[OpenTRV-interest] Weather compensation

[Damon Hart-Davis]

Hi

>> Note that the compulsory compensation suggestion is out for
>> government consultation right now, and I voted against it given the
>> long payback times and the other rather lower hanging fruit (ie
>> better places to spend the money to save energy first), and even
>> against compulsory timers since most people don’t use them:
> 
> Why do you think weather comp would have a long payback time? Even at the price manufacturers charge for their thermistor-in-a-box sensors and the labour required to fit them the total cost should be in the £100-£200 range which should give a payback well within the lifetime of the kit.

The government’s own figures are suggesting >> 10 years.

Most people will not be motivated to do (or have cash to fund) something that will not begin to pay back during their expected occupancy of premises, unless they ‘save’ money by not doing some othe thing that has faster payback.

> In my experience as a heating installer most people do use some form of time control on their systems, even if a significant minority don't. I think the Regs could do a service by assessing and mandating a usability factor for controls: there are some that even I struggle to set (looking at you Drayton!). But even if some people don't use their timers the building regs are there to mandate what installers provide: if time control isn't compulsory then cheapskate installers won't fit them and even householders who want and would use them won't have them. And given that a timer costs the square root of sfa there seems no justification for omitting them.

More than half UK homes are missing one or more of timer / house thermostat / TRVs.

Housing Associations that we have spoken to report timer usage in the low percent range down to zero, ie with the people often in most need of the potential savings.

DECC and other studies are fairly clear that few people interact much with their heating system well or at al..

Even in the household of a British Gas person we did a trial installation with, they just manually turned their house stat up and down to turn heating on and off! 

> 
>> https://beisgovuk.citizenspace.com/heat/heat-in-buildings-online-consultation/consultation/
>> 
>> Guess what I thought *would* be a good solution that policy should
>> support?  B^>
> 
> Intelligent TRVs? That would mean mandating Honeywell and a few other mfr's currently very expensive (and in some cases rather flakey) kit, which would surely have an unviably long payback time?

What about a non-proprietary smart TRV that does not need networking and pays back within a year, say an *open* cough cough TRV design?  %-P

Rgds

Damon