Price: £799 inc VAT as installed (Genius Hub costs £249 inc VAT)
Rating: 8
Heat Genius review: what it is
Heat Genius is a smart, and wireless, remote heating control system for your home. Unlike the smart thermostat systems (Nest, Hive, Tado) Heat Genius creates 'zones' in your home, and then allows you to control the temperature of each zone vialaptop, smartphone or tablet apps. It measures occupancy and temperature, and should reduce heating costs over time as you heat only the parts of the house that need to be warm, only when they need to be warm.
Physically the Heat Genius system comprises a central wireless hub which communicates with smart TRVs to switch on an off your radiators, as well as wall-mounted movement sensors, and smart plugs as required for connectivity. The hub communicates wirelessly with the other composite parts of the system, and is controlled via an app or web interface. Once the hub is hooked up to the broadband network in your home you can even access the heating system from anywhere that you can get online, too. So if you want to put the heating on during your commute home, you can. (See all Digital Home advice.)
Heat Genius review: installation
Let's start at the beginning. When you first enquire about purchasing Heat Genius the company surveys your needs, in detail. Don't worry if you don't yet know what is a TRV - you will, but Heat Genius is with you every step of the way. You're going to spend a lot of money on this system, and the install feels like a big commitment. But before anything is installed Heat Genius knows exactly what you, your family, and your home requires.
And, indeed, whether a smart heating system such as Heat Genius is appropriate. Suffice to say that if you have a boiler and a thermostat the system will work in your home. But as we will discuss in the 'Value' section below, not all homes will benefit from a system this sophisticated.
The physical installation is handled by a plumber local to you, trained and sub-contracted by Heat Genius. They turn up at an agreed time on an agreed date with a detailed plan of what is required in your home. They don't leave until an extensive checklist of tests has been carried out. By the time the fitter leaves you will have a working smart-heating system, and you will have been instructed in its use. You also have a manual override switch on the boiler itself, so that if for some reason the system fails or you can't work it, you can switch on and off the heating and the hot water as before.
Again, with a commitment as large as changing the way your home heating works, this is critical. You don't want to be without the means of controlling your heating as winter rolls in.
Heat Genius review: using Heat Genius
I've been using a Heat Genius system in my 1950s semi-detached, brick-built home for several weeks now, as the external temperature has dropped. We have an elderly boiler for both the central heating and the hot water, and radiators in all of the rooms. Our Heat Genius installer zoned our home into Kitchen, Bedroom, Landing, Front Room and Spare Bedroom. Each of these areas has at least one radiator, now controlled by smart TRVs. (A TRV is the dial on the end of the radiator, via which you set the level of heating. Like the image directly below.)
This setup does exclude some other rooms with radiators, such as the bathroom, nursery, conservatory and various hallways. Our installer grouped those into a virtual zone called 'Whole House'. So now even though we cannot exactly control the temperature in those rooms, we can remotely switch on the heating in all of those places. So we are no worse off than before, even in the spaces that aren't zoned. It's also worth pointing out that it would be a simple job to add the additional rooms as zones, simply by purchasing and installing the additional TRVs, and adding them to the system. A simple job. As is moving a zone from one room to another, and renaming. (On reflection zoning the guest bedroom probably wasn't all that important, for instance.)
Using Heat Genius is simple. You get a guide book which is useful, but not really required. We now heat the bedroom and landing for only an hour or so every morning in time for the household waking up - early during the working week and a little later at the weekend. The kitchen is heated for the time we return home from work in order to cook, and eat. We set this on a timer via the app, by tapping the rooms and the time of day we wanted to be heated, and the desired temperature for those times. We've also stopped heating the hot water tank 24 hours a day - a collossal waste of money given that the tank keeps water warm for up to 24 hours after heating.
One early learning curve was that we initially set the warm period in our bedroom for before our usual waking time and just before we get home in the evening, presuming that the system would need to come on early to heat things up. But that is how dumb heating works, and Heat Genius is smart. Very smart.
It measures the ambient temperature in the room and puts the heating on only for as long as it needs to maintain the correct temperature throughout the correct time. This also makes the Heat Genius system an all-year-round set-and-forget product: no longer will you endure spousal arguments about putting on the heating in September. Just tell Heat Genius what temperature you desire and it will do the rest. Although, of course, as well as the manual override switch on the boiler you can always use the app to override and switch on any of the zones, as desired. So perhaps those spousal arguments are feted to continue regardless. Such is life.
The timer is merely the simplest way of utilising Heat Genius, however. It's a good start to saving fuel and money, as we are now utilising only one or two radiators where previously we were using all the heating in the house. But there's more. Over time Heat Genius uses the chest high in-room sensors to build up a picture of your household's room occupancy. It also plugs in to local weather information to find out the external ambient temperature. Thus you can enable the Eco mode for each zone or the whole house, simply set a desired temperature for when the rooms are in use, and let Heat Genius do the rest. This is the most smart way to use the system, and the most aggressive way to save money. And any time you aren't home as usual, you can switch off the heating from your smartphone.
There are Super Eco, Eco and Comfort modes, which range from maximum money saving through to maximum comfort. Reader, I am a Yorkshireman - which do you think I prefer?
The other aspect of the Heat Genius setup is the smartplugs. These can seem incidental, although because the Heat Genius communicates through line of sight and the signal bounces of each device on the system, they do help communication. You can control the smartplugs in much the same way as you control the heating within zones. So you could set lights to come on and go off at specific times via the timer or manually from the app. You could switch off the fridge plug for an hour or two each day, for instance, and save money (and the grid) during peak times. Or set your coffee machine to go off five minutes before you rise in the morning (other, less middle class, ideas are welcome too).
Heat Genius review: what is great
I'm really impressed with Heat Genius. Most important is the value of zoning and flexibility. Once set up it is easy to use and adjust, and it allows you to heat only the rooms you need to heat, when you need to heat them. Because it is entirely wireless it is very simple to add zones or move them around, and this level of flexibility didn't require a high-impact install process. Heat Genius is flexible and scalable. It's worth pointing out that Heat Genius offers constant support post-install, too.
Heat Genius lets you do a lot, with a relatively small amount of hardware. Between the various Eco modes, the timer, overrides and even the smart plugs this system is a true smart home system. It just needs to draw the curtains and put out the bins to have the full 'Tomorrow's World' feel.
The app interface itself may not be the most beautiful, but it is very simple and easy to use. Hidden away in the Settings section is an Advance Settings that allows for more complex trouble shooting and so on. But, honestly, since the system has been set up we haven't had cause to look in there. My wife just started using the app and the system without a glance at the instruction guide book - as it should be, but good to know.
We like the fact that Heat Genius detects when you open a window, and then turns the heating off (you can override this). And it is fascinating to view charts of your home- and heating use. The truly savings orientated (hello!) can spot inefficencies and save money. And although we haven't yet been able to test this, Heat Genius can utilise weather forecasting to predict frosts, and keep your pipes warm to avoid bursts.
Finally, we have been impressed with the level of security baked in to Heat Genius. This is important because data about your home usage in the wrong hands could leave you vulnerable to burglary. Your account is password-protected, the data encrypted. But most important of all Heat Genius itself doesn't see that aspect of your app use. It can access the Advanced Settings page of your account in order to remotely troubleshoot problems, but it doesn't see how hot you like it in the bedroom (so to speak). When you consider that some rival products such as Google's own Nest exist principally to build up user data, this is a refreshing approach. And it means that you aren't relying on Heat Genius keeping your data safe. (See also: Hive or Nest: which is the best smart thermostat?)
Heat Genius review: what isn't so great
The benefits of a wireless system are great, in terms of flexibility and low-impact install. But we did have some connectivity issues when the system was first set up. My house is particularly bad for wireless, being full of thick brick walls and small rooms. Heat Genius did solve this but it required use of two powerline adaptors, and the hub now lives in the kitchen - closer to the boiler than where the router sits just inside the house. This isn't a massive criticism of Heat Genius, it is an issue with wireless connectivity. And the system works fine now. But it does mean that we have another set-top box type device to accomodate in the kitchen, as well as powerline adaptors dotted around the house. It would be much neater to site the Hub under the TV with the router.
We also have very occasional ongoing issues with connectivity. Sometimes, for no apparent reason, the app will show us that one or two rooms has lost contact with the hub. To date this has always resolved itself in very little time, with no interaction on our part. And it is only fair to point out that when a room isn't connected its radiators act in the same way as the 'Whole House' radiators, so they would still come on when any room was set to heat. So the worst outcome is too much heat, which was the case before you had Heat Genius fitted. But it is a little unnerving.
One other minor oddity. Heat Genius fits a smart-looking thermostat with an LED display, but this is redundant within the system as it stands. Indeed, if you have guests staying who don't have access to your app they have no means of adjusting the temperature beyond using the manual on/off override. But they do have a visual thermostat that looks like it might work. Heat Genius told us to expect this feature sooner rather than later.
Other than that? Nothing really. It is a system that does a useful thing well. If we were nit-picking we'd say that the app interface is not the best looking and occasionally it requires a couple of hard presses on the 'Home' icon to get to the home screen. Oh, and the smart TRVs make a very quiet noise when they connect and make changes. But we're not going to nitpick, are we?
No.
The only possible barrier to you rushing out to buy Heat Genius today is the hoary old issue of price and value. And this is not entirely clear cut. It really will depends on how sophisticated are your needs.
Heat Genius review: what it costs and value (aka: Heat Genius vs Nest, Hive and Tado)
Let's be clear about this: Heat Genius is not the cheapest solution you can buy. The most famous smart home heating systems are Google's Nest and the Tado and Hive systems. Each of these costs less than £300 installed and up and running (Hive is £199 inc VAT). The Heat Genius system in my home would costs £799 inc VAT to buy (installation is currently free, although that is not always the case). The Genius Hub itself costs £249.99, Hot Water controller is £49.99. Four zonal sensors costs £34.99 and the smart valves for the radiators are £59.99. You get the smartplugs thrown in, but you can see how the price racks up.
But that is not to say that Heat Genius is bad value. Far from it. It's just not cheap.
The critical issue here is the zoning. Where Nest, Hive and Tado put a smart thermostat into one room of the house, and switch on and off all the heating in the house based on that room, Heat Genius does something similar for every room. You could replicate the Nest, Hive and Tado experience for the cost of the Genius Hub, one sensor and one valve - £344.97. But that would be overkill if the less-sophisticated features of Nest, Hive or Tado are what you need.
The nearest product to Heat Genius on the market right now is Heatmiser Neo, which offers similar functionality and features but is wired rather than wireless. The Heatmiser Neo hub costs £250, and the additional elements of the system add on costs in much the same way as Heat Genius.
Heat Genius told us that it believes its system could pay for itself in two to three years. That seems feasible in some circumstances, but not all. Consider Heat Genius if, for instance, you have a large house in which some rooms are used only rarely. Especially if it is an older house that is hard to heat, and you spend a lot of time at home but take regular trips away. Heat Genius would be ideal for a retired couple once the kids have flown the coop, for instance. Perfect for when the family comes visiting, but also for those three holidays a year (you won the house-owner lottery Boomers, so enjoy it).
But if you live in a small house or flat, all the rooms are occupied and everyone is out all day: in my view it would take considerably longer for the investment in Heat Genius to pay for itself. If that sounds like you the smaller investment in Tado, Hive or Nest may be more appropriate (if less cool).
Heat Genius review: verdict
Heat Genius is very good at a very useful thing. It is easy to use and efficient, and over time it will save you the cost of installation. And it is fairly priced. How long Heat Genius takes to pay for itself will depend on your circumstances, and it may that dropping £799 is too much of a long-term investment for you. But it is a great product, and if you are looking to install in your home a zoned smart heating system, we are happy to recommend Heat Genius.
Buying Advice
Heat Genius is very good at a very useful thing. It is easy to use and efficient, and over time it will save you the cost of installation. And it is fairly priced. How long Heat Genius takes to pay for itself will depend on your circumstances, and it may that dropping £799 is too much of a long-term investment for you. But it is a great product, and if you are looking to install in your home a zoned smart heating system, we are happy to recommend Heat Genius.
