Category: Blog

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The BIG heating control comparison table

You can read all the reviews but with an increasing number of smart thermostats becoming available in the UK, it can be hard to keep track of which features each heating control system offers. Which lets you zone your house using wireless radiator valves? Which is smart enough to learn when you’re normally around? Which does both? Okay, the answer to the last one is easy – only Heat Genius – but for all your other questions, here’s a handy comparison table we made using data from the excellent Recombu smart thermostat roundup:

System Nest Hive Honeywell Evohome Heat Genius OWL Intuition Tado Salus iT500 Cosy Climote
Kit price £179 £159 £241 £249 £180 £249 or 6.99/month £139 £169 [1]
Installed price £149 £199 On application On application On application £299 £299
Daily time zones Unlimited 4 Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited 6 Unlimited Unlimited
Learning [2]
Geolocation [2]
Motion Sensing [2]  
Weather Monitoring
Frost Protection
Smoke Alarm
(Nest Protect £109)
Home Automation
Electricity Monitoring
Smartphone App Control
(£57)
(£36/year, first year free)

[1] Pre-launch price on kickstarter.
[2] Scheduled for future update.

Table content originally from Recombu, re-used here with permission of the author. Read their article for more information about each system.

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If Siri could see, would she care for me?

Apple recently revealed their interest in using motion sensors to observe users’ normal patterns of behaviour and provide better care for the elderly. Their proposed system takes account of the context, such as time, as well as behaviour – so it can do things like reminding somebody to take medication half an hour after eating breakfast.

It’s an excellent niche market, because it’s easy to imagine how such a system could be useful enough to justify the cost of the hardware. But in the future, most households will adopt motion sensors for the same reason they’re currently beginning to embrace smart home technology in general: to save energy.

Energy saving is the ‘killer app’ of home automation, because as well as the geeky pleasure of being able to remote control your house from the pub, it offers significant financial savings that easily justify the investment. Systems like British Gas’ Hive are already gaining popularity, but it’s more advanced systems such as Heat Genius that are leading the way by incorporating ‘zoning’ and motion detection.

How does it work? Put simply, Heat Genius learns when you use each room of your house and automatically control each radiators so that the room’s only heated when you’re going to use it. Of course there’s always the option to manually override the system from any web device, this unique fully automatic mode means turns it into a ‘fit and forget’ option. Ideal for the elderly, or indeed anybody with better things to do than reprogramming heating schedules.

Heat Genius will offer an open API, so others are sure to build on the system to offer additional functionality without the expense of new hardware. Obvious additional services include intrusion detection and security monitoring, or care monitoring services for the elderly and vulnerable. By the time Apple gets around to designing their new granny-friendly iHome, they might well have some upstart competitors who got there first.

Heat Genius team

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New version of the Heat Genius app released

We’ve been beavering away on the Heat Genius app, adding some neat little features and ironing out a few niggles.  To use the new features all you need to do is quit the app and then launch it and log in again, you’ll then get all these features automatically – we just thought we’d let you know what’s new.New features for easier scheduling

  • Adjust your whole house from one screen
    • Heading out? Just go to the ‘whole house’ page to turn down the temperature for the whole house or selected rooms of your choice. And of course, you can also use this to turn the heating up before you get home.
  • All off
    • Now you can turn the heating off for the whole house at the touch of a button on the whole house page – then restore the rooms when you come home and they’ll go back into the mode they were in before.
  • Select All & Copy
    • You told us that the tick boxes for copying the times from one day to another (or copying the schedule from one week to another) were fiddly to select when you’re using a smartphone. So we’ve now made it so that you can also select the text to choose the days of the week or the rooms that you want to select. You can also click “select all” to copy all of the days or rooms.
  • You can now click on a day to add a new heating period
    • When you’re setting up the timers, you can now just click on the active day and this will automatically add a new time period, so you don’t have to scroll further down the page to tap the add new heating period button.
Other new and improved features
  • Edit logon details now straight from the app, under the cogs button
    • You can now edit your logon details straight from the app if you want to change your username or password.  Look for this under the cogs icon.
  • Oops, we broke the bug report facility!
    • And we thought we weren’t getting any messages because everything was perfectly bug-free 😉  We’ve fixed it now, so let us have your feedback by clicking the option under the cogs button – we’ll get straight on the case.
We’re already working on some exciting new features – we’ll let you know as soon as they’re ready!– The Heat Genius Team

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Half of UK householders think its cheaper to leave the heating on

Time to bust some energy myths! A recent survey of UK householders showed that a shocking 50% think it’s cheaper to leave their home heating on all day than turning the heating on or off and up or down when required. That’s simply not true. According to the Energy Savings Trust,

“For the majority of householders leaving your room thermostat on all day at a lower temperature will not only mean that your home will never be at a comfortable temperature but it will also waste heat when you do not need it. Room thermostats turn the heat on and off when your home reaches the set temperature that you feel comfortable at. Combine this with a timer control that tells your heating system to come on only when you need it to save money on your energy bills.”

Or even better, use Heat Genius to schedule each room to come on only when you need it, and save even more money on your energy bills! Even though a typical system will cost a few hundred pounds, we reckon it’ll easily pay back for itself in 2-3 years – and go on to save thousands of pounds in its lifetime.

The Energy Saving Trust also say that the UK could collectively save nearly £4.4 billion on energy bills if we all take three simple energy saving actions at home:

  • Turn it off – Make sure you turn your lights, appliances and chargers off when you’re not using them. Virtually all electrical and electronic appliances can safely be turned off at the plug without upsetting their systems.
  • Turn it down – Many households have their central heating set higher than they need, without even realising it. If it’s too warm inside, try turning your room thermostat down by one degree and see if you are still at a comfortable temperature. Every degree that you turn it down will make additional savings to your heating bill.
  • Let there be light – Households can now get LED spotlights that are bright enough to replace halogens, as well as regular energy saving bulbs (‘compact fluorescent lamps’ or CFLs) for pretty much everything else. They come in a variety of shapes, sizes and fittings and can save households money on their energy bills.

Mind you, maybe we shouldn’t be surprised how many easy opportunities there are to save energy when the same survey revealed that only slightly more than half (54%) know that turning a thermostat up higher doesn’t make your home heat up faster! Let’s spread the knowledge, by sharing this post and other ways we can all cut our energy bills and our carbon footprints.