Nest Thermostat

[Japtastic]

Hi, hopefully one of you knowledgeable chaps can help me. Looking to think slightly out the box here. I already use nest thermostats and protects which work great and tick all the boxes for me. We are moving home soon and will be installing underfloor heating that Nest out the box doesn't support. Is there some kind of device that can be the middle man here between the nest control panel and the underfloor electric heating?

Here is a snippet from the FAQ and the full link here:

https://nest.com/uk/support/article...-compatible-with-the-Nest-Learning-Thermostat

[h=2]Which heating systems aren’t compatible with the Nest Thermostat?[/h]There are two main reasons that a heating system may not be compatible with Nest Thermostat:
1) The system requires high current switching.
While most heating systems are high voltage (usually 230V), usually they only use a little bit of current at a time (up to 3A). However, some systems that are high voltage use a higher current (sometimes as high as 16A or higher) - for example, electric radiators or electric underfloor systems. High current underfloor and radiator systems are common in France, especially in apartment buildings. Thermostats are designed to handle either low current or high current. The Nest Thermostat only supports low current systems since they are by far the most common.

 

[TJ Anderson]

You could use a relay to switch the UFH load. Not sure if you are an electrician. If not you would need to get one on to do this for you.

 

[ImpededLoop]

Your electrician will need to use a contactor for higher current applications.

 

[Japtastic]

Your electrician will need to use a contactor for higher current applications.

Thanks, contactor looks like the way to go.

 

[Midwest]

Japtastic, I wonder if you could explain to me how a Nest thermostat functions. From what I've read it seems to do more than just that, senses when no one is in the room e.g. I was thinking of getting something like this myself, but not quite convinced.

 

[Zimmer]

Japtastic, I wonder if you could explain to me how a Nest thermostat functions. From what I've read it seems to do more than just that, senses when no one is in the room e.g. I was thinking of getting something like this myself, but not quite convinced.

It works as a normal wireless thermostat.
It also gives you remote control of your heating system using an app on your iPhone.
If you wish, (depending on your situation) you can let it program itself, rather than say a normal schedule on a time switch.
eg every Mon-Friday you get home at 6:00 pm and you switch on the heat, then Nest learns your routine and does it for you. It also has sensors which detect you are not at home and so it reduces heat etc etc. It can also "talk" to the Nest smoke alarms to check you are "gone out".

For me, it's just a great remote controlled wireless thermostat, I don't bother with the "sense" business as I'm a bit too unpredictable.