This allows you to only have heating on when you need it, and in the rooms you need it – potentially saving money on heating bills.

Wi-fi radiator valves cannot communicate with a smart thermostat (so they cannot turn your boiler on and off). Unsurprisingly, the Thermostat E plays nice with Google Assistant, but Alexa users will be glad to know it works happily with that ecosystem too. It's not, however, compatible with Apple's HomeKit platform, and you won't be able to control it with a SmartThings hub either.

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A smart thermostat will keep your home either warm or cool based on the temperature outside your home. You can have total control over the thermostat wherever you are, from the app on your smartphone, and you can connect it to your other smart home devices such as the best smart speakers to make it even easier to control the temperature. The best smart thermostats can also learn your routine so the heating can be turned on at the exact right moment, for example, just before you wake up in the morning or just before you get home from work. You get all the smarts that are well-established in the Nest line, most impressive of which is the learning algorithm which works out both when you're home and when you like the heat a little hotter, helping to set the right temperature at the right time. This should save you money, since you won't leave it turned up by accident. It'll also tie in to individual temperature sensors, so you can make sure you're getting the heat you want in the right rooms and spaces.

Some manufacturers have produced a wireless TRV that can be controlled and adjusted from a smart phone, however unlike smart TRVs they do not communicate with the thermostat to bring the boiler on and off. The thermostat will have to be on anyway and the only real benefit is that you do not have to physically adjust the TRVs, they can be done from your phone. The products below are only wireless TRVs. The Tado TRVs can work in the same way. Smart TRVshave no minimum requirement for heating controls other than those required at the time of installation. Again you can opt for an advanced control. You may only wish to have the functionality of an internet control. Guide to selecting the right advanced controls This means you can remotely set the thermostat and smart radiator valves temperatures. You can even set the exact temperature with smart radiator valves, instead of the 'rough' temperature as you do with thermostatic radiator valves. Below are the three simplest heating setups. We show you what you can and can't do with them. Thermostat and thermostatic radiator valves

Independent: We will tell you exactly what we think of a product and we would never recommend anything we wouldn't use ourselves. It can work out the layout of your rooms and the heat capacity of your home, so if you're looking to hit a certain temperature at a certain time, it'll fire up your heat a little early to get to target temperature at the right time. There's also geofencing, so the Tado thermostat works in tandem with your phone to know when you're in range of home; after you've been out, it'll predict from your movements if you're on the way home and get things warming up in anticipation. You can control it with the app (natch) which is a very good looking and well laid out thing, but there's also compatibility with all three major smart assistants. There are also newly revamped smart sensors to go around your home, which up the range and boost the battery life, so they're pretty much just set-and-forget. It'll hook up to every major assistant, too. Drayton Thermostat Radiator Valve is a self-operating device. Set your desirable temperature one time and this mechanism will control the temperature in your house. A more efficient feature of the Nest and Honeywell Evohome is that they can reduce how much gas the boiler uses – this is call load compensation. However both the boiler and control must speak the same ‘language’, called Opentherm. For compatible boilers and smart controls read our Guide to Opentherm compatible controls and boilers. Wireless TRVsI had a power failure and when Wiser powered up again I couldn’t see any measured temperature in the app and the room/radiator thermostats were unresponsive. Does it mean I have to recommission the system? The flame on my app/thermostat is displayed indicating the heating is on, however my boiler isn’t on. Is this normal? (WH)