The Best Smart Radiator Valves For Room-By-Room Heating Control

The tado° starter kit gets you going without buying anything else, because the box holds two smart thermostats, a set of valve adapters and the internet bridge that plugs into your router. The heads come for horizontal or vertical valves, and our photos show one fitted and reading OFF and another showing a set temperature on its dot display.

Most of the cleverness sits in the app. It reads the local weather forecast and your phone's location to decide when to heat, and it turns a radiator down when it spots an open window. tado° says this can cut heating bills by up to 31%, a figure we can't check for you, but our own energy use came down after we'd had them running for over a year. You can control it from a phone, tablet or PC, and by voice through Alexa, Google Assistant or Apple HomeKit.

Netatmo's valve is a good fit for anyone who likes to see exactly where their heating goes. The app sets schedules room by room, switches between comfort and economy modes and tracks energy use for each room, so you can spot the radiator that's running far longer than the rest.

Netatmo says the valve fits over 90% of radiators in UK homes, and the fixtures and fittings for the swap come in the box. It also spots an open window and turns itself down, carries an A++ energy rating and takes voice commands through Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. The one thing to plan for is that an additional valve needs the Netatmo thermostat or valve starter kit to connect, so factor that into the cost if you don't own either yet.

The Honeywell Home valve is the one to choose if you want information on the radiator itself rather than only in an app. Its backlit LCD shows the zone name, the set temperature and other status details, and the screen tilts so you can read it without crouching down to the skirting.

It doesn't work on its own. The valve connects through Honeywell's evohome controller, which acts as the hub and lets you add other devices to the same system. Once linked, you can run custom programmes per zone from your phone or tablet, and it works with Amazon Alexa, Google Home and IFTTT. Honeywell quotes a two-year battery life, the batteries are easy to swap, and the box includes adapters and brackets for the fitting. The screen does make the head bulkier than most valves in this list.

Drayton's Wiser valve is one of the more affordable smart heads, and it's built to work with the Wiser smart heating system, which handles the internet connection. Fitting is a simple unscrew and screw on job, and Drayton says it works with 90% of existing valve bodies, so most radiators won't need new valves.

The Wiser system scales well. Drayton says you can run up to 32 valves across 16 rooms from the app, which is plenty for a large house, a rental with lots of bedrooms or a small business. Once set up, the valves also link to Alexa, Google Home and IFTTT. Drayton quotes a connection range of 24 to 40 feet, so a radiator at the far end of a long extension is worth checking before you order a batch.

Hive is the system we chose for one of our Airbnbs, where we fitted a Hive valve to every radiator and added a Hive thermostat. Hive says that once the system is set up, extra devices take seconds to connect, and running every room from the same app let us heat specific rooms rather than the whole property.

On the radiator it's a neat-looking valve, with a clean white body and a backlit display that shows the current temperature, as you can see in our photo. Fitting is a straight unscrew and screw on swap, and the box comes with M30 valve adapters and two AA batteries. Without the Hive hub the valve still works as a standalone head you set by hand, but app control and scheduling need the hub.

The Eve Thermo skips the hub altogether and talks to the Eve app on your iPhone or iPad over Bluetooth, which makes it a simple way to try a smart valve on one or two radiators. Pairing takes a few minutes, and Eve doesn't ask you to register an account or hand over personal details.

The app lets you set up to seven heating programmes, and you can still turn the valve by hand when you're standing next to it. Add it to Apple HomeKit and you gain Siri control and the Wi-Fi based features that come with a HomeKit setup. The big limitation is that it only works with Apple devices, so a household with Android phones can't use it at all. This is Eve's updated model, with extra features over the original Thermo.

Eqiva's Bluetooth valves cost a fraction of the Wi-Fi systems in this list and still cover the basics well. Eqiva's own app runs on iOS and Android, so it suits a household with both, and with up to five valves per room across ten rooms it covers most houses.

Each valve has a clear digital display, two control buttons and a dial, so anyone in the house can change the temperature without a phone. Weekly programmes allow up to seven switching times a day. The trade-offs are size and range. The head is bulky on the radiator, and Bluetooth only reaches so far, so you'll need to be in or near the house to make changes. Eqiva also sells non-Bluetooth versions with the same programming, but they lose the app control.