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Smart home experience and opinion

Started by Caraven, January 18, 2020, 07:36:48 PM

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Caraven

Hi,

Now things have settled in our new house I am looking at introducing some smarter ideas for controlling and monitoring the electric, heating etc.
The House was built within the last 10 years to the current regs at the time.
We currently have a Worcester Bosch boiler which heats an UFH circuit, Radiator circuit and Hot water.
We also have 3.8kW of solar which I now monitor regularly to keep an eye on output (I washed it today)

My thoughts are:
UFH pump is a Grundfos UPS0 15-65 pump which runs at 70 watts minimum. I am looking to change this for something more energy efficient. Perhaps the Alpha 3 pump? I have had auto adapt Grundfos Alpha 2's in the past and they can ramp down to 5 watts at times.
Hive central heating control. The current installed room stat is positioned in the utility room which houses the boiler and gets the kitchen heat so to call the heating to run it has to be set higher than required to ensure it turns on.
Outside lights will be changed from the current 400 watt bulbs to 14 watt LED R7s
Electricity monitoring - any suggestions? Ideal world I would have the solar, heating, electricity import etc all within the same apps but I haven't seen this possible so at the moment I am leaning towards the Efergy system.

Any input is appreciated, thanks!

Amy

[quote author=Caraven link=msg=10671 date=1579376208]
Hi,

Now things have settled in our new house I am looking at introducing some smarter ideas for controlling and monitoring the electric, heating etc.
The House was built within the last 10 years to the current regs at the time.
We currently have a Worcester Bosch boiler which heats an UFH circuit, Radiator circuit and Hot water.
We also have 3.8kW of solar which I now monitor regularly to keep an eye on output (I washed it today)

My thoughts are:
UFH pump is a Grundfos UPS0 15-65 pump which runs at 70 watts minimum. I am looking to change this for something more energy efficient. Perhaps the Alpha 3 pump? I have had auto adapt Grundfos Alpha 2's in the past and they can ramp down to 5 watts at times.
Hive central heating control. The current installed room stat is positioned in the utility room which houses the boiler and gets the kitchen heat so to call the heating to run it has to be set higher than required to ensure it turns on.
Outside lights will be changed from the current 400 watt bulbs to 14 watt LED R7s
Electricity monitoring - any suggestions? Ideal world I would have the solar, heating, electricity import etc all within the same apps but I haven't seen this possible so at the moment I am leaning towards the Efergy system.

Any input is appreciated, thanks!

[/quote]

For Alpha 3 pumps, you may want to consider Danfoss ECO pump. It offers a wide range of performance and is designed for energy efficient operation for domestic hot water circulation applications. As far as the hive central heating control is concerned, it may be best to add an extra room stat in the living area where you can set the temperature for that room. This will save energy as the living area is most likely used more often than other rooms.

As for electricity monitoring, Efergy is a good option because it provides real-time data and allows you to identify any inefficiencies with your energy usage. It also offers an app which can be used to monitor your energy usage remotely.

I hope this information was helpful :)