Energenie Smart Home Power and Heating Upgrade Review

Performance

This is where things got complicated. What I’ve done over the last couple of months is to monitor my gas and electricity usage. I took results from before I had the Energenie technology installed and then after. What I aimed to discover was “How Much Money Can You Save With Smart Home Technology” and the end result was… inconclusive. Within an error of margin, I don’t think I’ve saved anything really. Give or take a few quid through variables in the weather or my time at home. I’m not even going to share the figures with you, as I honestly don’t think there’s any significance to them, so in that regard, I failed.

But Wait… There’s More!

While I didn’t save money, that’s not to say you wouldn’t. Each home is different, and your gas/electricity costs will be different. There’s also a catch that I work at home, and that means everything is on pretty much all of the time. Having a system that shuts things off when you’re away at work will save you money, I’m just always at home… I really didn’t think that plan through for this review.

However, Not All is Lost!

So I didn’t save money, but I have still reaped some rather significant benefits of this setup. I’m sleeping better, in fact, both me and my partner, as well as our two kids are sleeping better. Mornings are much more comfortable in the house, and watching TV on an evening has become more relaxing too. But how?

Temperature Control

There’s nothing worse than trying to sleep in a bedroom that’s too hot. With the radiator valves installed in the bedrooms, the radiators now turn off about an hour before bedtime in each room. Even if it’s winter and the heating is full blast, rather than heating the whole house, we’re now only heating the main rooms on an evening. The bedrooms will only turn on their radiators should it drop to a level where we’ll freeze to death. The radiators will turn themselves back on at about 9am too, warming them for the day time should they need it.

However, the living room and kitchen radiators will now turn on at about 6.30am. That way, when we come down for our breakfast and a cup of tea, the main living space is a nice temperature. No more waking up to a freezing cold house and having to wait for the radiators to warm up and make things right. It’s all automated too, so there’s no need to tinker with the app each day.

Movie Night

Sitting in a sealed up room, curtains closed and you get a bit of a chill. You put the heating on, and before you know it the room is too damn hot, and you’re all watching a movie dripping in sweat. You turn the heating off/down, but the heat doesn’t exactly go away instantly. Now with the new radiator valves and the thermostat, it’ll more accurately dial down each radiator to limit the room. We set ours to turn off the radiator at 21c and back on at around 16c for evenings. The end result is a much more balanced temperature range.

Quick Changes

Even if you want to override it, I can say “Alexa, set living room to 25c” or “Alexa, turn off all radiators” for example. Say you’ve all been away on holiday, or visiting family for a few days. You don’t want to leave the heating on and waste power. You don’t want to come home to a cold house either. You could use the app, turn it on an hour before you get home, and come back to a lovely warm house. Brilliant!