smartkontrols takes 21st century control of heating at Tibbiwell House

smartkontrols – the market leader in intelligent home heating control – has completed another successful installation, this time rejuvenating a Cotswolds period property with 21st century heating control. The owners of Tibbiwell House can now enjoy life in much greater comfort thanks to the flexibility, accessibility and improved energy efficiency afforded by a new smartkontrols system fitted as part of an integrated home automation network.

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Built of traditional Cotswold stone in the small Gloucestershire village of Painswick, Tibbiwell House is a four-bedroom Georgian property linked by a covered glass walkway to a two-storey annexe building which features a further three bedrooms. Owner Ben Winfrey recently embarked on a major renovation of both buildings.

“We had an old boiler and radiator system that was controlled – if control is the right word – by two ordinary room thermostats in the area of house and annexe” says Ben. “Unfortunately, different parts of the house lose and gain heat with enormous variation during the day.

The result was that the vast majority of rooms were always either too hot or too cold but never the right temperature. It was incredibly uncomfortable, wasteful of energy and very frustrating”. He adds, “In this day and age, I could not believe that there was not a better way to get the heating system performance that the family needed for the house. Yet many of the supposedly “modern” control options on the market either offered little improvement on this old-fashioned, thermostat approach or were complex, computer-based solutions.

“here was the huge step forward in technology that we had been searching for and which anyone in my family could operate. The reality is everything we had hoped”

That’s when I was told about smartkontrols. It soon became clear that here was the huge step forward in technology that we had been searching for and which anyone in my family could operate. The reality is everything we had hoped.”

As part of the refurbishment works at Tibbiwell House, Cheltenham based M&T Heating Engineers have fitted two new gas boilers connected into an underfloor heating system for the ground floor areas and conventional radiators elsewhere in the main house and annexe.

The smartkontrols system provides complete, easily accessible multi-room or zone control of this mixed heating system to significantly improve comfort levels and minimise energy usage. Unlike conventional room thermostats, the smartkontrols system allows Ben Winfrey and his family to split the house into three distinctive zones and to set different time schedules and temperature zones as required to suit various areas through simple push button operation of discrete, wall mounted zone controllers.

Key Benefits

  • control system incredibly simple for house occupants to operate
  • intelligent actuators provide more accurate, energy efficient radiator control than standard thermally actuated valves.
  • lighting integration using Creston Touch Screens

Each smartkontrols zone controller "learns" how quickly its room heats up and cools down, by measuring room and outdoor temperatures, and then deciding when to activate the heating at precisely the right time. The boilers only operate when a zone needs them to run, ensuring optimum energy efficiency. The smartkontrols system is also directly controlling the boilers operation governing the property’s hot water supply.

All main plant control modules, together with pumps, power supply units and other system components are housed in two compact SmartBox panels. These are hidden from view with one located in the main house basement and the other in a storage cupboard outside the annexe building.

The system also provides other accessibility advantages to Ben and his family. It has been seamlessly integrated with a Crestron home automation network which controls the Lutron lighting system, multi-room AV and access controls. This ensures that the smartkontrols system can be accessed and temperature set points and other variables adjusted using Crestron touch screen panels located around the property.

A cellular modem link provides dial-in access to the control system, allowing smartkontrols to monitor the performance of the system and diagnose any faults or heating system problems from their Uckfield Head Office.