Smart Heating

Welcome to the Smart Heating range at Box. Setting up a Smart Heating system is done by using a smart thermostat to control your heating. This is then controlled using your smart phone or tablet. If voice assistant control is your thing, then check out our range of Alexa Smart Thermostats & Google Smart Thermostats. You can also add in smart radiator valves to allow you to have a multi-zone smart heating system.

Smart Heating Explained

Smart heating is rapidly becoming an easy way to save on your monthly heating bill. In principal, a smart thermostat is the same as a normal thermostat. You connect it to your boiler and it allows you to control your heating. Where smart heating differs is that you can control the thermostat remotely with your phone. The way this works is that your smart thermostat connects to your WIFI router and then you connect to the thermostat via the manufacturers App, usually on your phone or tablet. You can then log into your phone and adjust the temperature of your thermostat from anywhere in the world (provided you are connected to the internet).

Smart Heating Uses

The introduction of smart heating has given users more variation in using their heating. Here are some of best ways to utilize smart heating, as recommended by Box:

Saving on bills

By using a smart thermostat and some smart TRV’s, you can get true multi-zone control in rooms. This means you now no longer need to heat every room in the house and can heat selected rooms. The initial cost is higher but the long term return will result in a saving. You will also be saving energy by using a smart heating system.

Scheduled heating

We all know the feeling. You wake up in the winter and it is freezing because you’re heating hasn’t turned on yet. Or even worse, you are too hot because the heating has been on all night! By using a smart thermostat, you can schedule what time it will start to warm up and what heat you want it to get to. Get the temperature just right for when you wake up and make those winter months easier!

Geofencing

Picture this: You’ve left the house and forgotten to turn the heating off. You’ve been out all day and it has cost you a small fortune. Some of the smart heating systems utilize Geofencing to make this a thing of the past. Geofencing works by tracking you’re location via the app. If you have gone past a certain distance from your home, it will automatically switch off. No more wasted heat!

Ease of use

Some common complaints about old style thermostats is that they are confusing to use! Many of the manufacturer’s applications are incredibly easy to use, with the functions explained and easy to understand. You can even pair them with a smart speaker and use your voice to control the heating!

Key Words Explained

Smart heating

Smart heating refers to controlling your heating with a smart thermostat or smart TRV.

Smart thermostat

A thermostat that connects to your WIFI router and allows remote control through an app. This is usually done on a phone or tablet.

Smart TRV

A smart TRV (thermostatic radiator valve) connects to a radiator to control the temperature. They fit on the same way as a normal TRV but give the user true heating control.

Multi-zone

Multi-zone heating is achieved by using the smart TRV’s on radiators to create separate heating zones. Multi-zone heating systems allow the user to have different heats in different areas of the house.

Geofencing

Geofencing is used in smart heating to turn on or off when the user is a certain distance away from the house. It tracks the user via the app and once the distance is hit, the heating will start to warm up or cool down.

Scheduling

Using your smart thermostat to schedule in heating changes. For example, you could schedule the heating to turn on at 5PM for your arrival home at 5:30.

Works with

Works with is the term used to describe when a smart heating device works with a voice assistant speaker such as Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant or Apple HomeKit. The voice assistants can be used to control the heating by saying phrases such as ‘Alexa, turn my heating up to 20 degrees’ ‘Hey Google, turn my heating down’ or ‘Siri, turn off the radiator in bedroom 1’.

IFTTT

IFTTT (if this then that) is a software application that allows you to combine smart home items. For example, you could use IFTTT to say ‘when my smart alarm turns on, switch off the smart thermostat’. IFTTT follows the formula of ‘if this happens, then do this’.