Choosing your controls

One of the real differences between electric radiators and a boiler system is that there isn’t a single thermostat in the hall deciding the temperature for the whole house. Every radiator has its own.

That’s the point — it’s what lets you heat one room and not another. But it does mean there’s a choice to make about how you want to run them.

Start with what’s on the radiator

Each radiator has a digital thermostat built in. On its own, that gives you:

• A set temperature for that room, adjustable in small steps rather than a vague dial
• Time programmes — daily, weekly, or your own pattern
• A display showing what the room is actually at, not just what you asked for

If you’d rather set each room once and leave it, that’s genuinely all you need. Plenty of our customers never use anything else.

Adding app control

The thermostats can connect, which gives you every room on your phone.

What that adds:

• Every room on one screen, from anywhere — so you can warm the house on the way home, or turn it down from a hotel
• Schedules per room, set and edited without walking round the house
• An away setting that drops everything to a holding temperature in one tap
• Window-open detection, which notices a temperature drop and stops heating a room you’re airing
• Presence detection, adjusting to whether anyone’s actually home
• Adaptive start — you say you want the bathroom at 21°C by seven, and it works out when to begin rather than you guessing
• Usage statistics by day, month and year, which is the honest way to find out which room is costing you money

Voice control works through Alexa and Google Assistant, so “set the kitchen to 21 degrees” is a thing you can say.

Which thermostat suits which home

There’s more than one, and the difference is mostly about how they connect.

• One connects straight to your Wi-Fi router. No extra box, nothing hidden in a cupboard. Simpler to install and a good fit where there are only a few radiators.
• One connects through a small interface instead. It’s an extra component, but it gives better range across a larger property — worth having if the radiators are spread over three floors or a long building, where Wi-Fi gets patchy.

Which is right depends on your house and how many radiators you’re fitting, not on which is better. Neil will tell you which one makes sense at the survey.

You don’t have to decide now

The radiators work from day one with their own thermostats. Adding app control later is a change to the controls, not the radiators.

So if you’re not sure whether you’ll use an app, start without it. We’d rather you added it because you wanted it than paid for it because it was on the quote.

If you want the detail on what each thermostat does, it’s on the smart control page, and the data sheets are in downloads.