Our guide to smart heating systems

Smart heating has risen in popularity over recent years, offering a convenient, energy-efficient way to keep your home warm.

In this guide, we’re going to look at what smart heating is, how it works, and what benefits it offers over a traditional thermostat. We’ll also answer some frequently asked questions, giving you all the information you need to know about smart heating and whether it’s right for your home.

What is smart heating?

Smart heating offers an advanced way to control the temperature of your home. SMART stands for ‘self-monitoring analysis and reporting technology’ and refers to the system’s ability to detect the temperature and automatically adjust to the most suitable settings.

Instead of using a standard thermostat, this type of system combines intelligent sensors and user-controlled apps to ensure a comfortable, efficiently heated home throughout the year. Of course, you can also set a schedule, boost the heating and hot water and turn it on or off as required, just like you can with a standard model.

Smart thermostats are connected to your Wi-Fi network, giving you the ability to use your smartphone to change the settings even if you’re not at home. Multi-zone smart heating allows you to adjust the temperature of specific rooms individually, so you’re not wasting money heating areas in your home.

What are the benefits of smart heating?

Here are some of the reasons why smart heating has become so popular over recent years:

Convenient control

Whether through a heating control or an app on your phone, smart heating systems can be controlled from almost anywhere. That means you can turn on the heating before getting out of bed, or turn it off while you’re out of the house, making it super really convenient.

Ease of use

Smart heating apps are designed to be intuitive and user friendly, making them easier to use than many boiler control panels. Some smart thermostats are also able to learn your preferences over time and set themselves to the most suitable programme for the time and temperature, so you don’t even need to change it yourself. Glow-worm's MiSet andMiGo Select control paired with the MiGo Link internet gateway begins to learn the thermal behaviour of the building to better respond to your requirements.

Energy efficiency

Smart thermostats help to make sure your heating is never on when it doesn't need to be, saving energy and reducing your bills. If you have a Glow-worm MiGo Select installed, you can utilise the MiGo Link app altering the heating even if you’re not at home. The MiGo Select also uses weather data from the internet and will adapt automatically to the local weather.

Simple integration

All Glow-worm smart controls can be installed with any Glow-worm boiler post 2006. The MiSet and MiGo Select can also be used with Amazon Alexa and Apple HomeKit when paired with the MiGo Link internet gateway to raise, lower and set the temperature.

How does a smart thermostat work?

Just like its standard counterpart, a smart thermostat detects the current temperature in your home and switches your central heating on or off as needed based on your settings. All Glow-worm smart controls such as the MiGo Select, MiSet and MiGo has been exclusively engineered to work with our new and existing boilers. Using eBUS technology it'll communicate with your Glow-worm boiler to ensure you're only using the required amount of energy. You'll save more energy and money than with any other Wi-Fi enabled thermostat.

A smart system allows you to use an app or heating control to make much more granular changes to your heating settings. You can set specific temperatures for different times of the day, turn the heating on or off in individual rooms, and adjust the settings even if you’re not at home, all from your smartphone or tablet.

What features does smart heating offer?

The advancement of this technology means that there are lots of different features available to improve the comfort and energy efficiency of your home.

It’s worth bearing in mind that not all smart heating systems come with all the features discussed below, so make sure to double-check what’s included in each model when talking to an installer.

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