Author: Simon

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Smart Hot Water Tank

Smart Hot Water tank

Most of us still have a hot water tank somewhere in our property which supplies hot water to sinks, bath’s and showers. If it’s a traditional setup it will have a thermostat attached to the tank somewhere measuring the temperature of the tank and that thermostat will trigger the heating on & off based on temperature.

The problem here is that temperature is hard set on the side of the tank and you really have no clue at what that temperature is at any given time. Now you may say who cares, the boiler heats the water up to temperature and then turns off so I am not wasting energy am I? Well a number of things can be determined from knowing the tank temperature:

1- How efficiently is my tank holding temperature, does it need more insulation or just a new tank

2- How often do I need to schedule it to be on, could I just do the two hours in the morning and that would be fine for the day?

If you are like me you actually just want to know the temperature of the hot water because once you know the temperature of all the radiators it seams funny to have no information on the hot water. It is also annoying to have the hot water on a schedule and you can see it on (in yellow) in the app but you know it’s not because the boiler is not running, which means the Genius Hub isn’t really able to control it like it can say a radiator.

So how do we go about making our Hot water tanks SMART?

Upgrading your Hot Water Tank

In order for us to be able to measure the tank temperature we need the Genius Hot Water and Time Temperature product which can be purchased from the shop for £54.99. This product provides us with two capabilities:

1- A temperature probe (black wire coming out of the bottom)

2- An electric switch to control another device (i.e. immersion heater)

Installing this gives you full temperature control of your hot water and your immersion.

 

Tank Temperature Probe wired into an Electric Switch

Installing Hot Water and Time Temperature

The first thing to say is this requires connecting to the mains electric so only competent electricians should attempt this.

Firstly sight the back box so that you can get mains to it and the temperature probe will reach the tank. Wire the mains into the in connectors of the electric switch and the immersion heater into the out connectors.

Then site the black temperature probe behind the insulation, some tanks have a pocket in the insulation for this purpose. Mine is clad with foam so i cut a small hole next to where the existing thermostat is and pushed the probe in.

Then the switch is screwed into the back box and we are ready to connect it to the Genius Hub. Before putting the lid back on you need to press the clear plastic button and then use the app to add the device.

Once added you will see it within your device settings and it should show you an Air temperature which in this case should be the tank temperature.

Black probe next to tank thermostat
Electric switch & back box
Clear plastic button
Electric switch ready to pair
2019-05-15 22.35.50

Now all you need to do is create a new zone which is a Hot Water Temperature zone.

Then add the electric switch as a zone device and a measured temperature.

 

Now it's SMART

Now we have a Smart hot water tank which we can temperature control. We can set a schedule and understand how long our tank holds heat.

This is a simple addition to the Genius Hub Smart Heating system that can be fitted within 30 minutes.

2019-05-20 20.34.57
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How smart is the Smart Radiator Valve?

Asian student boy has idea under lit bulb in class with written board

How smart is the Genius Radiator Valve?

The Genius Radiator Valve really is at the heart of the Genius Hub smart heating system. Without it you may as well have bought a Nest or Hive, because all you really have is a fancy thermostat. The Genius Radiator Valve takes your heating from being just a smart thermostat to a true smart heating system where you can control the heat in each individual room – not just the whole house. 

Imagine if your electrician said “I’m done. I’ve fitted your new lights and there is just one switch in the hall, it turns all the lights in the house on or off”. This is what you have with a smart thermostat like Nest or Hive – a single control for turning the heating on or off. To get real control, energy savings and cost savings you need a full smart heating system like Genius.

Let’s find out how smart the Genius Radiator Valve really is…

Genius Software

The valve itself is made by world renown heating manufacturing company Danfoss so is highly reliable and due to our special relationship with them they install our Genius software onto each of the valves for us. Our software is where the magic happens, with the brains in the Hub we can get information back from each valve and make intelligent decisions about the setting for each valve. This happens automatically for you as the Genius Hub learns how hot you like each room and how long each room takes to heat up and cool down.

Temperature Control

The Genius Valve has so much more control than a regular Thermostatic Radiator Valve which typically allows you to turn it between off, and 1 – 5. The Genius Radiator Valve has 49 individual temperature settings between 4C and 28C degrees. This means that it can tweak the temperature to get it just right.

Dual Thermostats

Unlike most radiator thermostats the Genius Radiator Valve has not one but two thermometers in it so it can measure the temperature in different places. One which measures the temperature of the water (against the pin of the valve) and another temperature sensor measuring the air temperature behind the screen at the top. Not only is this unique, it is genius because it means it is not measuring just the heat of the water like most do it is also measuring a little further away which gives a more realistic room temperature. Using measurements from both of its thermometers means it can be more accurate.

Open Window Detection

The Genius Radiator Valve features an ‘open-window’ function, which closes the valve if the room temperature is falling dramatically, thus reducing the wasted heat if the app is set to heat a room but a window is then opened.

The heat is turned off to the valve for up to 30 minutes before the valve returns to its original settings. When open-window has been activated, the function is then left for 45 minutes before it can be activated again.

Lifestyle-1
Radiator in Showroom

Book your free Genius Hub survey here!

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Reducing the bills in HMOs and Student Houses

Reducing the bills in HMOs and Student Houses

I often get asked the question from landlords; how do I reduce the heating bills in my HMO (House of Multiple Occupancy) but at the same time not alienate the tenants by them being too cold. The problem is that the tenants want to have control over the heating in their room (which is totally reasonable as they are paying good money to rent that room) but we all know that as the tenants are not paying the bills there is no real incentive to turn the heating down when they leave the room or go away during the holidays. Worst still the tenants can leave the window open when the heating is running if they are too hot!

The solution is to give the landlord control of the heating, but the tenants control of their room. To automatically turn down the room when it is not being used, and automatically shut off the radiators if a window is opened close to them.

Recently we installed the Genius Hub into a number of student houses for Student Cribs because they want to give their tenants premier comfort in their rooms but not have to keep the heating on 24/7 to achieve this

The problem with other systems they had tried in the past is they control the boiler on its own, and this means that money is continuously wasted heating unoccupied rooms. Also these systems often have to be manually triggered by the tenants in the house to boost the boiler, causing complaints from the tenants because they have to get up in the middle of the night to boost the heating, or it is cold in the mornings if they get up before it has been boosted by another member of the house.

Genius Hub solves these problems because it only heats the individual rooms with smart TRVs (Thermostatic Radiator Valves) which replace the existing TRVs. Occupancy detectors notice when the rooms are being used and when they are vacated, so the rooms automatically drop to a set back temperature when the room is left.

Carbon Trust state that for every 1ºC you drop in temperature you save 7% off the heating bill. The Genius Hub automatically drops the temperature by 4ºC in rooms when they are not being used saving 28% when the tenants are not there.

If you add this to not wasting heat with windows being left open and turning the heating down in the holidays the Genius Hub saves landlords more then 30% off their heating bills, and gives them peace of mind that in the spring they will not be stung with an enormous bill because the tenants left the heating on all winter.

Genius Hub is a Carbon Trust accredited product because of the savings that it generates. Student Cribs are using it to help deliver value to their tenants in affordable rent as well as premium comfort in their rooms.

Installation is fast and simple, a typical 6 bed property would take about 2-3 hours. The Genius Hub is installed next to the Internet router and the Genius Valves screw onto the radiator without the need for any re-plumbing. The occupancy sensors can be placed anywhere in the room where they can pick up the tenant in the room.

Student Cribs are benefiting from the savings and the tenants are benefiting from the better comfort when they are in the rooms, it really is a win-win solution.

If you would like to get information about smart heating in HMOs please get in touch with me directly or contact the office at enquiry@geniushub.co.uk or 0121 667 8000.

Book your free Genius Hub survey here!

Take a look at other case studies and how our customers are saving 30% off their heating bills.
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Feature Focus – Visit the Support Doctor

From time to time we all need a little help figuring out some aspect of the Genius Hub smart heating system. 

The Genius team, over the last few years have been training the in app Doctor to guide you through troubleshooting the typical issues and it get’s even smarter with every app release.

Finding the Doctor

You can find the doctor by clicking on the 3 dashes (burger) in the top right corner of the app. This shows you a dropdown menu and you will notice the Doctor below Manuals and above Feedback in the menu. Select the Doctor.

 

 

Using the Doctor

Select the device you are troubleshooting and follow the on screen prompts as it takes you through a step by step guide. The Doctor is smart and will talk to your Hub to try and help with your troubleshooting. If for some reason you are unable to resolve the problem with the Doctor then you can always check the forum, documentation or request a support call back.

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Will Brexit affect your energy bills?

A ‘no deal’ Brexit will likely result in inflated energy bills for homeowners next winter, warn experts from smart central heating provider, Genius Hub.

According to Alasdair Woodbridge, CEO at Genius Hub, uncertainty surrounding the strength of the pound is just one of many reasons that could see some people struggle to keep their homes warm next winter.

Other factors, irrespective of currency fluctuations, include:

  • Increased transportation and importation costs, particularly for gas, as Britain imports more than half of its gas
  • Uncertainty around green energy initiative targets
  • Lack of investment in Britain’s energy infrastructure from the EU
  • Whether Britain will remain in the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme after 2020

Energy industry experts have also suggested that Britain’s reliance and investment on pipelines between other countries could impact energy bills and the fight against climate change. The four cables connecting UK, France, Ireland and the Netherlands help to stabilise costs and guarantee energy supplies when wind and solar power is insufficient. A no deal Brexit could disrupt the free flow of energy, by imposing tariffs on the connectors.

Alasdair Woodbridge says:

“There is so much more to consider, in addition to the strength of the pound, that could negatively impact energy bills for homeowners, following a no deal Brexit.

The UK receives approximately €2.5 billion a year from the EU, in the form of energy grants and loans. If this funding is reduced or cut off entirely, the cost will undoubtedly be factored into consumers’ tariffs. Additionally, if the value of the pound falls, the cost of importing equipment and machinery to improve our infrastructure will also be affected. There are so many different facets to Brexit, a considerable increase in the cost of energy bills can’t be ruled out.

My concern is that the people who need it the most in the winter months may struggle to make ends meet. While for some, heating is more of a comfort factor, for the elderly or people with illnesses and disabilities, it can be crucial to their health.”

Genius Hub is urging those running on traditional central heating systems to upgrade to a smart central heating system before next winter. Smart central heating systems like Genius Hub allow homeowners to control the temperature of rooms on an individual basis, with their customers saving an average of 20%-30% on their energy bills annually.

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The difference between Genius Hub & Nest or Hive

The question we often get asked is what is the difference between Genius Hub and Nest or Hive, now we know there is a huge difference it’s like comparing a model T-Ford car with a state of the art Ferrari.

But you don’t have to take our word for it you can see what others think. Long time customer of Genius Hub is Matt Egan, who also happens to be a technology journalists and works for publications such as Tech Advisor.

Well Matt has just reviewed our latest system and in the process upgraded his home system.

Genius is the smartest smart home heating system you can buy.

Matt Egan, TechAdvisor.co.uk

Here is how Matt describes the difference between Nest or Hive & the Genius Hub;

“As we have described, this is not a Nest, Tado, or a Hive – it is much more sophisticated, and somewhat more expensive than those products. Hive or Nest is, in essence, a dumb on-off switch that allows you to remotely switch on and off your heating. “

Read the Tech Advisor Review

"it is a great product, and if you are looking to install in your home a zoned smart heating system, we are happy to recommend Genius"
See review
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Feature Focus – Footprint mode

The Genius Hub footprint mode is where things get really smart. Footprint mode is unique to Genius Hub’s smart heating system and NOT available with simple Smart Thermostats like Nest or Hive.

Footprint mode uses the Genius Hub Room Sensors to learn the movements of people within the house, then predicts future usage and automatically controls your heating. 

If you don’t have any Room Sensors installed then you will not see any of the footprint options in the app (buy them in the shop to start using footprint mode). 

The Room Sensors also bring more Smarts to your heating, footprint mode consists of 2 main parts:

1. Reactive heating: This is when the Room Sensors trigger the heating due to occupancy being detected or no longer being detected in a room. If there are repeated triggers of occupancy in a room in footprint mode (such as a person starts using the room), the heating will be triggered on. If the system then stops detecting occupancy triggers the heating will be allowed to turn off and cool as the room is no longer being used.

2. Predictive heating: The other main part of footprint mode is that the system will use the occupancy triggers to learn when the system is normally used and schedule the future heating accordingly. A 7-day schedule is built based on the last 2 weeks occupancy, so if the room is repeatedly used at the same time the heating will be brought on for that time for the next week. As the schedule is based on the last 2 weeks, if your lifestyle changes the system may take up to 2 weeks to fully adapt to your new schedule. This can mean that if you do not use the room at the normal time, the heating will still be brought on at the start of the predicted schedule, but will turn off when no occupancy has been detected for the set duration.

Footprint modes

In footprint mode there are three modes you can set that determine how energy efficient you want your heating system to be. They are:

Comfort: The room will heat both reactively and predictively and pro-actively heat between usage gaps

Eco: The room will heat both reactively and predictively. 

Super-Eco: The room will only heat reactively. 

Like all Genius Hub features there is lots of flexibility and depth. If you want to learn more then see our footprint mode support document.

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Boiler plus did you know?

Boilers last between 10 & 15 years and sometimes much longer, so you can be forgiven for not keeping up to date with the latest legislations around boilers. Something changed last year that may affect you next time you change your boiler, grab a cup of tea and we will explain.

New Legislation

From April 2018 the legislation around heating manufacture and installation in the UK changed, these changes were introduced by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

The most notable changes were:

– A minimum efficiency level for all boilers manufactured and installed was set
– Time and temperature controls required for all gas and oil boiler installations
– Combi boiler installations must also include one of the following: Weather compensation, Load compensation, Flue Gas Heat Recovery, Smart controls.

These are new Building Regulations so will be applied for all new builds and those developing properties or replacing a boiler. The legislation is designed to help the UK meet the carbon emissions targets by 2020.

Energy & Cost Savings

The Government document sets out a typical consumer’s costs and energy savings from Boiler plus in the first year of operation and is shown in the table below: 

Learning thermostats (smart control)

 Load compensation 

 Flue gas heat recovery

Weather compensation

Additional upfront costs (£)

190

50

460

130

Yearly bill saving (£)

17

4

15

4

Payback period (years)

11

13

14

35

The results show that learning thermostats which is included in a Genius Hub Smart heating system and load compensators pay back within a typical heating systems lifetime (15 years). 

Get ready

Further legislation is likely in this space to continue the drive for greater energy efficiency of UK households. You can get ahead of this by installing a Genius Hub Smart heating system which not only meets the current Boiler Plus legislation but takes you further and provides greater energy and costs savings.

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The Smart Thermostat is dead

Close Up Of Female Hand On Central Heating Thermostat
Close Up Of Female Hand On Central Heating Thermostat
What’s the case for the traditional home wall mounted thermostat or a Smart Thermostat, are they dead?
 

Since central heating systems were first installed into homes in the 50’s & 60’s there has been a thermostat somewhere in the house to control the temperature.

By modern standards this approach to heating a home no longer makes sense, to think that you can measure the temperature in just one room in the house and use that to assume the temperature in all the other rooms feels a bit old school.
 
This prehistoric approach is why you have such varying temperatures across the house, each room has its own levels of insulation and heat efficiency so heats up and cools down at a different rate to any of the other rooms. You often find the room that the thermostat is in is at 22 degrees but other rooms can be up to 10 degrees different from that room, which is the difference between being sat in a T-shirt and sat in your coat.
 
So why do most homes still do this and why have lots of so called smart thermostats, yes we are looking at you Nest, just copied this approach?
 
This is a hang over from when houses were smaller, so if you had a 2 up 2 down then the chances are the temperature was roughly the same across the rooms. Today’s modern houses with extensions and conservatories means that this is no longer the case and you often have different building materials and insulation used in different parts of the house making it even harder to have a single temperature.
 
House showing temperaturesThe reason why most smart thermostats’s copied this approach was probably because having a so called smart thermostat was going to be a change for lots of people and therefore they tried to closely match what people already had. While this may make sense for customer adoption it makes no sense for more efficiently heating houses. If you have an extension on your house using modern building materials and modern insulation then it is going to heat up quicker and retain heat better than an older part of the house, this in turn means that it will have reached 22 degrees long before the other rooms but because the heating system is still trying to get the room where the thermostat is positioned up to 22 degrees it will continue to heat all rooms. This results in overshoot, so your new extension room ends up at 25 degrees (wasting energy and costing money).
 
The next thing that happens is a person sat in the extension goes and turns down the thermostat because they are too hot, one hour later someone in another room is turning it back up because they are too cold. We now have a yoyo effect on the house temperature. This is just a crazy way to control heating in a house, yet most traditional systems are exactly like this and most smart thermostats do nothing to solve this fundamental issue.
 
The Google Nest for example is just a pretty looking thermostat that replaces your existing wall mounted thermostat, it still measures the temperature where it is sat and has no clue about the temperature in any of the other rooms. They have done plenty for convenience so you can now turn your heating on from anywhere in the world via a mobile app but they have done little to change the way we actually heat our homes.
 
If you want to save money and energy you have to change the way you heat your house not just change the way you turn it off or on.
 

Measure the temperature in each room – Now that’s SMART


How do we have a truly smart heating system for our house? We measure the temperature in every room and only heat the rooms that are required, this saves energy and therefore money.

The Nest & Hive can’t do this unless you put a thermostat in every room which would be crazy expensive and they are just not designed to have lots of thermostats attached so wouldn’t work.

You need a full smart heating system like Genius Hub which is designed to have one or more temperature readings from each room in the house and make intelligent decisions on which rooms to heat. Whether you have a room thermostat, a room sensor, a smart radiator valve, an electric switch or all of theses in a room the Genius Hub will use one of them to determine the room temperature (or you select the one you want it to use, its called temperature hierarchy).

The Smart Thermostat is dead!

If you have a house with 4 or more bedrooms then a Smart Thermostat solution like the Nest or Hive is really not going to cut it, while it maybe an improvement on convenience from an old style thermostat it doesn’t provide you the benefits of a Smart Heating System like Genius Hub.

Benefits:

– Heat only the rooms in use (by using room sensors and artificial intelligence)

– Control the temperature in each room (not the whole house)

– Control the heating remotely (via mobile app)

– Setup heating schedules (for known usage times i.e. in the morning)

– Save energy (good for the environment)

– Save money (by reducing your usage)

Smart Heating Systems

Yes a smart heating system costs more the a smart thermostat or old fashioned wall thermostat but it is like comparing a bike with an electric car. Once you have invested in a smart heating system for your house there is no looking back. Bring your house’s heating into the latest century with the Genius Hub cutting edge technology, design and price a system for your house using our create your system.

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Feature Focus – Temperature Hierarchy

Ever looked at zone setup and seen the Temperature measurement section and wondered what is that and how does it work? Read on and all will become clear.

Here is how to find the Temperature Measurement section (*hint it’s in zone setup)

Step 1

Select a zone  i.e. Living Room

Step 2

Click on the 3 dots …

Step 3

Click on Zone Setup

Step 4

Scroll down until you see the Temperature Measurement section 

When temperature hierarchy is enabled (it is by default), it runs in Auto mode which means it will automatically select one of the temperature devices to use as the temperature source for the zone/room. It uses a hierarchy to decide which device to use as the master – Thermostat is at the top of the hierarchy (king of devices).

You can turn off auto and select the device you would like to be the temperature master. In the picture you can see we have selected Genius Valve no7.

Why do you need a hierarchy of temperatures? A zone/room could have multiple devices that provide the room/zone temperature like smart valve, thermostat or room sensor.

Therefore, the Smart Hub needs to pick one and some devices are more likely to give an accurate reading of the rooms/zones temperature. For example although the smart valve has two temperature readings, one of the water and the other at the top of valve, it is still quite close to the heat source. Where as a thermostat is typically on a wall, perhaps near the door and therefore has a more realistic reading of the room/zones temperature.

If you want a more detailed explanation of Temperature Hierarchy then have a look at our support document