Those planning to move property in the next few years Unless you take them with you on the move, you may not have time to recoup the higher costs of installing smart valves through the savings you make on your heating bills.

Smart TRV’s do not work with electric radiators (use smart plugs or get a smart electric heater instead) Hands-On Expertise & Collective Knowledge: Our team boasts extensive DIY experience and in-depth knowledge. A TRV will have values 1-5 to indicate the temperatures they should come on at, along with 0 (and maybe a * option) to indicate it should stay off, or only come on occasionally. The numbers 1-5 vary depending on the make of TRV, but roughly speaking they mean: More fine-grained control over when the valves open up. Right now I can just choose settings “1-5”, but this doesn’t allow me to say “This valve should be open under 18°C in the morning, and under 19°C in the evening”. This is something that I lose with my TRVs (compared to smart valves), but again – honestly – it’s not something I think would benefit me right now. Most of the rooms in my house are use evenly enough throughout the day, and most heat up (and cool down) consistently too – so I don’t need this level fine-grained control currently.One of the major draws of Evohome is that it can control not only radiators, but, with additional kit, hot water and underfloor heating. Our installer found it hilarious that our flat was so small we only needed to have three radiators hooked up – the Evohome is designed for big houses with complex heating and hot water systems. The Honeywell Evohome is an interesting device. In so many ways it’s been left behind by its recent competitors, but it’s still the best we’ve seen in terms of simple, effective zonal control. You can also set up heating schedules within the app to change the thermostat temperature throughout the day. In the diagram above, the thermostat is located in the living room. So you could set it to 18°C and also schedule this to change to 20°C between 7pm - 8pm, making it nice and cosy for you in the evening when you settle down in front of the TV. All the digital features are pulled together within the app which can help you keep an eye on the overall heating system and to manage the settings for different zones of the house.

Although you can use a smart thermostat to control your home’s heating, a smart radiator valve allows you to operate the radiators separately. They are a great addition to any central heating system because they allow you to have complete control of any radiator via a smartphone application or even through voice commands and other smart devices.However, if you don't own a smartphone or don't like using one, you're unlikely to get the full benefit out of a smart radiator valve. All the smart radiator valves can communicate with the smart thermostat, meaning you can turn the boiler on and off by changing the settings of any of the heating devices. Out of our three home setups, this gives you the most complete control of your heating. While it is possible to just put your entire home at the same level constantly, that would be like doing the school run in a Porsche. You get Evohome to get unprecedented control – just be prepared to spend some time and effort exercising that control. The one-touch app is easy to configure if your hub is already in place and the whole system can be integrated with Alexa, Google Home and IFTTT. The Drayton Wiser system has eco-mode, comfort mode and away mode which is what you’d typically expect.