control heating and lighting from laptop

[mannix]

building a house soon and travelling a lot when its finihed, does anyone know of a system where i can control heating,lighting and security while i am away?
thanks

[MayoMan]

http://www.smarthometext.co.uk/

http://www.smartkontrols.co.uk/ui_overview.htm

http://www.smartkontrols.co.uk/smarthometext/contact.htm

[MayoMan]

http://www.brilliantliving.co.uk/Technologies/HVAC/Heating/

[john mcgill]

Any idea of what one of these remote heating controls would cost?  I have a house in Donegal, oil expensive, and it would suit to have the controls over my phone especially when frost is forecast.

[Tony Baloney]

building a house soon and travelling a lot when its finihed, does anyone know of a system where i can control heating,lighting and security while i am away?
thanks

When you start looking at this stuff the options and costs are endless. For simple controls like controlling a few lights, security etc. x10 control modules are probably best as they are cheap and can be retro fitted easily as they use the mains wiring. Zwave is newer and obviously a bit more expensive. All these systems are modular so you can add functionality relatively easily. You are talking hundreds of quid I'd reckon.

[Smokin Joe]

I didn't want to start a new thread, so thought I'd put a twist on a very old thread.

I'm thinking about changing my heating and hot water controls to one of those new smart systems, such as Nest etc.  However, there is one question that I'd like to know the answer to so I can understand how it would work for me before I take it any further.

My house was built 15 years ago and I have a controller / timer in my utility room that separately controls the oil fired central heating and the hot water.
I then have a thermostat in my hallway which controls the temperature of the heating in the house.

From doing a little research it seems that the Nest (or whichever brand) controller will place my current timer pretty easily.  However, I'm not sure how I replace the thermostat which is not close to the timer.  I believe that mains power can't be connected to the Nest thermostat as it only requires low voltage.  So typically are there enough "other" wires in the old wired thermostat to get the Nest thermostat working and communicating with the controller?
Any ideas how smoothly these upgrades go in a traditional setup like I have?

[Ball Hopper]

building a house soon and travelling a lot when its finihed, does anyone know of a system where i can control heating,lighting and security while i am away?
thanks

Wife option? 

Can be expensive though, and a whole other raft of maintenance issues...and can be even more expensive to delete or install an upgrade.

[snoopdog]

building a house soon and travelling a lot when its finihed, does anyone know of a system where i can control heating,lighting and security while i am away?
thanks

Wife option? 

Can be expensive though, and a whole other raft of maintenance issues...and can be even more expensive to delete or install an upgrade.

Alot of the insurance companies offer a version of this. I know aviva do it . Alarm.com is one also. Heating and alarm is 29 a month i think. Things like lightbulbs are extras to buy not sure if they charge a montly fee for those. You would only need a couple of those id say. Their camera doorbell needs an electric supply.

[trailer]

I didn't want to start a new thread, so thought I'd put a twist on a very old thread.

I'm thinking about changing my heating and hot water controls to one of those new smart systems, such as Nest etc.  However, there is one question that I'd like to know the answer to so I can understand how it would work for me before I take it any further.

My house was built 15 years ago and I have a controller / timer in my utility room that separately controls the oil fired central heating and the hot water.
I then have a thermostat in my hallway which controls the temperature of the heating in the house.

From doing a little research it seems that the Nest (or whichever brand) controller will place my current timer pretty easily.  However, I'm not sure how I replace the thermostat which is not close to the timer.  I believe that mains power can't be connected to the Nest thermostat as it only requires low voltage.  So typically are there enough "other" wires in the old wired thermostat to get the Nest thermostat working and communicating with the controller?
Any ideas how smoothly these upgrades go in a traditional setup like I have?

So I redid mine last year. The heating and hot water were on the same system. Only way to heat HW was with heating on or immersion (expensive)
Split the heating and HW, then installed a control system. Links to app on phone. So can heat upstairs, downstairs or just HW. Set temp. Can turn it on/off anywhere. Very handy. Thermostats are just battery operated so no wires. Great job. All works including system parts etc was £900 ex VAT.

[illdecide]

I didn't want to start a new thread, so thought I'd put a twist on a very old thread.

I'm thinking about changing my heating and hot water controls to one of those new smart systems, such as Nest etc.  However, there is one question that I'd like to know the answer to so I can understand how it would work for me before I take it any further.

My house was built 15 years ago and I have a controller / timer in my utility room that separately controls the oil fired central heating and the hot water.
I then have a thermostat in my hallway which controls the temperature of the heating in the house.

From doing a little research it seems that the Nest (or whichever brand) controller will place my current timer pretty easily.  However, I'm not sure how I replace the thermostat which is not close to the timer.  I believe that mains power can't be connected to the Nest thermostat as it only requires low voltage.  So typically are there enough "other" wires in the old wired thermostat to get the Nest thermostat working and communicating with the controller?
Any ideas how smoothly these upgrades go in a traditional setup like I have?

There's a bright spark from Laois who could keep you right here on the board...I know it's handy to control your heat etc from phone/laptop but the heating controls all have timers on them where you can set them to come on and off whenever you want for 3 different time zones throughout the day. If your house is not already set up with 3 different zones (up, down and hot water) then this can be done with a bit of plumbing and a few motorised valves and a 3 zone time clock.
Whatever you decide the technology is out there atm, you can get basically whatever you can afford, if you want the latest heating system with bluetooth and wireless you can get it no bother and turn your heating on from China if that's your thing...All boils down to your budget and what you want and are prepared to pay, judging by your comments what you're looking is easily done with a good electrician and plumber.

[Smokin Joe]

There's a bright spark from Laois who could keep you right here on the board...I know it's handy to control your heat etc from phone/laptop but the heating controls all have timers on them where you can set them to come on and off whenever you want for 3 different time zones throughout the day. If your house is not already set up with 3 different zones (up, down and hot water) then this can be done with a bit of plumbing and a few motorised valves and a 3 zone time clock.
Whatever you decide the technology is out there atm, you can get basically whatever you can afford, if you want the latest heating system with bluetooth and wireless you can get it no bother and turn your heating on from China if that's your thing...All boils down to your budget and what you want and are prepared to pay, judging by your comments what you're looking is easily done with a good electrician and plumber.

Cheers Illdecide.

My house already has the 3 zones; hot water and an upstairs and downstairs heating zone.
The specific question I'm having problems answering is how do I replace my old wired thermostats and replace them with the Nests as I don't think my current wired thermostats has the right wires to be compatible with the Nests.  My current stats seem to use 3 core wire, and I don't think any of them are suitable for the C wire that the Nest needs for power.  If that is the case I'm not really sure what I need to do (that doesn't involve tracking more wires etc) to enable the Nests to replace the old stats.
Any specific help on this question anyone?