More than a year ago, smart home specialist Eve, now part of the Swiss-Swedish ABB group, announced improved temperature control for its popular HomeKit and Matter heating valves from the Eve Thermo series. But the Eve Thermo Control is just now coming to market. The company announced it on Tuesday. One order is both with Eve herself as well as Via Amazon Possible. The price is just under 80 euros.
Advertisement
Record the temperature in the room instead of the heater
Eve Thermo Control solves a central problem with smart heating control: the sensors used for control are currently screwed directly into the valve, so they are too close to the heating source. Although you can set an offset by default to compensate for this, the actual air temperature in the room cannot be measured precisely. Eve Thermo Control, on the other hand, can be placed freely in the room and records more accurately whether the heating target has been achieved
According to Eve, the Eve Thermo Control has an e-ink display that shows the selected target temperature and the heating status of the thermostat. It is set using the Eve or Apple Home app, Siri voice commands, or two capacitive buttons on the front of the box. Measurement accuracy should be +/- 3 percent or +/- 0.3 degrees Celsius. The system also measures humidity and can therefore activate an optional humidifier if necessary.
Transformation of matter becomes a necessity
The connection between the Eve Thermo Control and the network is via Thread short-range radio technology. Accordingly, a suitable home control center is required in the form of a Thread border router – For example the HomePod mini, HomePod 2, or the second-generation Apple TV 4K. Also, the Eve Thermo Control only works through Matter, not just HomeKit. This means you’re forced to use existing Eve Thermo models – but they’re supported 4th generation only from 2020 – Switch on Matter. In practice, this is not a pleasant procedure and means, among other things, that in addition to the corresponding firmware update, a new QR code for Matter must also be generated and Eve Thermo must be integrated into the home network again. This can be annoying if there are many devices on the network.
In addition, Matter updates do not always work as hoped. An Eve motion sensor in the Mac & I editorial team has completely failed since the Matter update – the latter went through, but since then the motion detector cannot be added to the home network and the set-up is stuck. There are related reports Unfortunately more common – The reason is probably complex problems with the respective thread set-up or the local network. Eve also sells the Eve Thermo Control as a package with the Eve Thermo at a price of 159.90 euros. The advantage is that both devices are already on Matter status. The heating control is available individually for just under 80 euros and is also Matter-compatible ex work.
(B.Sc.)
