I just made a change to the way my smart central heating controls works.

Previously I had four modes:
- (Enable for) Summer
- (Disable for) Winter
- (Going on) Vacation
- Back from Vacation
These modes were the defaults from the Eve Thermo Electronic Thermostatic Radiator Valves (eTRVs). However I’ve thought for some time that there was some ambiguity around what mode the system went into when Back From Vacation was selected (Winter or Summer?) and that it would be more straightforward to have 3 modes as follows:
Mode | Temperature measurement | Temperature control | Temperature set Point |
---|---|---|---|
Summer | Yes | No | Not specified |
Vacation | Yes | Yes | Low |
Winter | Yes | Yes | Scheduled |

I think that this new arrangement is much more intuitive with the user just selecting which Mode they want to enter at the end of a vacation without the ambiguity of selecting Back from Vacation and then quickly following up by selecting Summer or (most likely) Winter.