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Mighty Gadget – Genius Hub Review

We were lucky enough to get another independent review of the latest Genius Hub Smart Heating system by Mighty Gadget. Here is what they said:

MIGHTY GADGET REVIEW by JAMES SMYTHE

Genius Hub formerly Heat Genius has been around for a few years now, launching when the smart home heating market was just taking off. At the time they were about the only company to offer zoned heating on the market.

Zoned heating allows you to control more than just your boiler, you can have radiators on a schedule using different temperatures throughout the day, and with Heat Genius you can even have presence detection.

Since then the competition has ramped up with Tado, Honeywell, Netatmo, Eve and others all offering zoned options. There is also RadBot which sort of sits in the middle between a dumb TRV and a smart programmable valve.

I have been lucky enough to use Genius Hub for a few years now, I have not switched to one of the better-known brands, and I would say this is a testament to how good their system is. I have had some of the radiator valves since version one, all of which have been discontinued, be the Genius system still supports them, and I have not been forced to swap out old for new.

Over the years, Genius has carved a niche for themselves in the market,  becoming popular with larger homes, hotels and businesses. The reason being, of course, is that zoned heating can save a fortune when you are dealing with dozens of rooms and all the radiators.

There are also various other accessories you can get to improve the system, the main two being the thermostat, and room sensor. Both of these keep track…

To see full review, please click this link: https://bit.ly/2JAGo3W

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Working with professionals at Mode Hotel Lytham is great!

Working with professionals at Mode Hotel Lytham is great!

LYTHAM ST ANNES

Not one but two… Andrew already has the Genius Hub in his very smart Mode Hotel in Lytham St Annes, and now the Genius Hub is going into his second hotel which is just finishing a major refurbishment down the road in Lytham.

The Mode Hotel in Lytham St Annes is no ordinary hotel, owner Andrew Whitaker realises the importance of the latest technology to make the guests experience easier and more memorable. 

When you check into this sea front hotel offering great views of the sea and promenade, you’ll not only get a wonderfully warm welcome from Anna, but you will find in your hotel room your very own smartphone which you can use during your stay at the hotel. It helps you to find out information about the area on a designated website, you can use it to take photos and you can even email friends from it. 

You are not limited to only using this in the room neither, it has a mobile SIM so you can take it with you down the beach or into town, and if anyone calls the hotel for you it is forwarded directly to the room phone, in your pocket or hand bag wherever you are!

When it comes to the rooms then there are our smart valves to make sure that the room is at just the right temperature when the guests arrive. If guests boost the heating when they are in the room and forget to turn the radiator down again, then rather than come back to a sauna, as like with traditional heating systems the smart TRVs will turn down after a pre-set time so guests come back into a room at just the right temperature again.

With the occupancy detection Andrew knows that the rooms will be heating when the guests arrive and will drop to a cooler temperature when they head out into the town or for a bracing walk along the seafront in the winter months, saving valuable energy and improving the guest experience at the same time.

What’s been great about working on this project is working with professional Hotel Design consultants Joel Firth from Firth Architects and also Tom Bailey from Bailey Engineering. Getting into the design early has meant that the cost of installation is kept to a minimum as only the right control is added first time, and when calculating the ‘unders and overs’ for Genius Hub verses basic controls (that give little if no savings) it makes the payback on a Genius Hub system all the more attractive.

From an installation perspective all of the Electric Switches controlling the dual fuel towel radiators can be flush mounted easily with no surface boxes to be seen, this makes for a really smart installation, costing less and looking excellent.

The hotel is being handed over to Andrew in the first week of May 2019 so be sure to visit it if you’re up in Lytham this summer, it over looks the square and is a 2 minute walk from the sea front.

If you are planning a renovation project then it pays to let us know early about it so that we can help with the design of the heating system you’re planning. Send us over any drawings we have so that we can give you a cost comparison for some Genius control. Contact me directly at enquiry@geniushub.co.uk or call the office on 0121 667 8000 and ask to speak to one of the sales team.

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How smart is the Smart Radiator Valve?

Asian student boy has idea under lit bulb in class with written board

How smart is the Genius Radiator Valve?

The Genius Radiator Valve really is at the heart of the Genius Hub smart heating system. Without it you may as well have bought a Nest or Hive, because all you really have is a fancy thermostat. The Genius Radiator Valve takes your heating from being just a smart thermostat to a true smart heating system where you can control the heat in each individual room – not just the whole house. 

Imagine if your electrician said “I’m done. I’ve fitted your new lights and there is just one switch in the hall, it turns all the lights in the house on or off”. This is what you have with a smart thermostat like Nest or Hive – a single control for turning the heating on or off. To get real control, energy savings and cost savings you need a full smart heating system like Genius.

Let’s find out how smart the Genius Radiator Valve really is…

Genius Software

The valve itself is made by world renown heating manufacturing company Danfoss so is highly reliable and due to our special relationship with them they install our Genius software onto each of the valves for us. Our software is where the magic happens, with the brains in the Hub we can get information back from each valve and make intelligent decisions about the setting for each valve. This happens automatically for you as the Genius Hub learns how hot you like each room and how long each room takes to heat up and cool down.

Temperature Control

The Genius Valve has so much more control than a regular Thermostatic Radiator Valve which typically allows you to turn it between off, and 1 – 5. The Genius Radiator Valve has 49 individual temperature settings between 4C and 28C degrees. This means that it can tweak the temperature to get it just right.

Dual Thermostats

Unlike most radiator thermostats the Genius Radiator Valve has not one but two thermometers in it so it can measure the temperature in different places. One which measures the temperature of the water (against the pin of the valve) and another temperature sensor measuring the air temperature behind the screen at the top. Not only is this unique, it is genius because it means it is not measuring just the heat of the water like most do it is also measuring a little further away which gives a more realistic room temperature. Using measurements from both of its thermometers means it can be more accurate.

Open Window Detection

The Genius Radiator Valve features an ‘open-window’ function, which closes the valve if the room temperature is falling dramatically, thus reducing the wasted heat if the app is set to heat a room but a window is then opened.

The heat is turned off to the valve for up to 30 minutes before the valve returns to its original settings. When open-window has been activated, the function is then left for 45 minutes before it can be activated again.

Lifestyle-1
Radiator in Showroom

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Working with the big complicated stuff…

Working with the big complicated stuff...

How do BEMS (Building Energy Management Systems) and Genius Hub fit together? Simply; BEMS will give you control of the major plant in the building – boilers, pumps, clarifiers, valves, ventilation etc. to name just some of it, on any large site this is key to getting your plant working together and working efficiently. Genius Hub will give you room by room control of wet radiators, electric heaters, air conditioning units and underfloor heating to save you energy by only heating individual rooms when they are used. Genus Hub increase stakeholder comfort by accurately controlling and measuring the temperature in every room. In most large buildings (50 rooms and more) both systems are vital for efficient and reliable use of the plant and for energy saving and comfort.

Today I was working back at the Belvedere Care Home run by the Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society. This is a beautiful and very well looked after care home providing housing, residential and nursing care to former seafarers, their widows and dependants, and has been for more than 150 years. Their residential and nursing care home, Belvedere House, together with their sheltered flats, is situated within the idyllic grounds of the Weston Acres Estate, near Banstead, Surrey. Believe me they really are beautiful as I’ve eaten my lunch over looking the new lake many times when working on site.

They had a problem which we discovered for them when we were installing the Genius Hub into their 80 bed care home in Autumn 2018. As part of the room control which we offered them, to give them individual and personalised control of each of the residents rooms using our smart Genius Radiator Valves, we also included a mini side project to monitor their 3 gas boilers and biomass boiler to try and establish why the biomass was never working at more than 25% capacity. Not ideal when they were planning on getting the RHI to pay for the installation of the biomass!

We installed additional temperature probes onto all of the flow and return pipes from the gas boilers as well as the biomass and found very quickly that the gas boilers were kicking in far to often, and the reason for this was the shunt pumps for the gas boilers were running 24/7 regardless of if the gas boiler was calling for heat. This was causing the gas boilers to fire unnecessarily and reducing the load seen by the biomass boiler.

Genius Hub always like to use local engineers so thanks to the Genius Hub Pro-Installer used to install the Genius Hub onto this site, Jason Mears. He introduced us to local BEMS specialist GetFix Solutions. Sam Fuller (director and founder of GetFix) was extremely professional and knowledgeable about the various BEMS solutions that was needed for the control of the biomass and gas boilers. Something that clearly should have been considered by the biomass installers but that is another story.

Today we got the new BEMS up and running and linked into the Genius Hub so that the biomass will now take priority and the three gas boilers will only run if the biomass cannot provide enough heat for the heat load. Genius Hub will do its part in keeping the heat load as low as it possibly can, buy only bringing on the rooms that actually need heating. 

Using the occupancy detection in the resident’s rooms, Genius Hub can lower the temperature in the more mobile resident’s rooms who choose to spend the days in the communal areas or those who leave the site for the day. This has a huge impact and stops the care home wasting valuable energy heating rooms that are not occupied during the day up to 24º as required by the tenants.

If you are in the South East of the UK and need any advice on BEMS then please speak with Sam from GetFix, and if you run a care home and are looking at ways to save on your heating costs please contact myself or one of the team at Genius Hub and we can provide a free energy assessment and business case for your site. Please call us on 0121 667 8000 or visit www.geniushub.co.uk.

 

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Are electric Far Infrared panels better than wet radiators?

Are electric Far Infrared panels better than wet radiators?

By: Alasdair Woodbridge

Managing Director at Genius Hub

Today I visited the beautiful Avenue Baptist Church in Southend-on-Sea. This is a church providing vital services to the local community, from playgroups for young families, to football clubs for the youth, to meals for the vulnerable and elderly, Avenue Baptist Church cater for all in the local community. 

The church have the environment in their sights as well, and feel passionately about reducing their carbon footprint, improving their environmental credentials and reducing energy costs, allowing them to channel the money saved into front line services.

With an antiquated and expensive to run gas heating system connected to wet radiators heating tall rooms, this meant that the cost of keeping the church warm for the various activities was mounting up. Using traditional radiators was not right for the tall rooms where all of the heat (hot air) would rise up to the top of the building leaving those using the rooms cold and the cost of heating astronomically high.

The solution was to swap to Far Infrared panels from Whytelight Solutions. These heating panels being Infrared mean that they heat the people and the objects in the room and not the air. Because they don’t heat the air this saves a lot of energy as in tall buildings the hot air simply rises up into the high ceilings and is no use to anyone up there!

The environmental credentials of these Far Infrared heating panels comes from the upwards of 50% reduction in energy required to heat the building to the same comfort levels, and purchasing the electricity from a green and renewable electricity tariff. Also, they now have little in the way of maintenance costs for the church for at least the next 15 years. Some similar sites also offset some of the electricity used for the heating by installing solar PV, and feeding it back into the grid in the summer months making the site as a whole carbon neutral.

 

Genius Hub are providing the control of these new electric heating panels. We not only offer zoned control of each room from an app, but also occupancy detection, so any zone can easily be set up so it only comes on when people are using the room. This is done with a little occupancy sensor in the room and this automatically turns the heating off when the room is left, giving peace of mind to the Deacons (management) of the church that energy will not be wasted heating empty rooms and saving the church a lot of money.

After the installation I interviewed Dr. Terence Lewis (project manager), proprietor of Energyst Consulting and also a member of the congregation, about why he went down the Far Infrared route and why he chose smart controls. This is what he had to say:

'Having used smart heating controls previously it was clearly the only way forward. I believe it is the future, offering maximum savings for minimum cost.

We chose Genius Hub because they came highly recommended by Whytelight, the specifiers of the Far Infrared panels. I was not concerned about this "new" technology because I did a lot of research before I started. There is a lot of information and proof now that this sort of technology is both reliable and future proof.

Designing the new heating system was easy, I designed it in partnership with Peter Whyte from Whytelight who did a thorough design of the lighting and also the heating. From what I’ve seen so far, my first impressions of Genius Hub have impressed me, especially with its ease of use and flexibility. It can control the church's new electric heating and we may be able to expand it to control the underfloor and radiators in the rest of the church if budgets allow.

We’re aiming for in excess of 45% savings on the energy bills because we are combining the Far Infrared technology with the better control and LED lighting. We know that Genius Hub alone can save upwards of 30% so that, with swapping the old wet radiators to Far Infrared heaters the savings will all stack up quickly. Another important consideration is we are very motivated to look after God's planet, reducing the toxic emissions from the old gas boilers is all part of looking after the planet, as well as the cost savings being a benefit.

We were pleased that the installation has been done by local contractors (Green Energy Electrical) who we knew, they have worked very well considering access challenges on the site within a busy occupied building.

One of the things that we particularly liked about the Far Infrared is the air in the building will be healthier, we suffer from terrible over heating issues in the church, and it can often feel stuffy and too hot, because Far Infrared does not heat the air it heats the people and the objects in the room this will no longer be an issue, it is going to be much easier to control it all with the Genius Hub too.

I'm also looking forward to integrating the Genius Hub into the online church booking management system using IFTTT, as I've heard that's what other churches that have the system do, thereby enabling the right heat in the right place at the right time - all automatically.

In conclusion, really, I'm already looking forward to next winter when we can give the system a really good trial and demonstrate the predicted savings and reduced carbon footprint!'

Genius Hub control both wet and electric heating in a number of churches around the UK. If this is of interest then please don't hesitate to get in touch with me directly or contact the office on: enquiry@geniushub.co.uk or 0121 667 8000.
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Reducing the bills in HMOs and Student Houses

Reducing the bills in HMOs and Student Houses

I often get asked the question from landlords; how do I reduce the heating bills in my HMO (House of Multiple Occupancy) but at the same time not alienate the tenants by them being too cold. The problem is that the tenants want to have control over the heating in their room (which is totally reasonable as they are paying good money to rent that room) but we all know that as the tenants are not paying the bills there is no real incentive to turn the heating down when they leave the room or go away during the holidays. Worst still the tenants can leave the window open when the heating is running if they are too hot!

The solution is to give the landlord control of the heating, but the tenants control of their room. To automatically turn down the room when it is not being used, and automatically shut off the radiators if a window is opened close to them.

Recently we installed the Genius Hub into a number of student houses for Student Cribs because they want to give their tenants premier comfort in their rooms but not have to keep the heating on 24/7 to achieve this

The problem with other systems they had tried in the past is they control the boiler on its own, and this means that money is continuously wasted heating unoccupied rooms. Also these systems often have to be manually triggered by the tenants in the house to boost the boiler, causing complaints from the tenants because they have to get up in the middle of the night to boost the heating, or it is cold in the mornings if they get up before it has been boosted by another member of the house.

Genius Hub solves these problems because it only heats the individual rooms with smart TRVs (Thermostatic Radiator Valves) which replace the existing TRVs. Occupancy detectors notice when the rooms are being used and when they are vacated, so the rooms automatically drop to a set back temperature when the room is left.

Carbon Trust state that for every 1ºC you drop in temperature you save 7% off the heating bill. The Genius Hub automatically drops the temperature by 4ºC in rooms when they are not being used saving 28% when the tenants are not there.

If you add this to not wasting heat with windows being left open and turning the heating down in the holidays the Genius Hub saves landlords more then 30% off their heating bills, and gives them peace of mind that in the spring they will not be stung with an enormous bill because the tenants left the heating on all winter.

Genius Hub is a Carbon Trust accredited product because of the savings that it generates. Student Cribs are using it to help deliver value to their tenants in affordable rent as well as premium comfort in their rooms.

Installation is fast and simple, a typical 6 bed property would take about 2-3 hours. The Genius Hub is installed next to the Internet router and the Genius Valves screw onto the radiator without the need for any re-plumbing. The occupancy sensors can be placed anywhere in the room where they can pick up the tenant in the room.

Student Cribs are benefiting from the savings and the tenants are benefiting from the better comfort when they are in the rooms, it really is a win-win solution.

If you would like to get information about smart heating in HMOs please get in touch with me directly or contact the office at enquiry@geniushub.co.uk or 0121 667 8000.

Book your free Genius Hub survey here!

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Feature Focus – Visit the Support Doctor

From time to time we all need a little help figuring out some aspect of the Genius Hub smart heating system. 

The Genius team, over the last few years have been training the in app Doctor to guide you through troubleshooting the typical issues and it get’s even smarter with every app release.

Finding the Doctor

You can find the doctor by clicking on the 3 dashes (burger) in the top right corner of the app. This shows you a dropdown menu and you will notice the Doctor below Manuals and above Feedback in the menu. Select the Doctor.

 

 

Using the Doctor

Select the device you are troubleshooting and follow the on screen prompts as it takes you through a step by step guide. The Doctor is smart and will talk to your Hub to try and help with your troubleshooting. If for some reason you are unable to resolve the problem with the Doctor then you can always check the forum, documentation or request a support call back.

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Will Brexit affect your energy bills?

A ‘no deal’ Brexit will likely result in inflated energy bills for homeowners next winter, warn experts from smart central heating provider, Genius Hub.

According to Alasdair Woodbridge, CEO at Genius Hub, uncertainty surrounding the strength of the pound is just one of many reasons that could see some people struggle to keep their homes warm next winter.

Other factors, irrespective of currency fluctuations, include:

  • Increased transportation and importation costs, particularly for gas, as Britain imports more than half of its gas
  • Uncertainty around green energy initiative targets
  • Lack of investment in Britain’s energy infrastructure from the EU
  • Whether Britain will remain in the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme after 2020

Energy industry experts have also suggested that Britain’s reliance and investment on pipelines between other countries could impact energy bills and the fight against climate change. The four cables connecting UK, France, Ireland and the Netherlands help to stabilise costs and guarantee energy supplies when wind and solar power is insufficient. A no deal Brexit could disrupt the free flow of energy, by imposing tariffs on the connectors.

Alasdair Woodbridge says:

“There is so much more to consider, in addition to the strength of the pound, that could negatively impact energy bills for homeowners, following a no deal Brexit.

The UK receives approximately €2.5 billion a year from the EU, in the form of energy grants and loans. If this funding is reduced or cut off entirely, the cost will undoubtedly be factored into consumers’ tariffs. Additionally, if the value of the pound falls, the cost of importing equipment and machinery to improve our infrastructure will also be affected. There are so many different facets to Brexit, a considerable increase in the cost of energy bills can’t be ruled out.

My concern is that the people who need it the most in the winter months may struggle to make ends meet. While for some, heating is more of a comfort factor, for the elderly or people with illnesses and disabilities, it can be crucial to their health.”

Genius Hub is urging those running on traditional central heating systems to upgrade to a smart central heating system before next winter. Smart central heating systems like Genius Hub allow homeowners to control the temperature of rooms on an individual basis, with their customers saving an average of 20%-30% on their energy bills annually.

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The difference between Genius Hub & Nest or Hive

The question we often get asked is what is the difference between Genius Hub and Nest or Hive, now we know there is a huge difference it’s like comparing a model T-Ford car with a state of the art Ferrari.

But you don’t have to take our word for it you can see what others think. Long time customer of Genius Hub is Matt Egan, who also happens to be a technology journalists and works for publications such as Tech Advisor.

Well Matt has just reviewed our latest system and in the process upgraded his home system.

Genius is the smartest smart home heating system you can buy.

Matt Egan, TechAdvisor.co.uk

Here is how Matt describes the difference between Nest or Hive & the Genius Hub;

“As we have described, this is not a Nest, Tado, or a Hive – it is much more sophisticated, and somewhat more expensive than those products. Hive or Nest is, in essence, a dumb on-off switch that allows you to remotely switch on and off your heating. “

Read the Tech Advisor Review

"it is a great product, and if you are looking to install in your home a zoned smart heating system, we are happy to recommend Genius"
See review
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Feature Focus – Footprint mode

The Genius Hub footprint mode is where things get really smart. Footprint mode is unique to Genius Hub’s smart heating system and NOT available with simple Smart Thermostats like Nest or Hive.

Footprint mode uses the Genius Hub Room Sensors to learn the movements of people within the house, then predicts future usage and automatically controls your heating. 

If you don’t have any Room Sensors installed then you will not see any of the footprint options in the app (buy them in the shop to start using footprint mode). 

The Room Sensors also bring more Smarts to your heating, footprint mode consists of 2 main parts:

1. Reactive heating: This is when the Room Sensors trigger the heating due to occupancy being detected or no longer being detected in a room. If there are repeated triggers of occupancy in a room in footprint mode (such as a person starts using the room), the heating will be triggered on. If the system then stops detecting occupancy triggers the heating will be allowed to turn off and cool as the room is no longer being used.

2. Predictive heating: The other main part of footprint mode is that the system will use the occupancy triggers to learn when the system is normally used and schedule the future heating accordingly. A 7-day schedule is built based on the last 2 weeks occupancy, so if the room is repeatedly used at the same time the heating will be brought on for that time for the next week. As the schedule is based on the last 2 weeks, if your lifestyle changes the system may take up to 2 weeks to fully adapt to your new schedule. This can mean that if you do not use the room at the normal time, the heating will still be brought on at the start of the predicted schedule, but will turn off when no occupancy has been detected for the set duration.

Footprint modes

In footprint mode there are three modes you can set that determine how energy efficient you want your heating system to be. They are:

Comfort: The room will heat both reactively and predictively and pro-actively heat between usage gaps

Eco: The room will heat both reactively and predictively. 

Super-Eco: The room will only heat reactively. 

Like all Genius Hub features there is lots of flexibility and depth. If you want to learn more then see our footprint mode support document.