Controlling Manual Rooms?

Huxster

Apologies if this is a basic question. I have SRTs in most of my major rooms. I have a tado Wireless Thermostat in my hallway, with the minor rooms (eg hallway/bathrooms) having manual radiator thermostats.

My questions are these:

(1) if the Wireless Thermostat is set low or off, will the minor radiators still come on if I raise the temp of any of the SRTs?

If so:

(2) What is the point of the Wireless thermostat when used with SRTs in the system?

(3) Would that not mean every radiator needs an SRT to save money/heat. In my case that's 16 radiators or £800 worth of SRTs! Would take a long time to see a RTOI?

Thanks in advance for any help.

GrilledCheese2

1) Whether the minor radiators heat up depends how your system is configured. There are two modes of operation.

a) All devices have equal priority and can independently call for heat.

b) The SRTs can only call for heat when the wall thermostat is calling for heat.

The second mode means the rooms with manual valves are controlled only by the wall thermostat. When the wall thermostat is satisfied the SRTs cannot cause the boiler to start. The first mode will cause all rooms with manual valves to heat when any device calls for heat.

2) The wall thermostat is acting as a Zone Controller and decides when to turn on your boiler.

3) Some homeowners only want additional control over rooms that they use less often than their main living space. Perhaps fitting SRTs in spare bedrooms and workrooms which they don’t want to heat all day. And some users prefer better control over the main living spaces. Total control over every room obviously requires a significant investment.

Huxster

Thanks GC. That’s really helpful.

Can I please just check one final thing. You mention there being two modes. Any idea how I find out if my boiler/CH is capable of the mode where each Rad can call for heat separately. I’ve read the user manual (Worcester Greenstar Highflow 440) but it only refers to controlling each room with TRVs.

Thanks again for your help.

GrilledCheese2

The modes I described are configured in the Tado app and are not dependent on your type of boiler. This article describes the role of a zone controller and how to configure the setting for each device.

https://intercom.help/tado-hc/en/articles/4689126-how-does-tado-control-heating-zones-how-can-i-change-the-zone-controller-of-a-room

If you decide to make changes you may want to do it on just one or two devices and evaluate it for a few days before changing your whole setup.