Is "Smart" worth it with a slow floor heating system?

Hello everyone,

in our KfW70 new building, a gas condensing boiler from Vaillant is installed. There is a solar collector on the roof. In the living rooms, underfloor heating is installed. I am now considering either buying the "smart" modules directly from Vaillant or purchasing a solution from a third-party provider. My idea is to save energy costs through smart control (i.e., demand-oriented ramping up and down of the heating during daytime absence).

I have read online that underfloor heating is relatively sluggish. Even the Federal Association of Underfloor Heating apparently recommends turning on the underfloor heating in autumn and then running it continuously until spring.

One of the main functions of smart control is to ramp the heating up and down based on demand (e.g., during daytime absence at work), correct? If underfloor heating is so sluggish, does smart control even make sense?

Thanks for your assessment!

In my opinion, no. The heating turns on by itself when the outside temperatures dictate it (of course, all a matter of the heating settings) and turns off again when it is warm enough (= autumn/winter/spring). I think our heating will turn off, for example, next weekend because it will be very warm (here in the west). Save your money and buy yourself other nice things. I haven't touched the regulators in two years (not in 10 years in the old house!).

Hi, a simple slight reduction during the day should actually be possible with any heating system that already has the built-in control. Then just not via an app on the phone, but you have to adjust it down at the heater. However, it should already have several timer programs. But all this doesn't really bring much. On the one hand, a modern house hardly cools down anyway, and the underfloor heating is also quite sluggish. Best regards, Andreas

With constant switching up and down in such a sluggish system, you do not save any energy. In the 6-10 hours of absence and down-regulation, NOTHING happens. The heating system is intelligent enough; everything is professionally set once and at most customized again to your needs.... from that point on, I would not touch the controllers and so on anymore. Only in this way can you operate underfloor heating economically and efficiently.

@Everyone: Thank you very much for your quick responses. The opinion on this question is really VERY clear (which is not always the case with construction questions ;)). I will forego the "smart" additional functions (which, by the way, would have cost me about €1,200 when using Vaillant products...).