We took a look at the new Honeywell evohome when it was revealed last Autumn, however there’s no substitute for living with a system to see what it’s truly like. So when Honeywell asked us if we’d like to replace our HomeTronic system with the new evohome we jumped at the chance.
To recap, this is the second generation evohome, now with a colour touchscreen instead of black as well as white. It can manage as much as 12 zones of heating plus hot water. A zone may be a basic as all your bedrooms, or you may like a zone for every private space for a lot more granular control. If you have a number of radiators in one space they can all operate together as a single zone as well if you like (note you cannot currently have an underfloor circuit as well as a radiator together as a single zone). If you have a lot more than 12 zones you can add one more evoHome controller, maybe one for upstairs as well as one for downstairs, if you online in Downton Abbey.
Installation
Honeywell suggest utilizing one of their authorized installers as well as you can browse right here to find an Evo Installer near your postcode. thankfully all our existing wireless Honeywell set was compatible with the new system. That indicated our Wireless Relay Box (BDR91), Underfloor Heating Controller (HCE80 or HCC80) and space temperature Sensors (HCW82 or HCF82) were all retained.
Underfloor Heating Controller
Our HR80 radiator controllers were swapped for the new HR92 designs as well as the touchscreen controller was mounted on the wall. With the boiler as well as underfloor controls already fitted, the evohome touchscreen led us with the configuration process with its Guided Installation. Just comply with the prompts on the screen to configuration the bindings with your wireless hardware.
It’s worth noting that each battery operated gadget communicates according to predefined time slots to save power which indicates it can take as much as a maximum of 4 minutes for some tasks to complete.
You can provide each zone a custom-made name using the touchscreen controller (9 character limit). It’s amazing exactly how a few years of contemporary UI use spoil you as well as make you expect things like automatic title case or the capability to edit a character in the middle of a word rather than having to delete everything as well as begin agin. however that’s nit picking, it’s an excellent bit unit.
If you already have some HR80’s then you’ll most likely understand that there’s some dispute over which firmware versions are supported, so we asked Honeywell for clarification as well as they told us…
HR80 Firmware version 2.03 as well as above has been checked as well as is supported to work with evohome. You can inspect the firmware version by eliminating as well as replacing the batteries in the HR80, or by means of the product label. Older firmware versions will offer core performance with evohome, nevertheless in some versions they pre-date a few of the a lot more recent features such as optimization as well as window open, as well as these will not function as expected.
Evohome Controller Kit (~£200)
The evohome controller’s resistive touchscreen is less sensitive than the a lot more costly capacitive screen you are most likely utilized to on your mobile device but it’s appropriate as well as the UI is quick as well as responsive without any lag.
There’s a choice of 3 colours for the faceplate surround (black, white as well as silver) as well as option of table stand or a wall installing kit. Our controller is wall mounted in the kitchen, relatively central in the home as well as well within radio variety of all the other rooms, as we already understood from our HomeTronic installation.
You can utilize the built-in RF signal strength checker to discover the best place to site your controller. There is no variety extender offered for this system, although Honeywell state that its fairly low-frequency (868 MHz) indicates much better signal propagation than contending products using Zigbee or WiFi, and they quote a wireless variety of around 30 to 40 metres in a typical residential setting.
You can quickly lift the controller off the wall install (as you can with the desktop kit). After 30 minutes the evohome Controller will begin to beep to remind you to location it back on charge. That might be frustrating if you’ve just nodded off to sleep, however it’s crucial as the system needs to be powered as much as run your schedule. If the batteries ever do run totally flat in the controller the system parameters including routine as well as wireless configuration are kept in non-volatile memory (replace the primary batteries with AA 1.2V Ni-MH 2000- 2400mAh cells only).
In practice, in our home, the evohome controller is only utilized to glimpse at the zones condition as well as to edit the regular routine the extremely strange time. besides that manual adjustmentsare all made utilizing our iPhones. There’s most likely a situation for Honeywell to think about an even more affordable starter set that forgoes the touchscreen part of the manage as well as relies solely on the apps to setup.
You can select between manually setting up your heating routines or opting for the ‘Wizard’. This guided step-by-step configuration simplifies the task as well as you can still make your modifications by editing the results at the end. You can copy arranged set points from one space to another, or copy days across spaces etc. There are a few enhancements that could be made to the UI. For example when tapping the up arrow to change the target temperature on the screen you cannot see the numbers altering as your finger is covering them.
The evohome touchscreen system itself can be utilized as a thermostat for the space it lives in. So if it was in a space with under floor heating for example you wouldn’t requirement a separate stat. quick actions enable you to, for example, turn temperatures down all throughout the house by 3 degrees with the economic climate button. We’d like to see Honeywell add a method to save routines state for every season – to save re-programming the routines each winter.
There are a range of intelligent technologies such as “Optimum Start” as well as “Optimum Stop” which are employed so the system can reach a certain temperature by a certain time. Evohome works out a dynamic boiler start-up time based on the ambient temperature, so to reach state 22 degrees by 8:00pm it may begin at 7:30pm today, however 7.40pm tomorrow if it’s warmer. Evohome likewise employs other innovation to comprehend when a window is left open as well as throttle back the warm in that space rather than fight against it as well as squander energy. It likewise learns exactly how your home heats up as well as cools down throughout the year. Honeywell published some great technical information in our forums right here on this topic.
The rear of the unit has a couple of fascinating ports. We’re told the headers labelled “Aux” are “currently not actively used” as well as the USB input is for firmware upgrades, although we don’t understand if this can be brought out by the end-user. You can utilize this evohome simulator to provide you an concept of exactly how a few of the screens work.
Wireless Radiator Controller HR92 (~£60)
The HR92 radiator controller will in shape on a lot of common (M30 x 1.5) TRV bodies like Honeywell Braukmann, MNG, Heimeier as well as Oventrop. They include a Danfoss RA valve adapter included as well as others are offered to order. Depending on your valve positioning your HR92 may end up vertical or horizontal.
The big remove blue backlit screen flips up as well as included in the box is a bit plastic wedge that can be fitted to lock it in the up setting if you prefer.
The older HR80 on the left as well as the new HR92 on the right
You can utilize the modification dial to manual request a new target temperature which is in impact up until the next set-point in your routine is reached. These manual modifications are not reported back to the primary controller or apps.
With the old HR80’s we utilized to spin the dial a number of times without checking out the screen as well as walk away understanding it would be at the bottom 5 degree value and turn off. However if you do this on the new HR92’s you reach an ‘OFF’ setting instead. The system then ignores routine modifications from the evohome controller from then on (although frost security is still enabled). That may catch some people out at the begin as well as we’d have favored it if it wasn’t rather so easy to turn the radiator controller Off like this.
Pressing the single button on the HR92 brings on the backlight. pressing once again as well as holding for around 5 seconds takes you to the top-level of the settings menu. Here you can disable the backlight, set the language, whether you prefer to screen the setpoint (target temperature) or the actual space temp. You can add a Honeywell DT92E Wireless digital space Thermostat if needed as well although the HR92’s fuzzy logic is programmed to work out an precise space temp in spite of being connected to the rad.
The two (included) alkaline AA cells (LR6, AM3) are cleverly integrated into the new barrel style of the valve controller providing it a much a lot more svelte silhouette than the older unit. Lithium as well as NiMH cells can be utilized (you’ll requirement to let the valve understand this by modifying the battery parameter 9) as well as Honeywell state the batteries must last around 2 years in typical usage. This seems completely achievable judging from our experience so far.
Hot Water Kit ATF500DHW (~£90)
As well as controlling 12 zones of central heating, evohome will look after your hot water too. We have an oil terminated stove in the kitchen area so there’s always hot water, however if you requirement to add it to the system thenthe hot Water set is offered at around £90.
Remote gain access to Gateway RFG100 (~£60)
Joining your new wireless heating controls to your LAN as well as the Web is made with the shark-fin-shaped remote gain access to gateway. With its supplied Ethernet cord link the box to your router or a CAT5 outlet in your flood-wired wise home. Then link it to the mains with the supplied wall-wart power adapter, as well as then bind it to the rest of the wireless system. To total the set up you requirement to configuration an on the internet account as well as although it wouldn’t accept my postcode from the mobile app it worked fine from our laptop.
Mobile apps (Free)
Once you have the remote gain access to gateway installed you can manage your evohome from the mobile apps. They are offered for iOS as well as Android so controlling your house heating from your iPhone, iPad, Samsung Galaxy, Nexus tablet or whatever is unexpectedly a magnificent reality. The comfort of manage from your pocket cannot be under estimated.
The app has had a couple of updates considering that release as well as now has the capability to edit your routine from your phone (Version: 2.1.13.5 reviewed), although there’s still currently no iPad version to take advantage of a bigger mobile screen. The app enables you to screen as well as manage several locations, helpful if you have a system at your holiday house too.
There’s still no web browser interface to the system yet either. Editing routines in specific would be ideally fit to the additional screen genuine estate of our laptops browser. While we’re quite specific it’s only a matter of time before Honeywell add this function officially, some enterprising individuals have already got it working. inspect out all the details in this post on our heating manage forum where Automated house visitors have used Python, PHP as well as C# to produce a representation of the evohome controller in a browser window, whilst integrating with other wise house systems like illumination too.
We recon that for lots of people this may well be the single finest piece of wise home tech they’ll own, so some kind of API or gateway to other wise house systems, (like Z-Wave for example) might be rewarding for Honeywell. We asked about their plans for an API to integrate with other systems as well as they told us…
We have already released APIs for chosen partners (e.g. OPower).We will continue to work carefully with chosen market partners very first to make sure that our APIs are working properly before opening them to larger groups of developers.
In the meantime you can link your Netatmo weather condition station to your system as well as likewise trigger actions based on geofences with the IFTTT evohome channel.
Summing Up
You can tell that Honeywell are a number of generations into these systems. It’s taken the solid foundation of the very first gen evohome, as well as the even a lot more mature wireless innovation of its HomeTronic predecessor as well as developed on that. The visual leap from the old HR80 valve controller to the smooth new HR92 tells you all you requirement to understand about the development right here at a glance.
When you get a system such as this one that’s reliant on a 3rd celebration cloud based service there is some danger involved. What if the business goes out of business? what occurs to your hardware investment then? While there are lots of startups entering this area ideal now you’d be difficult pushed to discover a bigger worldwide HVAC player than Honeywell so we recon it’s most likely the one you’d have to concern about least in this respect.
The Honeywell system is advanced yet it simplifies a task that for a lot of of us is the un-welcomed rigmarole of stabbing buttons in a never-ending tangled menu hierarchy. It brings heating manage into the age of lovely smartphone UI’s as well as creates the ‘User Experience’ all of us crave.
If you are currently the kind of user that turns your entire home heating all on, or all off (would you do that with all your lights?) then evohome will absolutely save you money. exactly how much is absolutely a ‘how long is a piece of string’ question, however for us it was significant. The cost savings aren’t simply a result of the wise tech as well as algorithms employed for much better efficiency, however just the simple truth that manage is so basic makes it much a lot more likely you’ll modification things as well as save.
Honeywell state “82% of energy consumed in the house is utilized by heating as well as hot water.” In a non-scientific guesstimate we’d state moving to a zoned heating system saved us around 20% on our annual heating bill. We’ve utilize 4 or 5 fills of heating oil per year averaging arou