I think I have only one device that uses AA - my central heating's radio thermostat. This thing has caused me untold hassle, which is only partially down to the batteries, but still...
Totally OT, but does anyone have a good link on how the thermostat gets paired with the boiler? I'm thinking of getting replaced and would like to talk to the gas fitter from a vaguely informed point of view.
> good link on how the thermostat gets paired with the boiler?
You should have a book with the boiler that says how your system is setup. They nearly always include schematics and are very helpful. Typically you can open a cover and see the wiring details as well.
Forget about web sites, there are too many different ways a system can be setup, so even if they are not slop they can still be inapplicable for you. Once you know what you are looking at you can sometimes get useful information from the web, but until then you can't sort out what is useful for you.
Sounds like an awful idea in general. Think KISS concept. But you'd have to look at manuals. There's probably no single answer. (I was thinking of wireless control of the thermostat itself.)
I'd add that, where I live (New England), furnace failures can be basically catastrophic so any theoretical convenience advantages just aren't worth it.
That depends. Sometimes because they have encryption. It isn't hard to have shared keys of some sort. If there is no internet connection on the link (which is possible - I've never seen where both systems connect to wifi, but if they do worry!), and so you don't have to worry about malicious hackers and in turn the encryption is good enough even if done somewhat wrong.
Sometimes they are just send a radio signal and hope nobody else in range is using that frequency.
So again, there are too many different ways this is done to guess. Unfortunately they probably don't put this in the manual.
Thermostats (aka space temperature sensors) can have between two and eight wires. A boiler will usually have three: 24V power, call for heat, and common.
If your boiler has inputs on the terminal block for a thermostat, I would highly recommend buying a wired one, the 24V constant power removes the need for batteries.
If you can provide a link to your boiler’s installation and operations manual, I can tell you.
Personally, I keep things simple. Got a new (pretty basic) Honeywell thermostat after a kitchen fire; thermostat was pretty old anyway. For wiring, you mostly have 2-wire and 3-wire although there are a lot of variations as you get fancier: https://nassaunationalcable.com/blogs/blog/a-full-guide-to-t...
Number of zones in the house may affect things as may boiler only or AC being in the picture as well.