden display on the handheld controller (but not on the remote app):

>>>press 'settings' for a few seconds and you get the option to go to the 'configuration' menu.
>>>press the 'system summary' option and you see a %age for the demand on each radiator

Good news is that, after a couple teething issues, Evohome has settled down and has proven mostly very reliable for me over 3 years.

Good luck