Installation instructions before buying?
Hi,
Is there a way to get installation instructions before buying? I'm sure I can do this myself, but don't want to commit before gauging the complexity and ending up with a big heating engineers bill.
My heating setup is complex:
Two zones (1 ground / 2 and 3 floor) plus a third loop for towel heaters in bathroom which activates when hot water is on, but heating is not. Assume this is Y plan?
Two heating thermostats - both in terrible locations which I would want to decommission and replace with wireless thermostats.
A hot water controller paired with an unvented megaflo
This is all connected via a wiring centre (basically a rats nest of cables in a chocolate block connector).
Any advice gratefully received,.
Comments
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Y Plan will only do one heating zone. If you have two heating zones it is most likely to be S Plan. You can confirm this by checking the number of motorised valves - one for each CH and HW zone.
1) Do you have a central programmer to set the schedule for the heating zones? Or, are the wall thermostats used to set the heating schedule?
2) Do you know if your current wall thermostats are wired or wireless? Post the model number if you can find it?
3) The Tado system will only work with one wireless receiver/thermostat. You will only be able to move one of the existing thermostats, or have to re-wire.
4) You will need a wireless receiver for the hot water. It can also be used to control one heating zone, but the wires for HW and CH zones need to be in the same location.
5) DIY instructions from Tado will only be on a like for like basis. For a more complex installation you'll need professional installation.
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Grilled Cheese is spot on, probably S-plan. The Building Regs Part L heating zone stuff, with multiple zones, expected that we would separate the physical pipework with zone valves (i.e. downstairs/upstairs pipework) and TRVs. With Part L on a larger house, you get two heating zones controlled by two room stats, with TRVs on the rads, plus a timer and thermostat for the hot water valve.
With Tado you'll get 10 heating zones on all the pipework, with one wireless control for the first valve, plus a hot water valve (assuming a DHW tank stat). If you have more than one heating zone (valve and room stat) the Tado wired stat should deal with that. As a twist to the design, Tado valves can be set to act like a smart timed/temperature TRV.
Our 2022 ROI is about 10 months. Looking ahead, ROI is six months. Just fitted another Tado system to a combi boiler and 10 rads at another family home. Smartipants son-in-law is now monitoring the heating and bedroom temperature with Alexa.
HTH. Wateroakley.
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Thank you both for your input. Existing thermostats on both zones are controlled by a Honeywell CM907 thermostats which act as both thermostat and timer for heating control. These are connected by two wires only (battery powered).
I have three zone valves (downstairs/middle and top floor/towel rail loop for when hot water is on but heating is off).
Hot water is controlled by a ST9100C which is located next to the megaflo. The screen on this is broken which is what is prompting me to look at alternative setups to correct the original install 7 years ago (before we bought the house).
Only having one wireless controller is a bit of a deal breaker for me, both locations are utterly idiotic and need moved. My hope was I could have two wireless thermostats so I can place them sensibly. I could in theory have the upstairs thermostat placed on the other side of the wall in the hallway (currently it’s in the master bedroom). Could this be used as a hot water controller as well with only two wires? It would also mean decommissioning the upstairs hot water time - or at least setting it to permanent on, I guess?
Sounds like this might not be the solution for me…0 -
You can replace the ST9100C with a wireless receiver for HW control and use two wired thermostats in place of the CM907s. So in theory you can DIY install a Tado system, but as you've pointed out it's not going to give you the improved thermostat position that you want.
The HW controller must have a Neutral wire for its power, so bear that in mind if you decide to move it. Moving the thermostats will be easier if you can extend the two core wiring.
Another option that may work but you'll need to discuss with customer support, as the configuration seems to be undocumented. It's possible to link a wireless thermostat to a wired thermostat to move the temperature measurement to another location. The temperature sensor in the wired thermostat is disabled and it just switches the circuit on/off. I don't know if you can do this with both wired thermostats. And not sure if you can do it when a dedicated wireless receiver is also used. That's four thermostat devices in total, so it is going to cost you more to setup.
Probably best to contact customer support before the heating season starts. Otherwise their response times to queries can be slow.
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Great - thanks again for your help. Will speak to customer services but as you say adding another two room thermostats starts to add up.0
