Proper automation - or pointless remote control of devices?
There is a massive difference.
You make a good point, even after part automating my central heating, I still manually turn it off in the Summer. And the anti-hysteresis software is too good, so I by-pass it, asking for 22°C at 7 am then dropping to 20°C at 8 am as otherwise it is 10 am before settled at the new temperature.
This is where geofencing fails, if due to anti-hysteresis software it takes 3 hours to settle at a new temperature, then you need to be 3 hours away from home when the geofencing cuts in, even when from tip of North Wales where I live, I went on holiday to Forest of Dean so looking at the whole length of Wales, it did not take 3 hours to get home even towing a caravan, so wear could you use geofencing?
As to manually altering well yes I can see that is an option using a mobile phone, however in the main having to manually alter the temperature defeats the whole idea of automation, so we set timers which 99 times in a hundred do the job amply. So having telemetry controls may sound good, but in real terms only used once in a blue moon. Yes while I holiday I did look to see temperature at home, however there was no real need to know.
I have a double socket and a light switch that I can remotely control, light switch was simply so I didn't need to fit a two way switch and I can turn light on/off from bed, yes I can turn light on/off from Forest of Dean, but why would I want to? The sockets were fitted for a very special reason, we had a extruder alarm outside bedroom door to alert us if mother opened the outside doors, however if down stairs when a visitor arrived, that would mean running upstairs then down again before opening door, so stage one tried a simple remote controlled plug in unit, however we could no see if on or off and on a few times it was not switched on again, next was try a timer so off when carers arrived but on at other times, but carers would arrived early or late, so the smart socket had both remote control and fixed times in the same unit, so with three remote controls, one front door, one back door, one by my bed, and timers set by the PC we had an extruder alarm which we could control. Still using the equipment the social services recommended and supplied, it was there for a special situation which most people would not require.
Today that socket turns no my bedside lights, and only because I already have it, I could not think of any other use for it. The bedroom light switch is never now remotely operated, I don't sleep in that room, the TRV heads were about £80 a pair plus price of hub, the
terrier i-temp head cost £18 each so far far cheaper and do same as the MiHome but without the wifi link.
For the central heating what I want is a unit that says if any TRV head reports target over current temperature then switch on boiler, otherwise switch it off. With 4 or more wifi TRV heads in the winter one would always be calling for heat, so boiler would run, in summer they would never call for heat so boiler would stop. Seems simple enough, and some day some one may write an IFTTT app to do exactly that, however at the moment all we have is a follow commend with a Nest thermostat, I should not really need a wall thermostat, just a relay, the thermostats built into the TRV heads are ample. But at the moment I still have to use a thermostat to turn off the boiler when not required.
As said EvoHome may call the unit a thermostat, but really it is a hub, that displays the temperatures in each room, and allows you to adjust them without the need to boot up a PC, it does exactly what I need, however I already have MiHome heads fitted, don't really want to dump them and start again, there is one problem with EvoHome for me, although EvoHome has OpenTherm, my boiler does not, so all it can do is switch boiler on/off, it can't modulate the boiler. A Wave thermostat can modulate the boiler, however it does not take commands from the TRV heads. So because boiler is Bosch which does not support OpenTherm, I still need simple thermostats.
I have looked at other makes of control, Tado for example, however it seems reading the instructions it is like Nest and MiHome, there is a link between TRV heads and the thermostat, but it wants all rooms at same temperature which kind of defeats the whole idea. As yet only EvoHome seems to allow each room to be independently controlled.
However next comes trust, we see all the adverts for Hive, however it is not a modulating thermostat, it does not connect with the TRV heads, some versions will only switch 230 volt, we must give the Guy would is in charge of marketing full marks, as he seems to have cracked selling inappropriate controls to UK public, I will not say rubbish, as Hive controlling a hot air central heating system would work well, but since in the UK all new boilers must modulate to be condensating, and most will work with OpenTherm, except Bosch, then to market any thermostatic control in UK without the ability to modulate the boiler must take some doing, I have to give that marketing Guy full marks.
