Design of an upgrade to whole house - smart heating and hot water system

startledcod

We are in the process of upgrading our home insulation (9” solid brick walls) and adding smart TRVs to the radiators and control of the hot water thermostat. I need detailed guidance on how to adapt the existing system to your system

The current set-up is as follows:
Upstairs - 10 radiators with a landing mounted thermostat
Downstairs - 11 radiators with a hall mounted thermostat
Kitchen - underfloor heating with a Heatmiser wall-mounted thermostat

Controller
- Horstman Channel Plus H37XL 
- 3 zone: upstairs, downstairs, hot water

Boiler room
Two year old Grant oil-fired condensing boiler
4 recirculating pumps:
- upstairs
- downstairs
- hot water primary
- kitchen underfloor
There is also a circulating pump on the hot water with a separate mechanical timer

What we want:
- an integrated system controlled via an app so the whole house is operated via wifi controlled TRVs in each room
- no general thermostats, only for the kitchen underfloor
- demand in any room and/or the hot water able to fire the boiler and the relevant pump.

Am I able to achieve this using Tado?

Please can you provide me with:
- a schedule of what products to buy
- the set-up to provide to the heating electrician.

Many thanks.

hugbilly

Don’t forget you’re contacting fellow tado° users here, not the support team . . .

startledcod

Thanks @hugbilly my experience with support teams, from Tado and elsewhere, is that they aren't up to answering what I need to know and so I hoped that someone here might actually know a bit.

wateroakley

@startledcod Hello Cod. The red flag for V3+ is 21 rads and UFH. That suggests you have a larger home. There are limits of 10 zones and 25 devices, not insurmountable but can be an operational nuisance. Many users in larger homes have range connection issues between the V3+ internet dongle and remote devices (mostly TRVs). That’s due to the 10 metre approximate range design limit of IEEE 802.15.4, not the Tado itself. The newer X version supports multiple Thread or Matter connections.

I don’t want to put you off, but I suspect you’ll walk into connection issues with the single V3+ Internet dongle and it’s best to say now. We have Tado V3+ working reliably in a 200 sqm 1960s home with 16 rads and 17 devices. Our rellie in their 200 sqm three storey Edwardian villa has 11 rads and 13 devices.

Most of your concerns Tado can workaround, but the big question for using the V3+ dongle is all about your home. What are the dimensions, rooms etc, and construction materials?

Edit: internet dongle and device numbers.

policywonk

Probably yes. But it will be complex. You will need a lot of thinking and planning perhaps with @wateroakley's help if you stick with v3. For now there are more basic things to address first

Need to know the following.
1. You comfy doing your own wiring or comfy with a sparkie altering the wiring in your primary wiring centre? Need to know which.
2. The Heatmiser dedicated wiring centre for the UFH. How many stats does it use?
3. According to your description there are 2 or 3 zone valves, one for HW, one for CH Downstairs, one for CH Upstairs. Is there one general thermostat which triggers heat to upstairs, and a similar one downstairs, outside the kitchen? Need to understand what causes those zone valves to wake up.
4. Can you record the wiring at the main wiring centre in photos?
5. What are the dimensions of the house and the thickness of internal load bearing walls. Do you have a plan of the building identifying where the boiler and router are placed? How many rooms in total?