New Levels of Immersion Heater Control.

Mixed thoughts.

First step towards smarter control certainly - being able to use half-hour tariff data would be an obvious next step (together with the water temp it should be able to estimate the energy needed to get the required amount of hot water by a certain time and so pick the cheapest set of half-hours needed). A lot of potential there.

A few things I didn't like - firstly heat is probably the No.1 enemy of reliability with electronics - so sticking something that delicate not only in an airing cupboard but attached to a tank of hot water seem far from ideal to me. In many situations - e.g. with top entry - the buttons/display aren't going to be reasonably accessible in use either. OK mounted on the immersion head is convenient for sensing temperature, but overall I'd be happier with a remote mounted box (like we used to do for immersion timers).

I'm also dubious about depending on non-standard 3rd party technology as part of the solution - while it's convenient & cheap to have an app to make use of a mobile phone's big colour display and input controls and remote access facilities - what's the betting that the app won't work after the phone's been upgraded a couple of times? Or the wifi system it uses won't be considered secure enough to be supported? I installed a couple of IP security cameras a few years ago and already I have to maintain a separate PC account with a defunct browser to access them, as all the modern browsers refuse to use the 'outdated' features.

   - Andy.

Mixed thoughts for me too. Didn't watch him installing it in his loft, he reminds me a bit of Bradley Walsh

Don't like the idea that a Landlord (or a plumber) can monitor a tenant's hot water usage. I have declined installing smart heating controls for a landlord who thought their tenants were constantly turning up the thermostat, they were from Brazil and the heating was included in the rent. He ranted at me over the phone for a few days then probably got someone else to do it. (I haven't fitted those sealed thermostats without a dial either, but haven't been asked to fit them for anyone)

Also not sure about Elon Musk knowing about hot water usage either.

Agree with Andy that a separate box might be a better solution. Should be about a tenner cheaper too without the actual immersion heater.