Heatmiser PRT-TS Wi-Fi thermostat review & troubleshooting tips
I recently decided to replace my central heating programmer with a programmable thermostat, and decided to go for the geeky option: a wi-fi connected model! So I ordered a PRT-TS Wi-Fi from Heatmiser, which can be controlled both via a Web browser and an iPhone app.
Overall, I’m happy with the product but I found it a little tricky to set up. The instructions don’t go into a huge amount of detail, a problem which is compounded by the fact that the Heatmiser support site was devoid of any information on this particular model at the time of writing, so I have discussed my difficulties below and explained how I resolved them.
Installation
I won’t go into too much detail on the physical installation, but suffice to say, most people should get the unit fitted by a qualified electrician. There’s only a page and a half of the small (A7 size) manual devoted to it, plus three wiring diagrams, and any mistakes could damage the thermostat and/or the boiler. The thermostat is designed to be flush mounted into a standard 35mm deep single back box. It can be surface mounted but it won’t look as good, particular as the thermostat is a few centimetres larger than the back box at each edge. I chose the latter option to save money, but will have it flush mounted at a later date. I will be interested to see what effect flush-mounting has on the Wi-Fi signal strength, if any.
Appearance & usability
The thermostat is essentially a PRT-TS with an added Wi-Fi card, and it looks exactly the same from the outside. It’s reasonably modern-looking (as far as thermostats go!) with a touchscreen illuminated by a blue backlight. It displays the room temperature in the middle of the screen, which can be adjusting using the up/down icons below it. A slight niggle is that it can be difficult to see what you are doing – the backlight doesn’t come on until you touch an icon, by which time it is too late. I would personally prefer the backlight to come on when touching any part of the screen (not just an icon) and the unit to only respond to icon presses when the backlight is on.
A nice feature is the “Screen” icon which locks the screen for 15 seconds, allowing time to clean it without accidentally activating any functions.
You can also view and set heating programmes, set the clock, enable temperature hold and holiday modes from the touch screen. I found setting the time slightly strange, as the down button changes the hour down and the up button changes the minute up – changing the date works in a similar way with the month and day – but this is something that is rarely necessary to change and can be done from the Web interface or iPhone app anyway.
Wi-Fi setup
Setting up the Wi-Fi connectivity nominally requires a Windows PC and the configuration utility supplied on CD. However, when plugged in via USB, the device presents itself as a USB mass storage device (albeit a very small one: 6.5KB) containing a single file – CONFIG.TXT – which contains the network configuration information in plain text, which could easily be edited by hand by users of other platforms such as Mac or Linux. The file is fairly self-explanatory – the only thing worth pointing out is that the KEYMODE parameter (wireless encryption type) must be either WPA, WEP or OPEN. There’s a slight security issue in that if someone were to steal your thermostat, they’d have access to your wireless key, thermostat password and PIN, but this is a fairly unlikely scenario!
I had trouble getting the unit to connect to my Wi-Fi network until I switched my router (Linksys WRT54GS with Tomato firmware) from WPA only to WPA+WPA2 encryption. I’m not sure whether this means that the PRT-TS needs WPA2 encryption to operate (despite the configuration utility only showing WPA), or whether there is an issue with my particular router, but if you’re having trouble, it’s worth enabling WPA2 on your router. Before I managed to get WPA+WPA2 working, I tried using WEP encryption as a test but the configuration utility wouldn’t let me save the changes. I didn’t play with the OPEN option, so I’m not sure whether this refers to unencrypted Wi-Fi (and therefore will ignore any username/password) or WEP Open System encryption.
The device requires a static IP address, and port 8068 must be forwarded via the router if remote connection via the iPhone app is required.
It’s worth noting that the front part of the thermostat detaches from the rear, so it can easily be removed once installed, and the front part will power up when attached via USB which means you can set up and test the Wi-Fi connectivity before installing the unit on the wall. This isn’t mentioned in the manual, and neither is the fact that a Wi-Fi icon (similar to the one used on the iPhone) appears on the display when connected successfully.
Browser interface
The browser interface is full-featured if a little basic-looking – it’s reminiscent of a router interface from ten years ago. The so-called “Live View” panel on the right shows the actual temperature (to one decimal place), set temperature and heat status, and a refresh button as it doesn’t seem to auto-refresh. The main interface allows you to view and adjust heating programmes, temporarily override the temperature, lock the keypad remotely, set the clock and change network settings. There doesn’t seem to be a way to change the port on which the Web interface is accessible, which would be a nice feature to have.
It doesn’t contain any form of logging functionality, so it’s not possible to view temperature changes over time. This would be nice to see in a future firmware update, but I’n not holding my breath.
iPhone app
The iPhone app, a free download from the App Store, is similarly utilitarian. It allows you to see the current temperature (rounded to the nearest degree, unlike the browser interface), set temperature (which can be adjusted) and heat status. You can also view and adjust heating programmes via the app.
One quirk of the app is that you have to select whether you want to connect locally (i.e. when you are on your home Wi-Fi network) or remotely (via the Internet). It would be nice if the app could determine whether you are home or away and select the corresponding connection method dynamically.
The interface is fairly bland but it does the job. It’s a shame that the graphics aren’t retina ready, so they look jaggy on the iPhone 4 (which has been out for more than a year, so you would have expected Heatmiser to have updated their app!). It would also be nice if a future version of the app came with iPad support – the current version works fine on the iPad but doesn’t take advantage of the bigger screen.
I was left scratching my head for a while, as I was originally able to connect via my Web browser but not via the iPhone app. This resolved itself once I moved my router closer to the thermostat, so it seems that the protocol used by the iPhone app is less forgiving of low signal strength (and potential packet loss) than standard HTTP over TCP/IP. Again this is something that should perhaps be mentioned in the manual.
Conclusion
It’s a version 1 product, so is sometimes a little rough around the edges, but the hardware is solid and the product could easily be improved with updates to the Web interface and iPhone app. The manual is fairly basic, which I can understand is necessary to minimise the size and weight of the box, but why not include a more detailed version on the included CD and/or on the Web?
One final point is that I was slightly perturbed to find that the thermostat, which I paid £150 plus delivery for via Heatmiser’s own shop, is available for as little as £126 delivered from some resellers, so it pays to shop around!
Update
Heatmiser tweeted me and pointed me towards their document download area which contains some useful information. They also say they’re working on a new version of the iPhone app, iPad and Android support, multi-zone and logging functionality, and suggest that users email support@heatmiser.co.uk with any further suggestions.
Also, the £126.20 price I found is actually ex-VAT (thanks Luke!) so it is actually best to buy from Heatmiser directly.
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I have the same thermostat but I am having real problems logging on from a browser, the iphone app works fine but I cant log on using my windows phone inside the house and we tried logging on from a pc at work and that didnt work either.
We have also forwarded port 80.
Good review Chris, encouraged me to also buy this product.
For info, I went in search of the £126 price. Found it at one website, but turns out was excluding VAT (not obvious until you get to the final payment page). In the end bought straight from the source.
Now I just need to figure out how to connect it properly…
Thanks for the comment, Luke – glad you enjoyed my review and found it useful. I guess you found the same site as me (Hypocaust) – I hadn’t noticed that they sneakily add VAT at checkout. For this reason, I won’t link to them and certainly don’t recommend buying from them…
Chris – check out the document download area which I have now linked to in the post, and if you don’t have any joy, I’d recommend contacting Heatmiser for support.
I’m also having problems connecting to the unit from a web browser. iPhone app works just fine, tested it both internally and externally with port 8068 open.
But, just browsing with ie9 on port 80, I get nothing. Also tried port 8068, but no luck.
Did anybody find a solution ? I’ve emailed Heatmiser, but don’t expect a response till next week now, but will update the post when I find the solution.
Also, should emphasise the point that the front of the thermostat does come off to reveal the panel with screw holes. This is very poorly explained in the installation manual.
Eagerly awaiting the Android app !
Just bought one via ebay, was a few quid cheaper than from source. Had planned to buy from Hypocaust but they never accepted my paypal payment so that was cancelled after 3 days of waiting (no response from them at all).
Will be interesting to see how easy it is to set up, it shouldn’t be THAT hard (should it?)
Has anyone figured out a way to either send commands to or pull data from the programmer yet? My eventual aim is to add this in to my home automation which is PC controlled although the main reason for getting is to look good on my wall and get rid of the unsightly horstmann timer and programmable room stat, the wifi is just a bonus and a geeky gadget.
P.S. Is it not port 8086 which needs forwarding not port 80?
Joel,
Open ports 8068 and 80 on your router.
8068 is purely for the iphone app (and any third party stuff that uses the info that way).
Port 80 is for the web page like you’ll see on your home network.
Set mine up last night in no time and no problems. As I use port 80 for forwarding to another machine I had to use another public port and forward this to the heatmisers ip port 80.
All is working perfectly today from work. I can view on the iphone app and web browser.
Check your router not your stat. Ask your router manufacturer not heatmiser. It’s a port forwarding/routing issue.
As for installation, that was simple. As with all stats these days, find the push in clip, push it with a flat screwdriver, remove cover. Fit wires to correct terminals (not hard, just google for the s-plan, y-plan etc diagram). Upgrading from an old Horstmann was simple enough, just find the horstmann wiring diag, find what terminals 1 to 6 do, transfer the cables to the correct ones (plus L & N). Other than the heatmiser having hw and ch no and nc labels not heat on, heat off, hw on, hw off but simple to figure out. No earth which meant a connector block but no harm there.
Seriously, I cannot see why so many people have these problems. Always willing to advise if anyone gets stuck though, twitter @richpyke
i too had problems with ie9 but no issues with firefox
with url http://yourdnshost:8068
i am able to connect with my iphone locally but it wont connect externally.. have not figured out why :-(
Hope this helps
Hi Wayne, have you forwarded ports 8068 and 80 on your router (as suggested above by Rich)?
i had my iphone and ipad both connected to the stat and then had a power cut and now cannot reconnect
internet works fine but cannot use app anymore ????
I tried forwarding to port 80, but it did not help :-(
so I have firefox which works to the external address on port 8068 and iphone which works on the internal address.. cant think what else I can try :-(
having fun programming though, i have knocked up a simple powershell script to monitor the settings on an hourly basis to record them to an excel database so i can chart them to a graph.
tried the perl scripts offered in http://code.google.com/p/heatmiser-wifi/ but was unable to get them to work :-(
Thanks
Wayne
i found that i had screwed up on my port forwarding such that 8068 was being forwarded to port 80 :(
anyway i now have port forwarding correct on both 8068 to 8068 and 80 to 80; port 80 now works both internally and externally
however the iphone app does not work at all either internally (which did work) or externally :( [same as Darren above]
Just bought one few days ago and i can’t get the wifi to work :(
Tested with every WPA options and still nothing
I unfortunately had one of the none wifi (wireless)units installed last year. They are poorly made. I’m on my fourth now and when they fail I’ve been left without hot water and heating as there is no maunal override on the reciever to switch the hotwater/heating on in emergencies. No local stockists mean there is no quick turn around to replacing parts. I’ve been dependant on mail order /internet delivery and cosidering I’ll be on my fourth one next week it makes repair a slow and painful process.
I have just successfully installed the Heatmiser PRT-TS WiFi with working local and remote connections! yey it was a little bit painfull but i got there in the end.
First of all the local wifi connection will not work unless you have Wireless mode 802.11 b set on your router. I have b+g+n setup. just a note to say your router will only revert to b while transfering data from the unit. so you should not see much difference in wifi speeds.
Remote set up.
This was more tricky. I set up a dynamic dns address on no-ip.com and could not work out how to remove the 80 ports because the site wont let you, or i couldnt work out, (im no network expert) how to directly set up a dns forwarding to my direct ip address. Finaly I used http://www.dnsdynamic.org which lets you forward your chosen domain direct to your dynamic ip address. Then with ports 80 and 8068 forwarded to the heatmiser i can now access the wifi thermostat from my web browser (80) and the iphone app (8068).
Hope this helps!?
As this thermostat is not evolutive at all I would not recommend to buy it and wait for next generation. You’ll have to send your device to Heatmiser for a single firmware update, its just crazy. Hardware is poor : class B wifi chip, LCD display with predefined labels, not flashable chip, WPA security not working with some routers,…
Just found another flaw.. fails to connect on wifi channel 13?!?!
I bought the PRT-TS. I installed it fine and managed to set it up. It connected via wifi, and with the app, locally and away. Has worked for about a month and Last week I upgraded the app and after a couple of days it has stopped working, saying it can’t connect connect to the thermostat, although nothing has changed. Please help!
Hi Michael, I had a similar problem recently after installing my new Virgin Media Super Hub – although the SSID and password were correct, the thermostat was showing the wi-fi symbol and I could connect via the web interface, the iPhone app wasn’t working.
Turns out that the thermostat needs a strong signal for the app to work, so try repositioning your router closer to the thermostat if possible.
Also check that the PIN number in the app is correct, and that you’ve entered the right internal and external IP addresses.