Heating from your phone
Turn it on from the train so the house is warm when you get in, or off from a hotel when you realise you left it running. Most people notice this one within a week.
Smart thermostat installation across London.
Hive, Google Nest and Vaillant vSMART supplied, fitted, wired and set up on your phone before we leave.
- Compatibility checked against your actual boiler before you buy anything
- Usually fitted in an hour or two, with no mess and no rewiring the house
- Set up on your phone and your schedule built with you, not left on defaults
- Gas Safe registered
Control that matches how you live
Proper schedules for weekdays and weekends, geofencing that turns the heating down when everyone leaves, and hot water timed separately from the heating.
Savings, if you use it properly
A smart thermostat does not save money on its own. It saves money by making it easy to heat the house less — shorter schedules, lower setback temperatures, nothing running in an empty house. We will set it up so that actually happens.
The three we fit most
All three do the same basic job. Which one suits you comes down to your boiler, what you already use at home, and how much you want to think about it.
Hive
The straightforward one. You set the schedule and it does what it is told, with a clear app and a dial on the wall that anyone in the house can work out without being shown.
The receiver replaces your existing programmer near the boiler, so on most systems it is a like-for-like swap. It can sit on the wall or on a stand on a shelf, and the frame comes in several colours if you would rather it did not look like a thermostat.
Hive also has the widest range of add-ons. Smart radiator valves are the one worth knowing about — they replace the TRV on each radiator so you can hold different temperatures room by room, which is the fix for a house where one bedroom is always freezing.
Worth choosing ifYou want control rather than cleverness, or you want to add room-by-room heating over time.
Google Nest
The clever one. The Learning Thermostat watches how you actually use the heating for the first week or so and builds its own schedule, then adjusts as your routine changes. It also turns itself down when it works out the house is empty.
The Heat Link wires in at the boiler and the thermostat itself can sit on a stand or on the wall. On the Learning model it supports OpenTherm, which lets it modulate a compatible boiler rather than just switching it on and off — better comfort and less cycling.
Worth choosing ifYou would rather not manage a schedule at all, or you already run Google Home.
See how the Nest works
The video only loads when you press play, so it does not slow the page down or set any cookies before you choose to watch it.
Vaillant vSMART
The one to look at first if you already have a Vaillant boiler. It talks to the boiler over eBUS rather than simply switching it on and off, so it modulates the output up and down to hold the temperature steady.
In practice that means the boiler runs longer at a gentler output instead of firing hard and cutting out, which is how a condensing boiler is meant to work. You also get the boiler status and fault codes in the app, which is genuinely useful — if something goes wrong you can read us the code over the phone before we set off.
Worth choosing ifYou have a Vaillant ecoTEC and want the boiler and control working as one system rather than two.
Not sure which Vaillant control you need?
Vaillant has used several different controls over the years. vSMART is the wifi one that pairs with the app. sensoHOME is the wired or wireless programmable control you will see on plenty of ecoTEC installations, and newer boilers use sensoCOMFORT with Vaillant's current app.
Which one your boiler takes depends on its model and age, and they are not interchangeable. Send us a photo of the badge on the front of your boiler and we will tell you exactly which controls it supports before you order anything.
Will it work with what I have?
Nearly always. What varies is how much work it takes, and that comes down to your existing controls rather than the boiler itself.
If you already have a wired room thermostat and a programmer by the boiler, it is usually a straight swap and the quickest version of this job. If you have a combined programmable thermostat on the wall and nothing at the boiler, the receiver has to go in at the appliance instead. If you have no room thermostat at all, which is common in older London flats, the wireless receiver solves it without chasing cables through the plaster.
Underfloor heating, multiple zones and heat pumps all work too, but they need thinking about rather than assuming — particularly where each zone needs its own control.
The quickest way to find out: take two photos on your phone — one of the controls currently on your wall, one of the badge on the front of your boiler — and send them to us on WhatsApp. We will tell you which thermostats will work and what it costs, usually the same day, before you spend anything.
How the fitting works
Photos and a price
Send us pictures of your existing controls and your boiler. We confirm which units are compatible, tell you the difference between them in your particular house, and give you a price for supply and fit.
Fitting
Usually one to two hours. Power isolated, old controls removed, receiver wired in at the boiler or programmer position, and the thermostat mounted somewhere sensible — not above a radiator, not in direct sun, not behind a door.
Set up on your phone
We connect it to your wifi, install the app on your phone, pair it, and test heating and hot water separately. You do not get handed a box and a QR code.
Your schedule, built with you
We sit down and set the schedule around your actual week, including the setback temperature and the hot water times. This is the part that decides whether it saves you anything, and it is the part most installers skip.
Ready for smarter heating?
Not sure which thermostat suits your boiler? Call us and we will tell you what will work and what it costs to fit.
What affects the price
Two parts: the unit itself, and the labour to fit it. The labour varies far less than people expect.
| What we look at | Why it changes the cost |
|---|---|
| Which unit, and who supplies it | You can buy it yourself and we will fit it, or we can supply it. Either is fine and we will tell you honestly if a cheaper model does the same job in your house. |
| What is on the wall now | Replacing an existing wired thermostat is the quickest version. Adding a control where there was none, or moving it to a better position, takes longer. |
| Wired or wireless receiver | A wireless receiver avoids running new cable, which on a plastered wall is usually the difference between a tidy job and a day of making good. |
| Zones | Heating and hot water on one control is standard. Separate upstairs and downstairs zones, or underfloor alongside radiators, need more than one channel. |
| Smart radiator valves | Priced per radiator. Most people do the rooms that actually need it rather than the whole house at once. |
Common questions
Will a smart thermostat work with my boiler?
Almost certainly. Combi, system and regular gas boilers all work with the main brands, and most of the job is about what you already have on the wall — a wired room stat, a programmer by the boiler, or a combined programmable thermostat. Send us a photo of your current controls and the boiler badge on WhatsApp and we will tell you for certain before you buy anything.
Will it actually cut my bills?
Honestly, that depends on you rather than on the thermostat. The device does not make heat cheaper. It saves money by making it easy to heat the house less, and if you set it to the same temperature for the same hours as before, you will spend the same. Where people do save is on shorter schedules, a lower temperature when the house is empty, and hot water that is not heating all day. We will set that up with you rather than leaving you with a default schedule.
Can I fit one myself?
Some are designed for it. The catch is that the receiver usually wires in at the boiler or the existing programmer, which is mains voltage and sits on the appliance interface. If you are confident with that, fine. If you get it wrong you can damage the boiler PCB, which is one of the most expensive parts on it.
What is OpenTherm, and does it matter?
Ordinary controls just switch the boiler on and off. OpenTherm and eBUS let the thermostat tell the boiler how hard to work, so it runs longer at a lower output instead of firing flat out and cutting off. On a modern condensing boiler that is more comfortable and more efficient. Not every boiler and thermostat pairing supports it, which is one of the things we check first.
Do I need wifi, and what happens if it drops out?
You need wifi for the app and for remote control. If the connection goes down the thermostat keeps running the last schedule it was given and the controls on the wall still work, so you are never left without heating because the router rebooted.
Can I control rooms separately?
Yes, with smart radiator valves. They replace the TRV on each radiator and let you set different temperatures room by room, which is worth doing in a house where the back bedroom is always freezing and the front room is always boiling. It adds cost per radiator, so most people start with the rooms that matter.
Hive or Nest?
Both are good. Nest learns your routine and builds its own schedule, looks smarter on the wall, and supports OpenTherm on the Learning model. Hive keeps you in control of the schedule, has a wider range of add-ons, and tends to be the simpler one to live with. If you already use Google or Alexa at home, that usually decides it. If you have a Vaillant boiler, look at vSMART first.
What if I already have a working thermostat?
Then there is no urgency. The best time to change is when you are replacing the boiler anyway, since the wiring is already exposed and it costs less to do at the same visit.
Related services
One number, every London borough, 24 hours a day. Call 079 1616 8585 or message us on WhatsApp.
Not sure which one you need?
Send us a photo of your current controls and the front of your boiler. We will tell you what will work and what it costs, before you buy anything.
Call 079 1616 8585
