Smart Home Heating Controls: A Guide for Installers

Published: 11th February 2020 Read time: 4 minutes

Smart controls are becoming a must need item in the home and there is an ever increasing number of products and services that you can provide to make both your life and your customer’s life as easy as possible.

Smart controls are fast becoming a must need item in the home. With the inclusion of Google Home or Amazon’s Alexa there is an ever increasing number of products and services that you can provide your customers with, to make both your life and your customer’s life as easy as possible. Heating controls are one of the simplest ways to improve both your own and your customer’s experience. This heating control guide outlines exactly what this means for you as an installer as well as providing you with an idea of the benefits it provides both of you.

The Government plans to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions to almost zero by 2050. As such the need to reduce the amount of energy each house uses will rise. Ensure your customers are ready with easy to use systems to track and reduce their carbon footprint. City Plumbing stocks everything you, or your customer needs to be more energy conscious. We stock all of the top smart home brands, including Google Nest, Hive, Honeywell, Drayton, Ring and Tado.

An Installer’s Guide to Smart Heating Controls

Smart heating controls help make a more efficient system. They help the homeowner control their heating from wherever they are; setting accurate heating times as well as turning the heating off when it isn’t needed from wherever they happen to be. The increase in efficiency provides less strain on the central heating system, making regular maintenance checks even easier for heating engineers. Thermostats such as the Hive Active Heating Thermostats also provide up to date and clear information regarding the system’s status, so if there is an issue it can be clearly highlighted, such as with the Honeywell Smart Thermostat.

The increased control makes it easier to advise your customers. The improved savings in heating will inevitably offset the slightly more expensive nature of smart controls. The likes of Nest Smart Thermostats can also learn your customer’s heating patterns, providing further efficiency for the homeowner. Smart heating controls provide clear and straightforward controls, making it even easier for the homeowner to set their perfect temperature and have complete control over their heating bills.

This does mean plumbers are expected to know more and more about electronics. Boilers have electronic interfaces, filters are now wifi enabled, even radiators include electronic controls. The demand for further and further control means having an electrician’s qualification is an increased necessity. In order to be a smart control installer you’ll need to be a recognised electrician as well. In a world where the lines between plumbing and electronics is becoming blurred, having an electrician’s qualification is almost becoming a necessity. This opens you, as an installer, to a vast amount of work you potentially weren’t open to before.

The inclusion of smart controls opens up your customer to a whole host of other products, be they smart cameras and doorbells for increased security around the home. Smart controls can even give your customer the ability to control their home lighting from a smart hub to lower electricity costs.

Customers won’t always be suitable for smart heating controls. If they aren’t particularly computer or smartphone savvy, for example, they won’t necessarily see the same returns on their bills as those technologically sharp. Before recommending a smart thermostat, checking the customer has a modern boiler and up to date insulation is necessary. Without these components in place they won’t get the most out of their smart system.

Smart controls, as a whole, are an ever growing business and can make both your job and the homeowners life that little bit easier. The increase in business and the demand for smart control systems provides you, as an installer, with a much larger scope to help your customers. This heating control guide should provide you with the necessary knowledge needed to assist and highlight your customers’ needs in an ever more digital world.