Questions on Smart home

TommyKnocker

Three questions on Smart items



Q1. Could anyone recommend an electric blanket that would work with a TP Link plug and Alexa/Alexa routines to switch on to warm bed before bed time and off when getting into bed?

Was looking a a Dreamland intelliheat. Would this be suitable?

Q2. My radiators have Danfoss cream and black TRVs. Could these be replaced with Tado smart TRVs?

The tado videos I looked at show the old TRVs being screwed off, where the Danfoss TRVs just seem to twist off, so wondering the the Tado's are compatible?

Q3. I have gas heating. I have a Glow worm micro boiler and a Horstmann CentaurPlus C11 controller. The boiler had a leaver to switch to hot water only in the summer and hot water and radiators in the winter. The controller allows the system to be turned on and off 3 times a day.

Just wondering if there are any "smart" options could be put in place to give more control over the current system or is it so old it not worth bothering with?


TIA for any advice

davegilly

TommyKnocker wrote: »

Three questions on Smart items



Q1. Could anyone recommend an electric blanket that would work with a TP Link plug and Alexa/Alexa routines to switch on to warm bed before bed time and off when getting into bed?

Was looking a a Dreamland intelliheat. Would this be suitable?

Q2. My radiators have Danfoss cream and black TRVs. Could these be replaced with Tado smart TRVs?

The tado videos I looked at show the old TRVs being screwed off, where the Danfoss TRVs just seem to twist off, so wondering the the Tado's are compatible?

Q3. I have gas heating. I have a Glow worm micro boiler and a Horstmann CentaurPlus C11 controller. The boiler had a leaver to switch to hot water only in the summer and hot water and radiators in the winter. The controller allows the system to be turned on and off 3 times a day.

Just wondering if there are any "smart" options could be put in place to give more control over the current system or is it so old it not worth bothering with?


TIA for any advice

Not sure about the other two but question 1 above just needs any electric blanket plugged into any Alexa compatible smartplug.

wexfordman2

davegilly wrote: »

Not sure about the other two but question 1 above just needs any electric blanket plugged into any Alexa compatible smartplug.

Have to say, the last thing I would be plugging in to a smart plug is an electric blanket.

I'm a complete smart home fanatic, there is not much I wouldn't automate if I had the money, but an electric blanket, nope.

davegilly

wexfordman2 wrote: »

Have to say, the last thing I would be plugging in to a smart plug is an electric blanket.

I'm a complete smart home fanatic, there is not much I wouldn't automate if I had the money, but an electric blanket, nope.

Why not?
I presume the OP just wants to be able to turn on the blanket from the sitting room an hour or so before bed? Isn't a smart plug perfect for this or am I missing something?

wexfordman2

davegilly wrote: »

Why not?
I presume the OP just wants to be able to turn on the blanket from the sitting room an hour or so before bed? Isn't a smart plug perfect for this or am I missing something?

I just don't think it is safe, there are tooany ways for the plug to be inadvertantly activated, or to fail to turn off.

TommyKnocker

Thank you for the input so far, it is much appreciated.

I understand where wexfordman2 is coming from but as per the post from davegilly, I may just want to heat the bed for a short while before I get into it to take the initial chill out of it, depending on how cold winter gets.

The blankets I have been looking at are from established manufacturers of electric blankets, state they have a 5 minute warm up, are supposedly ok to be left on all night, something I do not intend to do, and have auto turn off function.

I don't want to leave it to the blanket to turn itself off, that's why I thought of the smart TP Link plug. I have already tested this and I can turn it on/off with Alexa voice control or with a time based routine to turn it on and another to turn it off. So the automation part seems ok.

I just wanted to know if there were blankets where the blankets controls do not lend themselves to being left turned on all the time at say level 3 all the time and a plug used to supply power.

Of course if the overwhelming consensus is that this is too much of a risk then this will get knocked on the head.

wexfordman2

TommyKnocker wrote: »

Thank you for the input so far, it is much appreciated.

I understand where wexfordman2 is coming from but as per the post from davegilly, I may just want to heat the bed for a short while before I get into it to take the initial chill out of it, depending on how cold winter gets.

The blankets I have been looking at are from established manufacturers of electric blankets, state they have a 5 minute warm up, are supposedly ok to be left on all night, something I do not intend to do, and have auto turn off function.

I don't want to leave it to the blanket to turn itself off, that's why I thought of the smart TP Link plug. I have already tested this and I can turn it on/off with Alexa voice control or with a time based routine to turn it on and another to turn it off. So the automation part seems ok.

I just wanted to know if there were blankets where the blankets controls do not lend themselves to being left turned on all the time at say level 3 all the time and a plug used to supply power.

Of course if the overwhelming consensus is that this is too much of a risk then this will get knocked on the head.

I may well just being over cautious, but the idea of any heating element being controlled by a smart switches makes me nervous. Electric blankets are a fire risk no matter what way you look at it.