Heating Control for Visually Impaired? Help and information on all topics relating to your central heating, air conditioning and ventilation issues.

[Nezza42]

I have a very elderly relative who is nearly blind. She lives alone and it's having extreme difficulty setting and adjusting the heat in her home. I've searched for talking thermostats, but they only seem to be in the U.S. and are hard wired in.

She currently has a Logic Combi boiler with a Horstmann CENTAURPLUS C17-ZW controller and Horstmann HRT4-ZW Wireless thermostat.


Can anyone suggest a suitable alternative to this that is voice controlled and different need to be hard wired to the controller?

I'm thinking of maybe setting her up with a simple Smart Home system, using, say an Amazon Echo to voice control a smart thermostat?

I'm quite surprised there doesn't seem to be an off the shelf solution for this kind of problem as there must be a huge number of visually impaired people around that have this problem. The RNIB don't seem to have any solutions!!!!

Thanks in advance

[ericmark]

I think Nest can be linked to other google units so can be voice controlled.

Also Nest does display a rather large display showing temperature and turns Orange when heating.

However I have Nest and the link to Energenie TRV heads keeps on failing and I have given up, so simply use the same seclude for both, and not linked any more.

[quote]Having a smart Nest Thermostat transforms your home environment, and using your voice to control the temperature takes the experience to a new level. If you have a Google Home, Google Home Mini, Google Home Max, or access to Google Assistant, connect it to your Nest to control it in new ways. With the Google Assistant app, type text to issue thermostat commands.[/quote]

[quote]

Once the two devices are connected, the fun begins. There are several commands that will control your Nest and the temperature in your home. Say “Hey Google," then say:

What’s the temperature inside?
Make it warmer [or cooler].
Set the temperature to 75 degrees.
Raise [or lower] the temperature 4 degrees.

Google Home and Nest both connect to IFTTT, so you can use the service to create your own voice commands as well.
[/quote]

If it works great, but since the TRV heads have problems, would like to see it working before recommending.