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Drayton Wiser multi-zone kit review

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Smart home thermostats can often be an expensive affair. But for the price of a Nest thermostat, Drayton are selling a smart Room Thermostat and two Radiator Thermostats.

Wiser is a smart multi-room heating system, which gives you control and visibility of the temperature in every room of your home, all via a handy smartphone app.

It is designed by Drayton and it allows you to create up to 16 individual heating zones, so you can set different room temperatures throughout your home. This means, for example, that you can fix the temperature in a baby’s nursery at the recommended 18°C, have your living room heated to 21°C for the rest of the family and lower the temperature in empty spare rooms to save energy.

Room temperatures are easy to view and adjust throughout the day and night, using the Wiser app, which is available on Android and iOS devices. Plus, the system is compatible with smart voice assistants including Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, so you can still control your heating.

Wiser can also be integrated with IFTTT (If This Then That) for features like geofencing, so your heating can be set to turn off when the last family member heads out for the day and back on again when the first person returns home.

The Wiser system is made up of a central room thermostat, heat hub and intelligent Red Dot award-winning radiator thermostats, which control the temperature in individual rooms. Simple to install for a DIY-er or a professional heating engineer, Wiser works alongside your existing heating system with no need to alter pipework or valves, making it easy to fit as a standalone project, during your annual boiler service or as part of wider home renovations.

By controlling which rooms are heated and to what temperature, you can help reduce your energy bills too; a smart multi-zone system such as Wiser is estimated to save 20% over a smart thermostat system alone. Further savings can be achieved by using Wiser’s Eco Mode, which learns and adapts to how long your home takes to react to temperature changes and the effect of outside weather.

Wiser is suitable for use with combi and conventional heating systems, with kits available to control heating only or heating and hot water. Recommended retail prices for Wiser start from £139.99 for a Thermostat Kit 1 (room thermostat, heat hub and app) and £219.99 for a Multi-zone Kit 1 (room thermostat, heat hub, app and two radiator thermostats). Individual Wiser radiator thermostats retail at £44.99.

What Drayton’s system lacks in complication and mechanisation, it makes up for with straightforwardness and a lesser cost. The Wiser heating system does exactly what it promises: it’s easy to install and easy to use. Overall, it’s a good choice for the home.

Available from Amazon.