FAQs of Footprint Mode

Why is the room cold when I walk in?

The Super-eco setting is purely reactive. This means that it will never predict when the room will be used, or use pre-heat to warm up the room in advance.

When you start using the room, the Genius Room Sensor will detect occupancy and as soon as occupancy has been detected for the 'trigger on' time the Genius Hub will switch on the heating in the room. It is for this reason the default 'trigger on' time is set to 2 minutes. This is long enough to not trigger on the heating if someone ops into the room and quickly leaves, but short enough that the heating is triggered quickly once the room is in use. Once the room is calling for heat, it make take a number of minutes for the radiators to start warming up as the Genius Radiator Valves only communicate periodically to save battery life.

If you want the room to be warm when you normally use the room, change the setting to Eco or Comfort.

What happens if I don't use the room, when the app predicts I will?

A 'no show' is when a room which was predicted to be used at a certain time is heated to the 'active' temperature, but then nobody was sensed in that room after it was heated up, and it is left to cool back to the 'away' temperature again. This is one of the most important ways that Footprint mode can save you energy and and money. In Timer mode, the system would continue to heat the zone as it does not respond to whether there is anyone using the room.

The trigger off time (a setting on the zone setup page) is how long the room waits before it turns the heating back down to the away temperature, after it has heated it up expecting you to arrive in the room.

The app requires only a single trigger to maintain the heating on once it has been latched on by either the predictive part of the app getting the room ready before you enter, or once it has sensed you are using a room then again only a single trigger to keep the room warm, and restart the countdown for the trigger off time. After this trigger off time has elapsed, the occupancy icon will turn grey on the app and the room will be allowed to cool back to the away temperature. 

From the perspective of a 'no show' in a room which was predicted to be on at a certain time, the room will take a while to turn off. This is because the app requires only a single motion trigger during the count down trigger off time, to keep a room on, and then after it has not seen any triggers for more than this trigger off time, it will allow the room to start to cool. The boiler will turn off very quickly if this is the only zone requiring heat, but the Genius Radiator Valve will take longer to get the new Away temperature as it only communicates with the Genius Hub periodically.

This could be why the radiators take a while to cool down after a room is left if it was predicted that it would be used during that time.

Why isn't Footprint mode working in the first week of my system being installed?

Comfort and Eco mode work predictively by creating a schedule based on the occupancy detected in the past 2 weeks, for each of the 7 days. In the first week, there will be no recorded occupancy for each of the days and so the heating will not turn on when you normally use the room. 

From the second week onwards, the system will know when the room was used previously, and so it will bring the heating on for those times.

What if my schedule changes?

Footprint mode is adaptive, and so Footprint mode will change to match your new schedule.

In the week your schedule changes, if you start to use the room outside of the normal times, the system will react to when you now use the room and bring the heating on. In those times you no longer use the room, a 'no show' will occur (see above: What happens if I don't use the room, when the app predicts I will?). In the following 2 weeks, the system will now use the new times when you use the room to also bring the heating on for those times, and no shows will continue to occur for the older, unused times.

Once 2 weeks have passed, the system will no longer remember the old times you used the room and so will only predictively call for heat in that zone for the times you now normally use the room.

Why isn't the heating on?

Footprint mode changes to the active temperature when it detects occupancy for the 'Heating trigger on after' duration, as set on the zone setup page. If the heating is not on when you expect it, look at the app for that zone.

If you can see the hollow man icon, the heating has detected occupancy in the room, but not enough to bring it on yet. The room will likely heat up soon when the required amount of occupancy has been detected. If the solid man icon has appeared, the room is calling for heat and will heat up shortly. It can take up to 10 minutes for a Genius Radiator Valve to get the messages from the Genius Hub and begin to open.

If there is only the greyed out man icon, occupancy is not being detected in that zone. If you look at the charts and also see that the vertical grey lines a quite spread out, then perhaps the system is not sensing you to be in the room enough for it to consider the room as being occupied, in this case we would recommend that you increase the sensitivity of the Genius Room Sensor on the setup page for that room (between 70% - 90% is normal). To change the occupancy, see this page of the user manual.

When in 'Footprint' mode, the Genius Hub considers activity from the last couple of weeks, in order to estimate the probability of the room being used again, as well as if it is currently being used. It is likely if you use a room at different times each week it is considering that these different times are possibly going to be used again, so it will set the room for 'Active' during these times. Even though when you look at one week in isolation you cannot see why it would be on, in the background the predictive algorithms are adding the previous weeks triggers together when determining the probability of a room being used again.