You are reading the article Wundasmart Review: Zone Your Home With This Smart Heating System updated in December 2023 on the website Tai-facebook.edu.vn. We hope that the information we have shared is helpful to you. If you find the content interesting and meaningful, please share it with your friends and continue to follow and support us for the latest updates. Suggested January 2024 Wundasmart Review: Zone Your Home With This Smart Heating System
Pros
Controls up to 30 rooms and 50 radiators
Good app with useful features
Works in any house no matter the size or construction
No data stored in the cloud
Works with underfloor heating
Cons
Expensive to control every room
No display on TRVs
Requires professional installation
Our VerdictA great smart heating system for those that want to heat only certain rooms, but controlling every radiator and installing a thermostat in every room quickly becomes expensive.
Best Prices Today: Wunda WundaSmartRetailer
Price
Wunda
£199.99
View Deal
WundaSmart is a name you’re almost certainly unfamiliar with in the world of smart thermostats. That’s because this is the Wunda’s first smart heating system, having spent years making underfloor heating systems.
Despite this, it’s come up with a brilliant product that does exactly what most people want from a smart heating system, primarily the ability to control temperatures in individual rooms and only heat those you want to heat.
That’s in contrast to the Nest Learning Thermostat – and others – which use a single thermostat and heat all rooms based on the temperature at a single point in your home.
WundaSmart isn’t the first smart heating system to provide room-level control – and kitting out your rooms will cost you a pretty penny – but in the long run it will undoubtedly save you money. And with energy prices rocketing, this approach is really starting to make a lot more sense than it used to.
Features
Uses separate thermostat to TRVs for accurate readings
No data stored in cloud
Works if internet connection drops out
If you go for the most basic WundaSmart Starter Kit, which costs £199.99, you get a thermostat with a monochrome display, a smart TRV for one of your radiators and the HubSwitch which connects to your boiler.
WundaSmart HubSwitch with backplate
Jim Martin / Foundry
This compares reasonably well with the Nest, Hive and other thermostats.
But if you’re going to choose WundaSmart over the single-thermostat systems, you’ll want considerably more kit than that.
In order to control the temperature in specific rooms, you’ll need a smart Radiator Head for each radiator in those rooms, and one thermostat per room.
Jim Martin / Foundry
That’s because – sensibly – WundaSmart doesn’t record the temperature at the Radiator Head. Instead, it uses a combination of that temperature and the one measured by the room thermostat for a more accurate reading of how warm the room is.
You have a choice of two thermostats. You can go for the same thermostat as in the Starter Kit (£70) or a screenless version (below) for £50. The latter has no buttons so isn’t used for control: only measurement. It also has terminals for an optional floor probe if you want to measure the floor temperature. Both thermostats measure humidity as well.
This is a shame considering they aren’t cheaper than those rivals, but guests can at least increase or decrease the temperature without needing to ask the homeowner to adjust it in the app. Any changes last for two hours, unless they’re overridden by a change from another source: the app or your existing heating schedule.
The system supports up to 50 radiators and 30 rooms, which is plenty for homes and more than competing systems. It’s also partly aimed at office use, where those high numbers could come in handy.
As you’d expect, there’s also support for under-floor heating and a controller unit costs £99.95.
Schedules and geo-fencingYou can set up heating schedules in the app, per room, and there’s the option to use ‘adaptive startup’ which, instead of starting heating at the times you’ve chosen, the system will learn how long a room takes to reach temperature and will pre-heat to get it to that temperature by the times you’ve set.
You can use geo-fencing so that heating is turned off and on based on whether or not someone is at home. This avoids heating specific rooms when no-one is in them.
There are lots of options here, and you can set different rules for each room. You can register multiple phones so that, for example, when a teenager leaves the house, heating in their room is turned off. For communal rooms like the kitchen and lounge, you can choose what happens when the last registered user leaves, including “Set off until first User returns”.
Jim Martin / Foundry
In other words, don’t heat the kitchen until one of the family members returns home.
There are also choices for what happens when someone is back home: resume the heating schedule, go to Eco mode until the next scheduled heating period or set the Comfort mode until the next scheduled heating period.
Jim Martin / Foundry
Setting up geo-fencing can be quite confusing. First you need to register phones: otherwise the user list is empty and there’s no option there to add anyone. When registering, you can choose how far from home you need to be before you’re seen as “home” or “away” – the default is 0.3km.
Once set up, it works very reliably.
Modes and optionsNear the top of the Home screen is Quick Switch. This allows you to override your schedule and change the temperature in all (controlled) rooms to Comfort, Eco, Reduced or Off.
Jim Martin / Foundry
You can choose a temperature for each mode, so you have full control over what each does. Plus, after choosing a mode, you then pick whether it will apply until the next change in the schedule or until someone manually changes the temperature.
Along similar lines is the Boost function. A bit like Hive’s similar feature, there are two buttons on the HubSwitch marked Boost 1 and Boost 2. In the app you can set what these do, which means choosing which rooms to heat and for how long. Then, when you press one of the buttons, those specific rooms will get heated to the Comfort temperature. You’ll just have to remember which rooms each button controls if you’ve set each differently.
Oddly, there are no virtual Boost buttons in the app which is a bit frustrating if, like mine, your HubSwitch isn’t easy or quick to access.
Energy-saving options include open-window detection. This needs to be enabled for each room and will spot a temperature drop and automatically turn off radiators if it thinks a window has been opened. You can choose how much of a drop there needs to be (measured over two minutes) to activate this mode and how long to stop heating for.
Jim Martin / Foundry
Another is Holiday Mode which is buried deep in the settings and offers no explanation of what it does. You can set start and stop dates, but there’s a separate setting to turn Holiday Mode on and off manually.
Looking to the user manual, it “pauses your heating and hot water schedules until the end date. It will revert to antifreeze settings. If for any reason you want to turn on your heating or hot water during a holiday period, you can boost either for a period of time using the app.”
If you’re concerned about installing a wireless system, which this is, into a large home or period property with thick walls, the good news is that the radio “Seeker Signal” that WundaSmart uses offers a bigger range than Zigbee or Z-Wave – two commonly used alternatives.
The final feature of note is that none of your data is stored in the cloud. WundaSmart opts instead for storing that data locally, encrypted, “in your system”.
This also means that it will continue to work even if your internet connection goes down. But, naturally, you wouldn’t be able to control it remotely if that happened.
Installation
Professional installation recommended
DIY installation possible
The only room I couldn’t use it in was the bathroom which had a towel radiator with no TRV. Theoretically, it would be possible to fit a valve, but this would require a plumber and more expense.
As there’s no under-floor heating, I couldn’t test the Connection Box.
If not, and stuck-open valves are fairly common, you’ll need to try and fix them or have them replaced by a plumber.
I found around half my home’s radiators had the older M28 thread, but installing adapters took mere seconds: the kit includes various lengths of plastic pins so you can choose the one that fits best.
There’s no option to pay for professional installation when you order, so while WundaSmart recommends this, you’ll need to arrange a fitter yourself.
As the HubSwitch will attach to the common UK thermostat backplate, it is fairly simple to replace a traditional, dumb thermostat. However, if you do this, you’ll still need to check the wiring is correct to avoid damaging the HubSwitch. Plus, there are dip switches which need to set correctly for your heating setup, otherwise the system won’t work properly or at all.
Hopefully WundaSmart can update the app so there’s no ambiguity.
Once paired, I had no issues with connectivity apart from with two screenless thermostats going offline almost immediately. The problem turned out to be that one of the two batteries had fallen out of place, presumably when slotting the unit onto its backplate on the wall. WundaSmart is now aware of this and will – again – hopefully install a foam strip to keep the batteries firmly in place.
PerformanceWhen I originally wrote this review it was July, precisely the wrong time of year to test a heating system in the UK.
But I’ve now spent a good few weeks evaluating it in winter.
The good news is that it works very well, living up to the promise of being able to control room temperatures individually.
Not only that: it largely manages to keep the temperature you’ve set very accurately, and you can see graphs of temperature and humidity, plus when the heating was on in that room, over the past week.
Jim Martin / Foundry
For the most part it is utterly reliable, too. There were only a couple of problems which the tech support team dealt with efficiently over email, with replies arriving relatively swiftly. There’s a phone number as well if you need more immediate support during office hours.
The issues appeared to be related to the RF signal, and caused the farthest radiators from the HubSwitch (around 60 feet away with several walls between them) to either turn on when they should have been off, or remain off when they should have been on.
Jim Martin / Foundry
The former was in fact cured by increasing the ‘downforce’ for that radiator head in the app, which exerts more pressure on the valve pin, ensuring it turns off and stays off.
The latter only happened twice and was resolved when the support team ran a recalibration at their end.
Dig into the room settings and you can see the rough signal strength for each thermostat and radiator head. I’m told that even the lowest report signal is still enough.
Unlike a single thermostat system where you can walk up to it and adjust the temperature, it’s more efficient to set up schedules with WundaSmart.
The interface for this is quite confusing at first, until you realise that the temperature (or Off) you’ve selected for that period is displayed above in smaller text, rather than highlighting the setting you just tapped on.
Jim Martin / Foundry
Adding multiple heating periods is easy, and you can set different temperatures for each if you want. You can then quickly copy that day’s schedule to other days, and other rooms, and edit them to remove heating periods, durations or temperatures.
The manual alternative means opening the app and tapping on each room individually to selecting a temperature and how long to heat that room for. This is easier if you only want to heat a couple of rooms.
There’s also the Quick Switch button at the top for setting all rooms to Eco, Reduced, Comfort or Off which can be useful, but is essentially the same thing as adjusting the temperature on a single thermostat system.
Compared to the Nest Learning Thermostat I was using before WundaSmart, I also found the information shown by the thermostats (with screens) to be rather basic.
Jim Martin / Foundry
They show the current temperature, but you have to press a button to see the ‘setpoint’, which is the temperature the room is being heated to or, as shown above, that it’s currently off.
There’s nothing to tell you at a glance whether the heating is currently on or not, and the E-Ink screens suffer from ‘ghosting’ which you can also see in the photo above where the temperature and humidity is still faintly visible.
You use the + and – buttons to adjust the temperature you want, which is good for guests who won’t have the app, and family members who don’t want to use it.
Put simply, I’d prefer it if they had displays like most rival smart TRVs.
The motors in the smart TRVs are relatively quiet, making less noise than those in the Honeywell EvoHome system.
It’s worth knowing that WundaSmart recommends you keep all internal doors closed for the system to work efficiently. Otherwise, the heat from one room could escape to a room or area you don’t want to heat.
The worst way to use the system, then, is to leave all the doors open and ask just one radiator to heat one room.
The other thing that WundaSmart can do is to control your hot water if, like mine, your heating system includes a separate hot water cylinder. It’s the same process as for central heating to set up a schedule for heating it.
As with a lot of smart heating systems, hot water control doesn’t feel particularly smart. It’s a simple on/off control and there’s no way to see in the app what the temperature of your water is.
If you want to know that, you’ll have to look at the cylinder itself, but often they have a basic thermostat that simply determines how hot the water is heated to, but does not show the temperature of the water inside.
Price & availabilityWundaSmart is available in the UK, but you can also buy it and use it in any European country.
It isn’t available in the US, Canada, Australia or New Zealand.
The minimum you’ll need for it to work is the £199.99 Starter Kit, but as mentioned, if you’re only going to buy that, you could instead buy a cheaper single-thermostat kit.
For this review, five Smart Thermostats were installed and five Screenless Thermostats. Some rooms have two or three small radiators, which meant I needed 14 smart TRVs. Adding the Starter Kit, the total price was £1639.99.
However, if you have a total of 10 radiators and decide not to go for separate thermostats, the system will cost you £799.99.
It’s worth taking a look at Honeywell’s EvoHome system as well: some components (such as room thermostats and the UFH controller) are more expensive, but others, such as the Smart TRVs, are cheaper, despite having a useful LCD display.
It is, however, even more expensive than WundaSmart.
A cheaper option is Drayton’s Wiser system, which uses smart TRVs for room-level control.
The benefit with all these modular systems is that you can add to them over time. If you can’t afford an initial £1000+ outlay, you can begin with a starter kit and go from there when funds allow.
For more alternatives, read our roundup of the best smart heating systems.
VerdictWundaSmart may not be perfect but it is an impressive smart heating system that’s relatively easy to install and use. You could, if you’re competent, install the HubSwitch yourself, too.
The app could do with some finessing, particularly the pairing instructions, the screen for setting up each heating period, and it would be nice to have some virtual Boost buttons to avoid having to go to your boiler.
The screenless thermostats need special attention to make sure you don’t knock the batteries out of place while installing them.
Of course, the big question for many people considering such a system is how much it will save them on their energy bill. If you have no desire to save money, then you’d have to question the value of paying so much to control individual radiators and rooms.
WundaSmart quotes “up to 31%” savings, which is similar to rival systems. It’s almost impossible to calculate exactly how much you’d save because so many factors are involved, not least the fact that the weather is never identical from one year to the next. You can only use typical figures.
However, the fact that this system allows you to heat only the rooms you want to at the times you want them to be warm could well lead to significant savings over the next few years as energy prices continue to rise. You can find out more on WundaSmart’s website about whether turning off radiators really does save money.
Of course, you could go round your home turning radiators on and off manually throughout the day for free. But let’s face it, no-one wants to do that.
You're reading Wundasmart Review: Zone Your Home With This Smart Heating System
Best Apps For Your Smart Home
Technology has come a long way, and today you can get devices and apps that will make your day-to-day routines much easier. Forgot to turn off the thermostat, or you’re unsure of whether you locked the door on your way to work? Instead of going back, you can now simply unlock your phone, open the smart apps, and do it on the go.
Check out some of the best devices and apps you can get today and improve or transform your house into a modern smart home.
What Can You Install In Your Smart Home: Apps and DevicesA smart home is a residence where some, or all, of the house’s functions are controlled via smartphone or similar device. Lighting, thermostats, door locks, TVs, air conditioners, and more can all be controlled from a distance using apps on your smartphone.
There are thousands of devices, gadgets, and apps that we could discuss. Today we decided to showcase some of the best and most useful ones that will improve your home and enhance your experience.
Smart Door LocksFunctionality comes at a cost, which is why a standard door lock is less expensive and more ubiquitous. Smart door locks you can get range from $200 to $300. According to the experts at Locksmiths Locators, no matter which brand of smart door locks you get, they are no more difficult to install than standard locks.
However, to stay on the safe side and avoid damages, improper installations, or other issues, you should call a professional to do it for you. One example of a smart lock is the Ultraloq U-Bolt Pro Wi-Fi Smart Lock. You can get one online for about $280, and it comes with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connectivity, geofencing, tamper alarm, touchpad, and voice activation. You can download the Z-wave app from where you can control the door lock.
Virtual Assistant TechnologyThe first virtual assistant app that comes to mind every time is Amazon’s Alexa. It was launched back in 2013 — the virtual assistant is used with Amazon Echo and has a ton of features. Today, you have heard about this app even if you don’t have Alexa at home. To clarify, Alexa is the app you play via your Amazon Echo speaker. Some people still think that the speaker is named Alexa.
The speaker has an app that helps you control and give commands via voice activation. In fact, all you have to do to make the device work is call its name. You can make appointments, set alarms on your phone, make shopping lists, play music, change the channel on your TV, etc.
You can get the speaker online for about $80, while the Alexa app comes for free, as you can download it on your smartphone.
Smart LightsPhilips has released a lightbulb called Hue. Once you install all the lights and download the app, you can turn them on or off, adjust how bright they are, and even change colors. You can also set timers when the lights change color by themselves.
Additionally, you can pair the app with your Google Assistant, Alexa, or Siri and use voice activation. You can get the Philips Hue lightbulbs online, which come in packs of 2 or 4 and will cost you around $70 or $120.
Intelligent ThermostatWith a smart thermostat like Ecobee, you can open the app, adjust the temperature and make your home warm and cozy, no matter where you are.
Final ThoughtsTechnology today is ever changing and bringing new conveniences into our lives. What would have seemed like science fiction a few years ago is a reality today. Whether you decide to jump into smart home devices all at once or slowly over time, it’s important to remember how convenient these technologies can be. More important than convenience is the safety and security that a smart home can provide.
David TodvaDavid is an experienced writer who has worked in the sports industry for many years and he also enjoys writing about tech, business and real estate investments as a freelance writer. David’s background as a Russian native gives him a unique perspective on Eastern European business culture and current trends. When he’s not writing, David enjoys spending time with his wife and two young children.
Follow us :
8 Signs Your Smart Security System Has Been Hacked
How often do you check your smart security system? You hooked everything up, and unless something happens, you probably just assume everything’s working normally. But, what if it’s been hacked and it’s being used to spy on you? They could learn your routine and break in or see passwords and security codes as you enter them. They could even see extremely intimate details of your personal life. Check your system at least once a week for signs of a hack.
1. Cameras Are RepositionedOne of the most obvious signs your smart security system has been hacked is your cameras are repositioned. If they’re tilted or angled in any way that you didn’t do, disconnect them from the network immediately. It’s possible they were just physically bumped, but check your phone or computer to see where they’re facing. Also, ask if anyone else in the house might have changed them. Otherwise, hackers may be slightly adjusting your cameras to see better.
2. Unusual TrafficThis one’s a little trickier to check. Surges in network traffic may signal that a hacker is actively watching you through your security cameras. Some routers have built-in tools to let you monitor network usage. However, many don’t. You can check by accessing your router’s settings. Third-party firmware tools allow you to see the usage yourself. One of the most popular and compatible options is DD-WRT. If you want to see individual device usage, you’ll also need the additional monitor for DD-WRT called DD-WRT BBMON. Follow the documentation, which is provided on their respective sites, for the firmware and then monitor carefully.
Your ISP can also tell you if something isn’t right. If you don’t want to change your router’s firmware, contact your ISP. If they already provide data monitoring tools, use them to check for sudden spikes.
3. Indoor Indicator LightsSometimes it’s difficult to keep an eye on your outdoor camera lights. However, your indoor camera indicator lights are usually only on if they’re currently in use. If you don’t usually have your indoor cameras recording while you’re home, an indicator light means someone is watching you. It’s also possible your system is updating, but you can contact the smart security system company to double-check.
4. Login History Is SuspiciousTo take control of your security system, hackers have to log in. Since you likely have an app that stays logged in all the time, you probably never check your login history. At least weekly, check for any additional logins. This is especially true if they come from different areas or devices. It’s sometimes a more subtle but clear sign something’s wrong.
5. Password ChangedThe single most obvious sign your smart security system has been hacked is your password is changed. If you’ve just forgotten your password, that’s different. However, if you know for certain your password is correct, you’ve probably been hacked. Contact the security company immediately to reset your password and regain control. The company will also be able to tell you when the password was reset to ensure it’s not just your kids or friends messing with you.
6. You Notice Strange SoundsIf your security system has two-way audio, a hacker might accidentally give their presence away. While many are smart enough to mute their own mics, some don’t think about it. If you notice any odd sounds or human voices coming from your security system, you may have been hacked.
7. Footage Is Missing or ChangedFor this one, the problem could just be issues with the system itself. Data might not have transferred correctly, or your local storage may be corrupted. However, if everything seems to be okay but the footage is missing or has been changed, a hacker is likely to blame. Of course, check with others living in your home to make sure they haven’t done it first. Scroll through your footage at the end of each week to check for any noticeable problems.
8. Issues with Other DevicesYour home network supports numerous devices. If one device gets hacked, all of your other devices are vulnerable too. This is also why it’s vital to use different passwords for different devices. For example, a hacker might just get your smart security system password but not your network password. They can control your system but not hack other devices yet.
If you notice other smart home devices, or even your computer or phone, are acting strangely, those devices might have been hacked. Look at everything, such as your thermostat and smart speakers. Issues mean your security system is at risk too.
Overall, these are relatively simple things to check. Turn these checks into a regular schedule for peace of mind and better home security.
Images credit: Home Security Safety Systems Cameras, Surveillance Cameras in Use, Password-Security
Crystal Crowder
Crystal Crowder has spent over 15 years working in the tech industry, first as an IT technician and then as a writer. She works to help teach others how to get the most from their devices, systems, and apps. She stays on top of the latest trends and is always finding solutions to common tech problems.
Subscribe to our newsletter!
Our latest tutorials delivered straight to your inbox
Sign up for all newsletters.
By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and European users agree to the data transfer policy. We will not share your data and you can unsubscribe at any time.
How Irobot Could Control Your Smart Home And Become Your Butler
We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Learn more ›
In 2002, Colin Angle sent his army of Roombas into our homes. For years they’ve done a great job sucking up dirt. His newest model, the 980, does a heck of a lot more. It maps your home so a future model might one day navigate it as your personal butler. Angle sat down with Popular Science to tell us how technology will do even more of our dirty work.
Popular Science: How does a Roomba create a map?Colin Angle: Because it’s a vacuum, its mission in life is to get everywhere it can get to. As it moves around your home, it uses optical sensors and software to document its journey. It says, “There’s nothing here, there’s something here,” etc. That’s how it builds a map, how it understands where your rooms are. You could build a platform on that and use your cellphone to track family members in the house—like find where your husband is and have your home perform intelligent tasks to suit his location.
PS: Like what?CA: When you map people’s movements, you start extracting intent. For instance, when someone is in the living room, they probably want to watch TV, right? You can turn on the television, give a selection of their three favorite channels, and then turn it off when they leave the room.
PS: So how does that get us to the smart home of the future?CA: As the maps get better, as we add more 3-D information about what’s in your home, it’s easy to imagine programming a house to stay organized, to keep the trash can where it goes, toys, magazines, and more. I imagine a robot, like a butler, with an arm that helps you clean things and fix things. It would provide security during the day, look for spills. And when you come home, it would interact with you. Or not.
PS: What do you mean?CA: If you want privacy, you can send the butler away. The smart home that I think of is not like other people imagine, this Starship Enterprise interface where the house is omniscient and omnipotent and always monitoring. That idea requires big expenses, and the concept of privacy is blurred. What I’m talking about is a distinct thing that is either with you or not with you. If it’s not with you, you have privacy.
PS: Sounds like a companion bot.CA: It can be. People already love to anthropomorphize their Roombas and name them. The Roomba on the main floor of our house is Roswell. At first our little poodle, Daphne, was very skeptical of Roswell and liked to try to chase its side brush. But quite quickly Roswell and Daphne have formed a fine relationship, and Daphne occasionally can be seen hanging out with Roswell waiting for something to happen.
This article was originally published in the November 2023 issue of Popular Science, under the title “Roomba’s Creator And His Robot Butlers.”
Airmega 400S Review: This Smart Purifier Will Clear The Air And Your Bank Account
We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Learn more ›
The Wi-Fi-connected Airmega 400S is designed to handle large indoor spaces (up to 1,560 square feet) and includes an onboard air quality sensor plus two kinds of filters that trap particulates as small as 0.3 microns, the HEPA standard.
TestingSetting up this side-table-sized (23 x 15 x 15 inches) air purifier takes a total of 10 minutes and mostly involves peeling off a bunch of protective plastic and removing the wrapping from the unit’s two Max2 filters. Because this model also has wireless capabilities, it has a dedicated app that lets you set up air purifying schedules, check the air quality outside, and control the Airmega while you’re away from home. As with other connected smart home devices, this part of the setup process involves downloading following a handful of on-screen instructions in the app to connect the 400S to your Wi-Fi network.
While we didn’t have a fancy lab or equipment that could accurately measure particulate or VOC levels, we did subject the 400S to as many real world tests as we could dream up. We cooked, we lit candles and matches, we even emptied the contents of dirt and dust-filled Roomba near the air purifier. As the doting owners of a 110-pound, perpetually shedding dog, we also subjected the Airmega to the dander wonderland that is our home.
By chance, we also had the unit on hand during the tail end of the Napa fires this past October, a time when the entire Bay Area was being blanketed with extremely hazardous levels of fine particles. We used the Airmega during two of those days to see if it made our self-imposed (and EPA recommended) indoor quarantine more pleasant. (It did.)
You can control the Airmega with an app or via the simple onboard controls. Airmega
ObservationsAir purifiers are usually not paragons of thoughtful design. In fact, many can be downright hideous. Not only is the Airmega 400S likely to be one of the least ugly things in your living room, we’d even go so far as to call this boxy gadget attractive. This attention to design, while by no means mandatory for a product in this category, is refreshing given that these devices need to be placed out in the open to do their job properly.
The purifier’s stylish looks even inform its functionality. Its perforated sides allow the Airmega to suck in air from opposite ends, filter it through two washable pre-filters, an activated carbon filter, and a green true HEPA filter, and then push out the clean, easy-breathing stuff through a vent on top.
As far as operation goes, the unit has four modes: Manual, Sleep, Eco, and Smart. The latter automatically adjusts the fan speed according to the room’s current air quality without any direct input from you. Eco mode is more or less a sub-mode, and engages automatically while in Smart. If the air quality sensor registers clean air for 10 minutes, the Airmega will stop the fan and enter Eco mode, reactivating it only if the air quality goes down again. When in Sleep Mode the Airmega monitors whether the room it’s in is dark and if the air quality is clean. If the latter two conditions are met, it turns off the fan and the insanely bright LED indicator lights.
We played around a lot with the different modes, trying to get a sense of whether they kicked in and turned off when they were supposed to. What we found was that the Airmega not only transitioned from one mode to the other seamlessly, but it did so consistently and with virtually zero lag.
In fact, it’s kind of scary how fast the onboard sensor recognizes and reacts to pollutants. In Smart Mode, which is what we usually kept the Airmega in, the purifier would almost immediately bump up the fan speed when we were cooking anything that produced smoke. Same deal when we lit matches and a candle nearby. On the few occasions when our dog would shake or scratch himself within close proximity of the Airmega, it would also briefly boost fan speeds to filter out what was presumably a large dose of dog hair and dander. Again, we couldn’t directly measure particulate levels or pollutants, but the Airmega seemed to bump up its air purifying powers only when appropriate, which was great.
You can put it next to your Amazon Alexa, as shown here. Airmega
During the Napa fires, we generally kept all the windows and doors to our home shut, but on the few occasions we opened the front door to walk the dog or fetch the mail, the 400S registered the poor air quality and turned on the fan, clearing out the smokey, eye-watering air in a matter of minutes.
Still, for all its superior air cleaning capabilities, the 400S has one pretty big downside: the price. Even for those who suffer from severe allergies or other respiratory problems, $750 is a pretty gasp-inducing price—and that’s just for the purifier. You’ll also need to factor in electricity usage and replacement filters. As far as we can tell, that price mainly reflects the Airmega’s singular ability to rapidly clean a large volume of air. Indeed, after living with the air purifier for a couple weeks we can verify that it’s an extremely appealing skill—but one that’s probably more of a luxury than necessity for most.
ConclusionThe Airmega 400S’s formidable air cleaning abilities are almost certainly overkill for most people. But if you’re particular about particulate-levels in your home, live in an area with routinely poor air quality, or just want a highly effective, set-it-and-forget-it smart air purifier, cost be damned, the Airmega won’t disappoint.
Grade: 4/5 DetailsPrice: $749
Coverage Area: 1,560 sq ft
Wi-Fi: Yes
Power: 66 W
Weight: 25 lbs
Dimensions: 23 x 15 x 15 inches
How To Install Baseboard Heating (Electric) (With Pictures)
Calculate a baseline for total watts of electric heat required to heat the space. Most spaces require 10 watts per square foot of space for homes built since the 1970s. A 12 foot (3.7 m) by 12 foot (3.7 m) room has 144 sq/ft. Assuming a ceiling height less than 8 feet (2.4 m), this room should be heated comfortably with 1500 watts of heat. 1500 watts of heat is a total of 6 feet (1.8 m) of heat, assuming “standard density” baseboard heaters are selected for installation. Standard density heat is rated at 250 watts per foot. There is one other type of heat called “high density” (HD). HD heat has more than the 250 watts per foot that the standard density heat has, but does not heat quicker nor is operated for any less. HD merely provides more heat with a smaller footprint.
Determine how much (if any) more watts of heat over the baseline watts to install. All of the considerations above (windows type and number, insulation, etc.) will come into play when purchasing heaters. The baseline wattage should be increased by up to 100% if the room suffers from all of the considerations. It is important to note that adding additional heaters will not increase the cost of operation. Additional heaters allow the room to maintain desired temperature during the colder days, as opposed to having the minimum heat (or baseline) installed. If only the baseline calculated amount of heat were installed, it would not be able to replace the heat as quickly as it was lost due to lack of insulation, single pane windows, etc. A room that ideally requires 1500 watts of heat might need as much as 3000 watts if it suffers from all the issues listed above. This applies to ALL types of heat (and cooling in the summer for that matter), regardless of fuel type or technology. Insulation is inexpensive over the long run.
Decide if / or how to break up the heaters. The heat can be installed one of two ways. In the example room, install (1) 1500 watt heater or install 2 or more heaters totaling 1500 watts. The latter method can be employed for rooms at the corners of a building – having 2 exterior walls. Typically, heaters are installed below windows, where most of the heat loss occurs. Adding more watts of heat will allow the room to reach the desired temperature faster than if no additional watts of heat were installed.
Determine size and number of circuits required to serve the heating load. Installing 240 volt heaters is best as wire sizes and number of circuits are significantly reduced. The National Electrical Code allows a 15 amp circuit to carry up to 12 amps, and a 20 amp circuit may carry up to 16 amps. The total watts allowed to be connected can be determined simply by multiplying volts by amps only because this is a purely resistive AC circuit (AC wattage calculations are much more complex for inductive and capacitive reactant circuits that exist in appliances and electronics). The 15 amp circuit is 240 x 12 = 2880 watts. The 20 amp circuit is 240 x 16 = 3840 watts. This is a maximum of 14 and 19 feet of 240 volt, standard density heat, respectively.
Provide a 2 wire circuit (#14 for 15 amp circuit or #12 for 20 amp circuit) of NM type (Romex) or similar cable from the electrical panel to the thermostat location. This may require fishing or snaking of the cable between the points, and will probably be most time consuming. For this reason, many times a single heater sized to heat the entire space is often selected so that fishing or snaking is minimized. Indicate this cable as the “LINE” so it can be determined as such after it has been installed in the box for the thermostat.
Advertisement
Update the detailed information about Wundasmart Review: Zone Your Home With This Smart Heating System on the Tai-facebook.edu.vn website. We hope the article's content will meet your needs, and we will regularly update the information to provide you with the fastest and most accurate information. Have a great day!