So my story beings like so many people in this country with storage heaters. Dumb storage heaters that have no real control. You either turn them on or charge them during the night and let the heat out during the day.
This was not what I wanted. I wanted more control over the temperature in the rooms. I wanted to be able to have a control mechanisms to turn on and off the heater when the temperature dropped below X or was higher than X degrees.
I did my research and found smart devices from SONOFF. They make a variety of Smart devices to allow you to control many applications. The one I was interested in was SONOFF TH10 .
This device allows you to connect an appliance and have it turn on or off when the temperature goes outside of the presets Plus it has a timer. This was perfect for my needs.
You connect the day part of the heater to the relay terminals and the live part to the electric. You then plug in the temperature sensor and place it somewhere in the room. Once you have paired it and connected to the WIFI. You can then set the relay/heater to come on and off when the temperature is at the set values.
I have also been with octopus energy for a few years. I took this opportunity to also change my tariff to Octopus Agile. The Octopus Agile tariff tracks the wholesale rate and gives you a price per kilowatt in half hour chunks.
Once I had switched my tariff. I connected my Octopus account with the SONOFF via “IF THIS THEN THAT” IFTTT. The IFTTT Service allows you to connect IFTTT Supported devices to automate stuff. In my case I decided that not only did i want my heating to come on when and go off out side of the temperature settings. But i also only wanted it to come on when the Price Per Kilowatt electricity was cheaper. Heating now comes on when either temp drops or cost is cheap, But only during 0730-2000.
You can use my Code below to sign up for Octopus Energy and get £50 Credit on your bill.