Smart Boiler Installation: All You Need to Know

What Is a Smart Boiler?

In recent years, smart controls have appeared on just about everything, from fridges to food mixers and doorbells. It’s no surprise you can transform a boiler into a smart appliance in minutes.

To Make Your Boiler Smart

To get a smart boiler, either install one when you update your boiler or connect a smart heating controls to your existing boiler. If you do choose to install a boiler, look out for OpenTherm boilers, which make it possible for you to control the amount of energy your it uses to heat the water - sophisticated function if you want an extra layer of control.

Whichever route you choose, you’ll end up with a boiler that's more efficient in managing your heating and hot water.

Smart Boiler Controls

These heating controls are a contemporary type of programmable thermostat that’s connected to your chosen device(s), such as your phone or tablet. Some can even be controlled via your voice. You can operate your smart thermostat from your phone, tablet or chosen device as well as the handheld control pad.

Mobile connection means you can use your smart thermostat to control your heating and possibly, if your controls allow, hot water, on the go as well as in your home.

Control over your heating use is standard for any smart boiler control but there are some smart thermostats, such as the Nest Learning 3rd Gen, which also allow you to manage your hot water. However the 3rd Gen Nest Learning only works with boilers that include certain types of hot water cylinders or specific makes of combi boiler.

Popular smart boiler controls, such as Hive and Nest, have built-in settings which can automatically adjust your heating in response to things like the changing weather as well as your manually updated requirements meaning you won’t use energy you don’t need.

Get a quote today using our online form and see how much you’d pay for a smart boiler.

Why Install a Smart Boiler?

The underlying purpose of technology is to make our lives more efficient and organised. When you install a smart boiler, your heating controls will make it possible for you to better manage how and when you use your heating.

The Benefits of Installing a Smart Heating System

A smart boiler control can do much more than just turn your heating on and off at certain times of the day. Software, such as those hidden within a learning thermostat, can learn the complexities of your daily routine and organise your heating consumption around it for hyper-efficient energy use.

Even the most simple smart thermostat will let you decide where and when heating gets turned on and off in different areas of your home giving you extensive flexibility about how you use your heating.

If you’re going to be late home or returning from holiday, you can turn your heating on in advance (or delay it) so there’s no longer any need to have radiators pouring heat into an empty property.

Some smart controls for boilers will sense when you leave and return home. With the addition of GPS, these advanced controls will automatically switch your heating on and off for the ultimate time and energy-saving device!

Other functions do things like track the weather to determine how much heating you’ll need.

The endless options for how you use your smart boiler provides the superior control we need to properly manage our energy use. With energy prices on the rise, smart controls are more valuable than ever.

Just think about how many times you heat an empty home over a single week and it’s easy to see how the installation of a smart boiler can save money by reducing your energy consumption which in turn helps the environment by cutting your carbon use.

Learn more about smart boiler controls in our complete guide to smart thermostats.

Smart Boiler Controls: Which Is Best?

Unless you choose a universal smart system control, such as Hive or Nest, the type of boiler you have will dictate which smart controls you can use. Here’s our round up of the UK’s best smart thermostat controls for domestic boilers:

Worcester Boilers: Britain’s best boiler brand’s leading smart boiler control is the Worcester Wave. Able to operate from up to 8 devices, the Worcester Wave can adapt to weather forecasts for energy efficiency in all weathers. However, you’ll need to manually connect the Wave to your Worcester boiler because the smart thermostat doesn’t have wireless functionality. Prices start from £200.

Vaillant Boilers: If you have a Vaillant boiler, the Vaillant vSMART is the brand’s top smart boiler control. The high-performing vSMART stands up well against the ever-popular Nest, offering sophisticated learning software and wireless capability for use from anywhere in the home. Prices start from £145.

Ideal Boilers: Ideal’s best smart thermostat is the Ideal Touch Connect which offers superb flexibility via wireless connection as well as compatibility with the Amazon Echo for voice control. Prices start from £140.

The best boilers of 2023 gives an overview of boilers with smart controls.

How Smart Controls from the UK’s Top Boiler Brands Compare

Here’s a side by side comparison for easy reference:

Smart Boiler Installation: How Much Do They Cost?

As smart boiler controls are an add-on, to calculate the cost of installation, you can use general boiler installation costs to get an idea of how much you’ll pay.

Typically, you can expect to pay around £1,000 – £2,000 for a new boiler, including labour costs. Cleary this is a generalised figure because actual costs will depend on the type of boiler you choose.

Combi boilers lend themselves to slightly cheaper installation costs because they don’t have the extra hot water cylinder a system boiler or heat only boiler has.

Combi boiler installation is typically around £1,000 – £3,000, though with a simple combi boiler model you can install for less. For a system boiler install, prices rise by around £500 and for a heat only, which includes the water tank plus set up of all three devices, you could be looking at an extra £750. About boiler types.

With the cheapest smart boiler controls priced at around £55 and the top makes of Hive and Nest coming in at start prices of around £175 for Hive and £190 for Nest, the addition of your smart thermostat won’t make much difference to your final boiler costs

Learn more about boiler costs in our guide or get a tailored quote from our expert installers in minutes for a clear idea of how much you’ll pay for a smart boiler.