Garald

Tado is a TRV, no? Does it actually set things on and off? I tried balancing the radiators, to no perceptible effect. I guess the zeroeth line of insulation is to work on any weaknesses in the insulation in the studio, but it will always be a bit cooler than other rooms (ground floor, N orientation).

Right now it should be running at a very low flow temperature (25C or so) since it's 12C outside. I'm not using a timer - should I? I have a wireless thermostat, which I generally keep in the warmest, sunniest room. I ended up giving the thermostat to a guest who was staying in the guest room (yes, the room with that metal outside door that I am trying to insulate better...) - with the effect that the temperature there rose to 20.5C, and that in the sunny room to 23.5C! I'll get a WiFi adapter for the heat pump.so that I can verify that flow temperature is as low as the heat curve I've set indicates.

The specific problems are: the ground-floor studio (north-facing) is 3C cooler than the library/main room; the attic can be 1-2C cooler (in winter). That's fine when nobody is using the studio, or when the person in the studio is a fan of 17C, but not otherwise. Summary: rooms that heat naturally to different temperatures (due to different orientation, to the extent that the radiators are overdimensioned (they are all overdimensioned - this was a renovation, and I used a safety factor of two even for new radiators) and also to different insulation quality, though I'm addressing this last problem); sometimes this is good and sometimes it is not.

I have one, from Bosch! Otherwise I would not have dared!

What do people think of https://www.tado.com/all-en and similar systems (such as?)? Anything I should have in mind if using them together with a heat-pump with adaptive heat-flow temperatures?

Less relevant, no? The climate zone is important, though.

Hi Luis! Latitude?

Victory! Switched to hammer drill mode, used a 4mm drill bit, then a 8mm drill bit, and went all the way in. (At some point I hit a void - probably air inside brick.) No idea why the plugs won't go all the way in. Should I have drilled a second time with the 8mm bit? (That was the recommended size for the plugs, and that's my largest bit.) Also, is it best (as a friend has just told me) to drill at a slight angle downwards? At any rate, I'm surprised and happy, and may let it be for now.

Wait, so top speed *is* better? I thought lower speed meant higher torque - do I not want that?

Ah, I was in non-hammer mode all along (and that was enough when I was drilling through wood or plaster). And I already filled the holes I made with plaster! Darn. Is that enough to explain my troubles? Yes, this is a structural wall, either brick or concrete. I've always started slow (speed 1 or at most 2) simply because I'm a bit frightened of what I could do at high speeds (to give you an idea, I don't drive).

Right, that's the drill. Ah, I suppose I have always been using hammer mode, even to drill through wood; I've used the other mode only to drive screws into wood. Is that bad? I've been using Bosch drill bits- I thought they were quality? At any rate, you can see my results in the above.

Uh... my drill is an ordinary Bosch Universalimpact 700W; not sure it has a hammer mode. (I can't find a clear answer online. There is a switch on the top part of the drill, but it's just for switching between screwing screws and drilling.) It's my first time hearing of SDS. I was just using a standard Bosch masonry drill (nearly new though not that clean).

So, armed with a metal and electricity detector, I discovered that my worst enemy had been fear: I can now drill holes in walls! At first, it all went well. I think here I'm just drilling through sound insulation boards put on the walls separating me from the cabinet of the GP who is never there. Now, however, I'm trying to drill holes to put a coat rack closer to the wall, and I am stumped. In this section, there seem to be two materials: one is easily drillable up to 2cm or so (but holes bored in it seem to become larger); the other one cannot be drilled beyond a few mm. What is the reason? What to do?

Would it be better to have the circuit go on only at 12C, with a flow temperature of 25 C? There's nothing terrible about not having heating at 13C (I grew up in a place where everything was made out of brick, nothing was or is insulated, there is no heating, and temperatures stay at a damp 10C for a month or two, with no solar gain) but it seems a bit (self-)unkind. (Which curve is on the conservative side? The one I have chosen? Do you mean I should set it lower?)

Right - I was misunderstanding things because I was in read mode (so semi-ignore my previous mode). Now I understand that the curve is indeed flat-linear-flat - at the maximal temperature at which the system goes on, it goes on with a flow temperature of 25C. Now I've set things as follows: - I've set the flow temperature to be 47C when it's -15C and 22C when it's 15C, so that it's about 40C when it's -7C; this seems like sensible values; above 15C, there doesn't seem to be much of a point in keeping the heating on, even at very low flow temperatures; - Before, the maximum water temperature was 50C (I've kept that) and what I take is the maximum temperature drop-off was 10C (so the minimum temperature was 40C). I've decreased the maximum temperature drop-off to 7C. (By the time water gets to my shower-head, I take it will a couple of degrees colder.) Planet, forgive me, but I'm doing much more by reducing flow temperatures. I could take the maximum temperature down to 49C or 48C if that helps energy consumption. - By default, the legionella cycle is 65C, once every 15 days. I've kept that for now, but shouldn't it be run weekly?

If I remember correctly, the factory setting (or the installer's setting) had a flow temperature of 50C for an outside temperature of -15C; and a flow temperature of -15C for an outside temperature of 35C. That would correspond to a flow temperature of 37C for an outside temperature of -5C, and the heating would go on when it's about 13.25C outside. If anything, that sounds like a very sensible baseline. Maybe that was the factory setting for a reason, and I should go back to it (not that I am feeling cold now, far from it.)

Ah, will try that then, thanks. So, I should set the hot water temperature to 48C, and leave the "choc thermique" (to protect against legionella) activated? Also, what is a sensible curve? 45C was enough at -4C (even though it stayed under 0C for several days). I did all computations so that the house would be fine with a flow temperature of 40C even at -7C (leaving myself a margin of safety, obviously - but by a factor of less than 2). If I leave the flow temperature at 50C for an outside temperature of -15C, and set the flow temperature at a notional -30C for an outside temperature of 35 C (the only parameter I can currently control), that means that the system will bother to turn itself on when the line y = 50-((50-(-30))/(35-(-15)))*(x-(-15)) = 26 - (8/5)x meets y=x, and it is to see that that happens when x=10, i.e., when the outside temperature is 10 C. A pretty sensible value in a well-insulated house, I'd say, no? It's slightly silly for the system to draw that as a line all the way to the right when it should be something \_ - shaped, but hey. At the same time, the flow temperature when it is -5C outside will be 34C, which seems to be low-ish. (It does make perfect sense for the "curve" to be a line for the most part: for the sake of equilibrium, you want the difference between flow temperature and room temperature to be proportional to the difference between room temperature and outside temperature, so flow temperature has to be an affine linear function of outside temperature.) Let's say I go with 40C at -5C, and that I'm happy letting the heat-pump work (with a flow temperature of 15C) starting when it's 15C outside. (In theory, that should really be 19C or whatever one's ideal temperature is, but that's a bit daft and eco-unfriendly.) Then the flow temperature at -15C should be 47.5 C, and the flow temperature at 35 C should be -10C. Does this sound good?

I thought "choc thermique" set as it is is just for legionella? At any rate, I'll follow the video so as to fix things.

On a different note - I think I may have improved my shower settings (improved for my comfort, possibly destroying the planet in the process and/or doing very minor damage to my wallet) by accident while fiddling with the settings yesterday. The maximum temperature in my shower is usually acceptable but sort of lukewarm (mid-30s). Now and then it behaves like a proper hot shower without warning. This morning the temperature was glorious (mid-40s?) - my girlfriend was delighted. This is what my settings look like now. Is everything in order?

The problem is that for some mysterious reason the heat pump display doesn't allow me to have full control of the curve: Also, I've been able to locate the adapter (see pic below) that enables me to use the remote-control thermostat, but I don't see any information on it that would enable me to connect the heat-pump to the Internet and in particular to MELCloud. Do I need a different adapter? Or is the connectivity information hidden somewhere?

Right, exactly. I am in fixed flow temp mode (at 45 C), I intended to be in weather compensation form (but never figured out how to set up the curve properly, or perhaps the heat pump didn't like my dragging one end all the way down to -30C), and I'll just switch to auto adapt mode, stop worrying and save money.

No reason - I thought I had set up a weather compensation curve (for some reason it lets me change only one parameter, not several - do I need to do something to get further control) but fixed matters at 45C by mistake, as I now realize. Aren't the weather compensation curve and auto-adapt two different modes?

Ah yes, I have that. Does that mean I can also use the Melcloud app?

Ah, interesting. I just noticed yesterday that the heat pump does seem to offer me something that looks like an auto-adaptive mode. I have no idea of whether a Wifi adapter is already installed (the bill lists an "Option wifi, compatible avec les solutions domotiques" - I'll have to ask whether that means the controller is already there or whether it just means it's something I can have installed), but I do have a little thermostat/controller that I can move around (it currently sits in my library/main room, which is also the warmest room). Would that be enough? And what are you using to check that flow temperatures rarely go above 40 deg C? I calculated radiator size with a good margin of safety, so "rarely going above 40degC even at -5degC outside" sounds like a realistic goal for me (congratulations for achieving it).