[OpenTRV-interest] Honeywell EvoHome review
Stuart Poulton
stuart at poulton.org.uk
Thu Jun 4 07:13:50 BST 2015
Dear all,
For those that havn't spotted it there's a revision of the Evohome
controller available, details here
http://www.automatedhome.co.uk/new-products/honeywell-reveal-new-wi-fi-version-of-evohome-smart-heating-controller.html
But in summary, it adds wifi into the controller itself rather than
requiring a bridge, and there's also mention of an "opentherm accessory"
for boiler control.
Cheers
Stuart
On 27/05/15 14:31, Marko Cosic wrote:
> Thanks Aideen. :-)
>
> I guess we have higher expectations at COHEAT: we compare £500+ of
> Honeywell (Quentin is easily in for >£1k on that 10 zone system) to
> £250 worth of smartphone and a website, rather than £20 worth of
> pushbutton controls. Let's hope Quentin's RCD never trips. ;-)
>
> With Evohome they've taken the pushbutton controls they know and love,
> made the screen and UI less atrocious (but still very much local),
> added very limited internet connectivity as an afterthought, and
> charged for it as if it were a Macbook retina.
>
> At £250 for a 10-zone system with resistive LCD and limited web
> connectivity it would represent fair value.
>
>
> On 27 May 2015 at 12:21, Aideen McConville <aideen at amcc.myzen.co.uk
> <mailto:aideen at amcc.myzen.co.uk>> wrote:
>
> Hi Marko,
>
> Knowing that some friends had an EvoHome system installed over the
> winter, I was curious - were they having a similar experience?
> Here's Quentin's (quentinsf.com <http://quentinsf.com>) response
> to my query:
>
> "I agree with some but not all - here are my thoughts after around
> 4 months - feel free to forward them to the list if useful.
>
> Quick summary is that it does almost exactly what I wanted: a
> separate schedule for every radiator in the house and a thermostat
> in every room in the house.
>
> -The radiator actuator hardware is well made. The best made out
> there, and probably the quietest out there too.
>
> Yes, it's good, though audible - but I haven't tried any others.
> Very easy to fit, remove and adjust though.
>
> -The control sophistication of boiler and room temperature is
> basic, reliable and predictable* once you turn off any Honeywell
> attempt at intelligence.
>
> I have the basic mode enabled where it learns the warm-up time. No
> problems, but I haven't instrumented it carefully to see what it's
> doing. The distributor from whom I bought mine said I should give
> it about three weeks to stabilise.
>
> -The control hardware/hub feels like something you'd order from
> Shenzhen for $39, not something you buy for £149, and is certainly
> not something you'd stick on a wall in a house. The battery life
> of the portable unit is a joke and the power consumption is excessive.
>
> Mine is on a wall bracket and I don't mind the way it looks - I've
> seen much worse - but I do think the whole thing looks much better
> because I have it wall-mounted on a stud wall, so all the cables
> are hidden. I wouldn't want it sitting on the sideboard. It's no
> more ugly than the controller for the alarm which is just above it
> on the wall, though.
>
> I've not used the battery since the initial installation but, yes,
> the battery life is very poor, if for some reason you /did/ want
> to carry your central heating controller around with you. I've
> never felt the desire to do that!
>
> The only thing I dislike is the touch bit of the touchscreen,
> which requires sufficient pressure that it feels more like a
> palmpilot in an era when we've got used to iPhones.
>
> -The user interfaces - all of them - are atrocious. The time
> delays between interaction and action are excessive too. It's fair
> to say that Honeywell still can't do user interfaces, unless they
> happen to be a single knob on the wall.
>
> Now, here I would disagree. The low-level configuration stuff is
> very poor, yes, but normal day-to-day operation works well for me,
> requires only a small number of button presses, and is easily
> understood both by me and, more importantly, by my wife, (who
> never did get to grips with the infinitely simpler and really
> horrible 20-year-old heating controller that it replaced).
> Programming, adjusting and overriding schedules is nicely done,
> and the process of copying them from day to day is easy. I have
> about 10 radiators each with their own schedule, so I did a fair
> bit of this at the start.
>
> The delay between interaction on the screen and activation of the
> radiator valve is normally a couple of minutes, which is just fine
> - it's not as if the rooms warm up that quickly anyway, and I
> imagine this delay is a concession to battery life on the valves,
> which seems sensible to me.
>
> I like the iPhone app, too - clear and easy to use.
>
> -Their internet connection is as flaky as they come. Forget doing
> anything that relies on timely/reliable internet connectivity. The
> web portal is also worthless: you can't set the system up online
> (instead you must endure tedious menus on the local controller,
> and there's no way to export the settings or back them up, and
> they're lost when the battery runs flat in a power cut, and and
> and...) and you can't export data from it.
>
> None of this has every been a problem for me - the internet
> connection has always been working just fine whenever I've tried
> it and I've never had a long enough power cut to lose any settings
> on the controller (though if it really did lose the settings, that
> would be a pain).
>
> I do agree that a web interface would be a big improvement,
> though, especially if you were doing the setup on a large number
> of systems or if, like Rose, you don't normally carry a smartphone.
>
> -You also can't do anything fun with the system, like control
> radiator valve positions or read room temperature directly,
> because Honeywell think they're the Gods of everything and save
> you from yourself by preventing access to such features.
>
> You mean via an official API? (You can certainly see room
> temperature in the UI!) Yes, I wish they would follow the Philips
> example here: the Hue API is lovely.
>
> *You need to turn off window detection and self-learning. Opening
> doors and wafts of air confuse the living daylights out of it.
>
> I have both enabled without problems, but I haven't tested the
> effects carefully - I don't open the windows very often in the
> winter, I guess!
>
> So, all in all, I'm very happy with mine. Yes, there are things
> I'd like:
>
> * an official API
> * a web interface, and settings backup
> * a better touchscreen
> * some evidence that firmware updates might one day be forthcoming
> * control of the electric underfloor heating in my studio
>
> but, on the other hand, I haven't seen any other affordable system
> that gives me all of the following:
>
> * individual temperature readings and schedules for every room
> in the house
> * control and temperature measurement of my hot water tank
> * installation done without any plumbing by yours truly
> * a friendly UI that my wife can also use
> * a nice iPhone app
>
> If we were to move to a new house tomorrow, I would certainly
> install Evohome again.
>
> Hope that helps!"
>
>
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>
>
> --
> Marko Cosic
> Technical Director
>
> COHEAT
> +44 7774 524 114
> marko at coheat.co.uk <mailto:marko at coheat.co.uk>
>
> www.coheat.co.uk <http://www.coheat.co.uk>
>
>
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