Cutting your heating bill with smart heating
Heating represents on average two-thirds of a home's energy consumption, and often more than half of the bill. Heating at low power all day, as many do, wastes an enormous amount of energy. Smart heating adapts the temperature to your presence, room by room, and stops when you sleep or are away. This guide shows how to install zone-connected thermostats, program your radiators and save 10 to 15% on your bill.
Understanding zone heating
Heating the whole house at the same temperature is a waste: the living room does not have the same needs as the bedrooms or the empty rooms. The solution is to create zones, each controlled by a thermostat or a thermostat head, which heats at the desired temperature only when the room is occupied. There are connected thermostats for electric radiators, which cut the heating element, and connected thermostat heads that screw onto water radiators to regulate the hot water flow.
- Cut the power to the radiator at the panel and check there is no voltage with a tester.
- Replace the old electric radiator thermostat with the connected thermostat following the wiring diagram (1.5 mm² conductors).
- For water radiators, unscrew the old thermostat head and screw the connected head in its place, respecting the indexing.
- Download the manufacturer's app, create your account and connect each thermostat via Wi-Fi, checking the range in the house.
- Configure the zones, the temperatures and the time slots, then test the temperature rise of each room.
Programming to save without losing comfort
Programming is the heart of smart heating. Set the comfort mode to 19 °C in the living areas during the day, 17 °C in the bedrooms, and the eco mode to 16 to 17 °C at night and during absences. Lowering the temperature by 1 °C represents about 7% savings on the heating bill. Connected thermostats also learn your habits and can be controlled remotely, which avoids heating all day for an empty house.
Avoiding low-power heating
Contrary to popular belief, it is not more economical to leave the heating at minimum permanently than to switch it off in unoccupied rooms. A home warms up in 30 minutes to 2 hours depending on its inertia: switch off the heating completely in empty rooms and during long absences, keeping the frost protection mode at 12 °C to protect the pipes.
Precautions and mistakes to avoid
- Buying devices from incompatible brands that do not communicate with each other: check the compatibility and the longevity of the ecosystem.
- Forgetting to bleed the radiators before installing connected heads: air prevents heat from circulating and skews the control.
- Placing a thermostat near a heat source, a window or a draft that skews the readings.
- Confusing the eco mode and the frost protection mode: frost protection (12 °C) should only serve for long absences.
- Choosing a thermostat without window-opening detection: the heat would escape without the system reacting.
Switching to smart heating is one of the most cost-effective investments in the home: a few hundred euros of equipment can be paid off in two or three winters. The savings come from zone programming and from stopping low-power heating, not from a sacrificed temperature. Install your thermostats, program your time slots and let the system work for you.