Everyone knows the condominium problem with central heating: the classic situation is that nobody is never happy with the temperature that he has at home. Either it's too cold, or it's too hot and everyone thinks they're overspending anyway.
The independent heating systems of the apartments (and obviously of the isolated villas) offer the advantage, compared to the centralized ones, of allowing more efficient management of the desired temperature, with benefits both in terms of comfort (the temperature is the ideal one) and costs , really allowing you to heat, and therefore pay for, the rooms only when actually needed or when you are present.
A typical heating system consists of a boiler (almost always positioned outside the apartment), radiators or radiators connected to it and the thermostat for turning the boiler on and off.
THE THERMOSTAT
The thermostat is the heart and the fundamental part which determines an efficient or less efficient heating of the apartment: it is, in very simple terms, a thermometer that works like a switch, commanding the switching on or off of the boiler according to the desired temperature.
The thermostat is connected to the boiler via a wire and works on battery power or connected to the mains: any boiler that can be controlled with a thermostat can be associated with an economic thermostat as with the more complex one, the greater the available functions, the more flexible the programming of the heating.
The simplest models of thermostats can be found online for 10 euros, they are easy to install and very simple to use: they are like the ones you see in hotels, there is a wheel with the temperature you want to maintain in the room, just select it and the thermostat will switch the boiler on and off according to the set temperature threshold. Once activated, the thermostat will work in the same way at any time of the day or night
THE CHRONOTHERMOSTAT
It is the evolution of the thermostat and in practice it associates this with a programmable clock. It will thus be possible to turn on the boiler not only at the set temperature but also at different times and even on different days.
Effectively, efficient management of the heating that allows considerable savings is that of maintaining a given temperature only when it is actually needed, for example at night you can easily lower the temperature and then raise it again when you wake up. Similarly, the chronothermostat can be set to heat the house only when someone is actually present, avoiding, perhaps during the hours of absence from work, that the house is heated unnecessarily: the same goes for holidays or days of absence, it is a waste to keep the heated house when it is not inhabited by anyone.
Chronothermostats usually have different threshold temperatures which can be associated with different times, for example you can choose to keep a temperature of 18 degrees at night and then keep it at 20 degrees during the day. The simplest chronothermostats are analogical and have a wheel with the 24 programmable hours to differentiate the ignition of the boiler during the day, generally with a button or a second wheel it is also possible to set some threshold temperatures. By now, however, all chronothermostats are digital and allow one advanced programming throughout the week or even monthly. You can adjust the temperature on different levels by specifying the date, hour and minutes of switching on. As already mentioned, they mostly work on batteries, with an autonomy of several months: you can program it at the beginning of the season and forget about temperatures and ignitions until the boiler is definitively switched off.
The chronothermostat can be easily installed in place of the existing thermostat, the difference is that at the time of installation you have to program the internal clock with the keys and following the instructions on the display. Costs start at around 30 euros and go up to around 100.
THE SMART WIFI CHRONOTHERMOSTAT
The chronothermostat is excellent, but what happens if I go home early due to an unexpected event, or maybe decide to plan a day's vacation? It happens that I find the house cold, or that I heat it unnecessarily. To overcome this problem, intelligent chronothermostats were born that connect to the home Wifi and are controllable from any internet connection remotely, typically from your mobile phone thanks to a special app.
The Smart Wifi chronothermostat must be connected to the home wifi system as if it were a wireless printer or any other device we use at home connected to the internet in wireless mode. Even the Smart Wifi chronothermostat does not require special installations and can replace any old thermostat, the programming phase is more complicated but, once connected to Wifi, the procedure is simplified by being able to use an app.
At this point, control over your boiler will be total wherever I am: I can decide to turn the boiler back on while I'm on the motorway or vice versa, delay ignition in the event of scheduled absences. But the "smart" function is perhaps the most interesting because it allows a continuous dialogue with the home, allowing for example to always know the room temperature and adjust the heating accordingly. Some Smart chronothermostats they learn from the environmental situation, that is, after a week of use, they memorize a profile of the temperature in the house, optimizing programmed switching on and off with minimal advances or postponements so as to actually have the desired temperature at the desired time and learning when there are people in the house or not on the basis at the perceived or manually set temperature.
Some devices interface with external temperature sensors, placed on the balcony for example, and manage this information to predict how quickly the temperature in the house could drop and manage, for example, sudden frosts. This can be very useful in those locations where the boiler must have a minimum antifreeze temperature set, to avoid blockages or failures in the event of temperatures dropping below zero.
The smart thermostat can be managed by the app and therefore allows maximum comfort even when you are at home: for example you can change the temperature without leaving the bed, staying under the duvet without even going to adjust the control units.
Some intelligent thermostats communicate with the mobile phone and its GPS and establish a perimeter within which to activate the boiler: that is, if I want the boiler to switch on automatically when I am a certain number of kilometers from home, it will be enough to pass the information to the app which will automatically once, to activate the boiler remotely. These intelligent control units can also recognize and warn on the smartphone of any system malfunctions, signaling drops in performance of the set temperatures.
Smart Wifi chronothermostats cost from 100 euros and up and are often modular, as in addition to the essential control unit, various external or internal sensors can be coupled to better manage the heating.
THE THERMOSTATIC VALVES
As Smart as it is, the chronothermostat can only regulate the home temperature of a specific point, the one where the control unit is placed. To regulate the individual rooms independently, thermostatic valves must be mounted on the individual radiators, which have recently become very popular after the obligation to install heat meters.
If the valve is digital and has Smart functions, you will have already understood that it can be interfaced with the Wifi chronothermostat and therefore you can adjust the temperature of the individual rooms even remotely with the usual click on the app. However, be careful that installing a thermostatic valve is an operation that only a plumber can do, while vice versa, installing a smart thermostatic valve can be a do-it-yourself operation as long as you are already in the presence of an old analog thermostatic valve. Smart thermostatic valves cost from 20 euros and up and must be placed on each radiator that you intend to control.
