From time-to-time you may want to change one of the background settings in a zone, and the setup pages are where you can do this. These pages give you the option to make changes to how the heating works, such as do you want your zones pre-heated, what happens if you press a button on a device in that zone or adjust how sensitive the Room Sensor is to detecting occupancy. The options you can see on the zone setup pages are dependent on the type of zone and which devices are in the zone.
To reach the zone setup pages:
- Navigate to the zone you would like to configure
- Click on the zone sub-menu
- Click on the My House Setup or Zone Setup page
Setup options
Zone Name
If you want to change the name of a zone, just type in the new name in the textbox and the app will update the name on the app. This setting is displayed in all zones except for the My House setup page.
Primary Zone
This option determines whether the zone can request the boiler to switch on when it requires heat. The default setting for a zone is for Primary Zone to be enabled.
If this option is disabled, the zone will only heat up if another (Primary) zone is calling for heat at the same time. If only this zone is requesting heat, the boiler will not run and zone will not heat up.
If this option is enabled, the zone will call the boiler to provide heating if this zone requires heat, whether it is only this zone which requires heat or other zones do as well.
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| This setting is often useful for a spare bedroom or utility where you may want the zone to heat up if the boiler is already running but you would not want the boiler to heat up just this room. |
This setting is only displayed in radiator type rooms.
Manual override
In many of your zones the devices for that zone will have physical controls you can use to adjust the heating, such as the buttons on a Radiator Valve. From the zone setup pages, you can choose whether these buttons should be permitted to affect the heating in the zone, and how they affect the heating. The default setting for a zone is disabled.
- When manual override is disabled, any button presses on devices will be ignored by the system and the heating will carry out its normal schedule.
- When manual override is enabled, the device can be used to put the zone into override mode without having the use the app. When you enable manual override you also choose the duration of the override from the devices in the zone, and the override temperature you want to use if none is selected on the device.
For more information on manually overriding devices, see the Override Mode chapter. This setting is shown in all zones types, apart from Group Zones.
Pre-heating
The Genius Hub can automatically calculate the pre-heat duration for a chosen room, so that the room will reach the set temperature at the start of the ‘heating period’, rather than just starting to heat up at that time. Your Genius Hub is adaptive, so it's always learning from the temperature recorded by each room sensor. Using the local weather data and the heating history for each room, it will constantly adjust the pre-heat duration as the weather changes. This default setting for pre-heating is disabled.
When pre-heating is disabled, the system will heat the rooms only during heating periods. For example, if you set a heating period between 14:00 and 16:00 the system will start to heat the room at 14:00.
When pre-heating is enabled, the system will start to heat the room before the start of the heating period so the room is up to temperature at the start of the heating period. For example, if you set a heating period between 14:00 and 16:00 the system will start to heat the room at 13:00 so the zone has reached its set temperature at 14:00. When a zone is pre-heating due, the pre-heating symbol will be coloured to show why the zone is heating before the heating period has started.
When pre-heating is enabled there are a further 2 options:
Automatic pre-heat: This option allows the Genius Hub to apply its automatically calculated pre-heat time to this zone, given the set temperature, measured temperature and weather conditions.
- Manual pre-heat: This option lets you choose how much sooner the room will begin to heat than the start time of the heating period. This manually entered number will always be used, no matter the amount of heating required in the zone.
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If setting a manual pre-heat duration, think about the size of the room as well as how many external walls the room has. A small room likely likely heat up more quickly, where as a room on the corner of a property may heat up more slowly due to the external walls. |
This setting is only displayed in radiator and underfloor zones which have a device which feed the measured temperature back to the app.
Temperature offset
In some situations the Radiator Valves and Room Sensors can detect a different temperature to one another, for example if the Room Sensor in placed on an external wall it will misread the temperature due to the cool wall. When this happens and it is not feasible to move the Room Sensor due to the layout of the room, the devices can be manually offset so they read the same temperature.
To put an offset into a zone on the app:
- Scroll to the 'Temperature offset'
- Move the slider to the desired number and the offset will be applied.
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If you have a room in which the Room Sensor is misreading the temperature, resulting in the boiler running when the Radiator Valve has closed you, to calculate the offset of this room:
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This setting is displayed in radiator and underfloor zones.
Zone reactivity settings
For zones with a Room Sensor, you can change the reactivity settings of Footprint mode from here. the 3 changes you can make are:
- Occupancy detection sensitivity: This determines how sensitive the Room Sensors are to detecting movement in the room. The default value is 70%, as our testing showed this is snesitive enough to detect small movements from people but not sensitive enough to trigger the heating due to pets moving about the room. However if you find that the system is not detecting you when you are in a room, we recommend adjusting this by 10% each time.
Note Setting this above 90% may result in false triggers being detected.
- Heating start after: This setting is for how many consecutive minutes occupancy must be detected before the heating reacts to a person using the room. The default value is 2 minutes, as this is long enough to allow you to walk through the room or get a glass of water, and short enough to bring the heating on quickly once you are using the room.
- Heating stop after:This setting is for how many long occupancy must not be detected before the heating switches off in a room. The default value is 20 minutes, as this is long enough to pick up small movements if you are sitting down and watching TV or leave the room for a couple minutes to answer the door, and short enough that the heating won't continue running long after you are no longer using the room.
This setting is displayed in any radiator room which has a Room Sensor.
Zone devices
This shows a list of devices assigned to the room. For example a radiator zone will have 1 or more Radiator Valves and likely a Room Sensor. These will be displayed in the list of devices, along with a button to remove the device.
To remove a device from the zone:
- Scroll to 'Zone Devices'
- Click on the Bin icon next to the device you no longer want assigned to the zone to remove the device from the zone
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This will only remove the device from the zone, the device will remain linked to your system so it can be assigned to another zone. |
Quick actions
The more commonly performed tasks on the setup pages are located on the action bar found at the bottom of the screen.
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- Click on 'Assign device'.
- Find the number of the device you want to assign to the room (this may be printed on a sticker on the device).
Select the correct device and click 'Assign Devices'.
Info Any devices already assigned to another room will not be displayed in this list as a device can only be linked to one zone at a time.
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- Click on 'Link to zone'.
- Select all of the zones you wish this zone to follow the schedule of.
- Click 'Link'.
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To see the status of the devices on your system, there is a summary page which provides more detailed information along with some options for fixing problems.
To reach the Devices page:
- Click on the Main Menu in the top right-hand corner
- Click on Settings
- Click on Devices
Understanding the summary
Device List
Each of your devices is listed out, along with the zone the device is assigned to and the time since it last communicated.
- Device ID: Each device is assigned a unique number so it can be identified on the system.
- Device Summary: The type of the device is listed next, such as Radiator Valve or Room Sensor, along with the room is it assigned to.
- Time since last communication: All devices communicate wirelessly with the system, with battery powered devices and mains powered devices communicating differently.
A battery powered device is asleep most of the time to preserve the battery. These wake up at regular intervals to check for any queued messages. The wake-up intervals can be found here.
A mains powered devices will receive messages as soon as they are queued, but do not communicate regularly. Therefore if no action is required for a mains-powered device, this time since last communication can be many hours.
Icons
The current state of the switches is shown as a red or green dot to say whether the switch is currently on or off.
The current battery level for battery powered devices is also shown, with the icon changing colour as the battery drains.
On tablets and desktop a second icon will appear showing the measured temperature from any relevant devices. This appears to the left of the battery icon.
Sub-menu
For each device, there is a number of actions which can be carried out. These can be found in the device sub-menu.
- Ping: When you ping the device, the Genius Hub attempts to communicate with the device. For mains powered devices, the time since last communication will drop down to near 00:00 if the ping is successful. For battery powered devices, these will need to be woken up simultaneously with the device being pinged. This can be done by pressing a button on the device.
- Configure: Configure re-sends all of the settings to the device, such as how often it should wake up, that it reports in Celsius or how sensitive the motion detection is. The configuration messages will update when the device communicates, for battery powered devices this may take up to an hour depending on how many settings are being checked and updated.
- Update Neighbours: Mains powered devices also act as signal boosters by collecting messages from battery powered devices nearby and re-transmitting them. If a device is not communicating you can Update Neighbours on a nearby mains powered device to improve the communications network.
- Remove Dead node: If a device is no longer required on your system, e.g. if a radiator has been removed then you can remove the device. To remove a node, it must be removed from any zones, powered off and first be pinged to prove to the system that it cannot communicate.
Device Details
If you click on the name of any device, the row will expand to show you the current details of this device. Many of these details are the same as the summary for that device displays, but a few new ones may also be displayed:
- Device Version: This is the model number of the device, and can be used to troubleshooting if there is a problem with the device.
- Setpoint: This is the temperature a device is controlling to, e.g. what temperature the Genius Valve will control the zone to.
- Air Temperature: The current measured temperature detected by the device.
- Relay Switch: This shows whether the switch in the device, such as whether the Smart Plug has the socket on the front active or if the Single Channel Receiver is calling for heat.
- Valve Hidden Offset: This allows you to adjust the temperature that the Genius Valve controls to. For more information, see the section below.
Stats: Technical information about the device which can be used for troubleshooting.
Info Details such as Setpoint are often displayed in the format: 16 / 16 °C
The first value is current value reported by the device, and the second value is the pending value to be sent by the Genius Hub. Most of the time, both of these values will be the same as the device has communicated with the Genus Hub and gotten the temperature to control to. If the setpoint has recently changed (e.g. the start of a heating period). then the first value will read the old setpoint and the second value will show the new value. The first value will update to match the second value next time the device communicates.
Valve Hidden Offset
In zones with multiple Radiator Valves or a Radiator Valve and a Room Sensor it is possible that both devices may not read the same temperature. This occurs as the Room Sensor is placed in a sensible location (e.g. chest height on an internal wall) whereas the Radiator Valve is likely to be near the floor, under a window or behind some furniture. If the Radiator Valve is misreading the temeprature then it can be adjusted using this hidden offset.
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It is called a hidden offset as the Radiator Valve will continue to show the the same setpoint on the screen as the app, but in the software on the valve it will adjust the setpoint. |
To adjust the Valve Hidden Offset for a Radiator Valve:
- Find the number of the Radiator Valve from the relevant Zone Setup.
- From the Home Screen, click on the Main Menu.
- Click on Settings, then Devices.
- Select the Radiator Valve from the list.
- If the Radiator Valve needs to control to a higher temperature to match the temperature measured by the Room Sensor set a positive Valve Offset. If the Radiator Valve needs to control to a lower temperature, set a negative Valve Offset.
Quick Actions Bar
To add extra components to your system, click on the 'Include device' button found in the Quick Actions bar at the bottom of the page. This will take you through to the Doctor to add the device to your system.