Buying Guide
Best Smart Thermostats UK 2026 — Save on Heating Bills
Updated August 2026
A smart thermostat controls your entire heating system from your phone. Combined with smart TRVs on individual radiators, it gives you complete room-by-room control — heating only what you need, when you need it. The Energy Saving Trust estimates smart heating controls save 10-25% on gas bills. Here are the best options for UK homes.
Quick answer
Our top pick: Hive Thermostat / tado° / Drayton Wiser
£130 – £220 on Amazon
Best for most UK homes: Hive Thermostat (£150-180, British Gas ecosystem, easy install). Best with smart TRVs: tado° (£180-220, best room-by-room system). Best budget: Drayton Wiser (£130-160, Which? recommended).
Check Price on Amazon →What is a smart thermostat?
A smart thermostat replaces the wall dial or plastic programmer that currently tells your boiler when to fire. It does the same job, but it's connected to your WiFi, so you control it from an app, and it can make decisions a mechanical timer never could.
- Schedules per day. Different heating patterns for weekdays, weekends and holidays.
- Geofencing. Turns the heating down when the last phone leaves the house and back up as you approach home.
- Weather compensation. Uses the local forecast to start heating earlier on a cold morning and later on a mild one.
- Remote control. Coming home early, or leaving for a week — one tap from anywhere.
- Usage reports. Monthly heating hours, so you can see whether a change actually worked.
The saving doesn't come from magic efficiency. It comes from not heating an empty house, and from heating for the hours you actually need rather than the hours you set once in 2019 and never revisited.
Smart thermostat vs smart TRV — use both
These are not competing products; they do different jobs and the savings compound.
| Smart thermostat | Smart TRV | |
|---|---|---|
| Controls | Whether the boiler fires | Which radiators get heat |
| Scope | Whole house | One room each |
| Cost | £130–£220 once | £50–£80 per radiator |
| Install | Wiring, often DIY-able | Screw-on, 5 minutes |
| Typical saving | 10–20% | Extra 10–15% |
| Renter friendly | Usually not | Yes — fully reversible |
If you rent, or you want to test the idea before committing, start with two smart TRVs. They need no wiring, no landlord permission and no electrician — smart TRV buying guide →
Products we can link you to
tado° Smart Radiator Thermostat Starter Kit
If room-by-room control is the goal, tado° is the system to build on. Start with the starter kit on the rooms you heat unnecessarily — a spare bedroom and a dining room — then add heads as budget allows.
Pros
- The strongest ecosystem for combining a thermostat with per-room TRVs
- Geofencing and open-window detection built in
- Works with almost any UK boiler setup
- Expandable one radiator at a time
Cons
- Some advanced features sit behind an optional subscription
- Bridge required for remote control
Who it's for: Anyone who wants genuine room-by-room zoning rather than one house-wide setting
Check Price on Amazon UK →Tapo P110 Smart Plug with Energy Monitoring
Not a thermostat, but the cheapest way to see whether your changes are working on any plug-in heater. Pair it with the tado° system and you have a full picture of both gas and electric heating spend.
Pros
- Measures what electric heating actually costs you
- Schedules plug-in heaters alongside your smart heating
- Instant payback evidence for any change you make
- Cheap enough to buy several
Cons
- Doesn't control gas heating
- 2.4GHz WiFi only
Who it's for: Measuring the before-and-after when you change your heating setup
Check Price on Amazon UK →The 4 best smart thermostats compared
We don't hold affiliate links for Hive, Nest or Drayton — these are straight recommendations based on what works well in UK homes. Buy them from the manufacturer, a plumbing merchant or your usual retailer.
| Model | Price | Strength | Weakness |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hive Thermostat | £150–£180 | Simplest app, huge UK install base, easy support | Basic zoning without extra kit |
| tado° V3+ | £180–£220 | Best room-by-room control with its TRVs | Optional subscription for some features |
| Google Nest Learning | £180–£220 | Learns your routine automatically; best looking | Weakest multi-room story |
| Drayton Wiser | £130–£160 | Cheapest, no subscription, Which? recommended | Plainest app and hardware |
Choose Hive if you want the least hassle and the widest pool of installers who know it. Choose tado° if you plan to add smart TRVs and genuinely zone the house. Choose Nest if you want it to work out the schedule for you. Choose Drayton Wiser if you want the lowest price with no ongoing costs.
Installation guide
- Isolate the power at the consumer unit and at the boiler's fused spur before touching anything.
- Photograph the existing wiring before you disconnect a single wire. This one step saves most DIY installs.
- Note the terminals — typically L, N and a switched live (often labelled 3 or COM/NO).
- Fit the receiver near the boiler and wire it to the same terminals the old programmer used.
- Mount the thermostat in a hallway or living room, away from radiators, direct sun and draughts, about 1.5m up.
- Pair and configure in the app, then set a real schedule rather than leaving the default.
- Test a heating call and a hot water call before you tidy up.
If the wiring doesn't match the diagram, or the system uses a combined programmer/cylinder setup, stop and book an installer — £80–£120 is cheap compared with a damaged boiler control board.
Savings calculator
| Annual gas bill | Save 10% | Save 18% | Save 25% |
|---|---|---|---|
| £900 (flat) | £90 | £162 | £225 |
| £1,200 (2-bed) | £120 | £216 | £300 |
| £1,400 (3-bed) | £140 | £252 | £350 |
| £1,900 (4-bed) | £190 | £342 | £475 |
Payback on a £160 thermostat in a typical three-bed home lands between eight and fourteen months. You'll reach the top of the range only if you currently heat rooms nobody uses — which is exactly where smart TRVs come in. Smart TRV running costs and real savings →
Which smart thermostat works with my boiler?
- Combi boiler (most UK homes). All four models above work. Simple on/off replacement of the room thermostat.
- System boiler with a hot water cylinder. You need the two-channel version — check you're buying the heating-and-hot-water model, not heating only.
- OpenTherm boiler. tado° and Wiser support OpenTherm modulation, which lets the boiler run at lower flow temperatures and adds efficiency on top of the scheduling.
- Heat pump. Check the specific manufacturer list — many standard thermostats control a heat pump badly, and the wrong one can increase running costs.
- Back boiler or very old system. Get an installer to assess before buying anything.
- Electric-only heating. A boiler thermostat is irrelevant — use smart plugs or panel heaters with built-in scheduling instead.
Buying advice
Zoning beats a clever single thermostat
Tip
Set a real schedule on day one
Warning
Check hot water and heat pump compatibility before ordering
Frequently asked questions
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