Simplifying Environmental Controls for Your Home or Business

Duncan Ellis
Nov 9, 2025
4 min read

Managing heating and cooling across a property—whether large or small—is vital for comfort and energy efficiency. Unfortunately, many environmental control systems come with clunky, confusing interfaces that leave you reaching for the manual every time you want to change a setting.

It shouldn’t be that way—and it doesn’t have to be.

The Search for Simplicity

As an integration company, we’ve tested a wide range of systems from various manufacturers, always with the same goal: finding something that works seamlessly for us and is intuitive for our customers. Surprisingly, that’s harder than you might think.

In most cases, you only need one temperature setpoint (the desired room temperature). However, if your property has both underfloor heating and air conditioning, you may end up with two. The right system can handle both efficiently, but cost differences sometimes influence which products make it into a project.

Key Terms to Know

Before diving deeper, here are a few important terms you might find helpful:

Setpoint: The target temperature you want to achieve in a space.
Room Temperature: The actual temperature in the room, measured by one or more sensors.
Overshoot: When the system overcompensates, causing the temperature to rise or fall past the setpoint—wasting both energy and money. Smarter thermostats can minimise this.
Demand: The signal a thermostat sends to heat or cool a space, depending on the setpoint and mode.

Manual vs. Automated Control

Most of our customers want the flexibility to adjust their systems manually and through a home automation platform. Finding products that handle both easily is a challenge.

There are some popular app-based systems—such as Heatmiser, Nest, and Hive—that allow remote control via the internet. However, most rely on cloud services, and as recent outages (like Amazon Web Services downtime) have shown, these aren’t always 100% reliable.

Another limitation: few of these systems manage both air conditioning and underfloor heating together. That’s where things get tricky.

When Two Systems Collide

Having separate controls for AC and underfloor heating isn’t necessarily a problem, but it does require careful setup.

Without integration, you could end up in situations where:

The AC is cooling while the underfloor heating is running—both fighting against each other.
Different thermostats heat the same space at different rates, causing temperature overshoot.
Sensors placed in vents or ceilings (like “return air sensors”) read warmer air than what’s actually felt at living level, leading to inaccurate comfort levels.

Home automation systems can solve some of these issues, such as preventing simultaneous heating and cooling, but others are physical limitations that can’t easily be avoided.

Smarter, Unified Solutions

Fortunately, there are a few high-quality solutions that manage both underfloor heating and air conditioning from a single setpoint. Two standout manufacturers are Polar Bear Design and Airzone.

At our company, we prefer Polar Bear Design for its flexibility and robust features. Their thermostats can:

Control two zones of AC and underfloor heating per unit
Manage heated towel rails and hot water
Be locked to specific temperature limits or modes (heat, cool, or auto)
Integrate seamlessly with home automation systems for whole-house control

On top of that, Polar Bear offers a sleek range of metal finishes that match Lutron Palladiom keypads, helping to maintain a clean, coordinated wall aesthetic—no more “wall acne.”

In Summary

A well-designed environmental control system should be simple, efficient, and intuitive. Whether you’re upgrading a single room or integrating an entire property, choosing the right control hardware and layout makes all the difference.

With the right setup—like those from Polar Bear Design—you can achieve a comfortable, energy-efficient environment without the frustration of complex interfaces or conflicting systems.

Some examples of the Polar bear Zentium and Ursium are shown below

These thermostats are engineered to take multiple temperature sensors in each room, can control two areas(ideal for bedrooms and Ensuites),and have underfloor heating head controllers that can control 12v/24v & 230v heads.

Another key feature is the "Virtual Thermostat". These are thermostats that only exist to be seen in the home automation connection. This is a great feature for areas that don't need a physical thermostat, keeping the budget in check whilst achieving the desired result.

Other features include "modulation", this reduces the issue of "overshoot". When the temperature is approaching the setpoint temperature, the thermostat effectively turns the demand on and off allowing the temperature to creep up to the setpoint with minimal overshoot. Normally the heating/cooling would be engaged until the setpoint is reached and would overshoot.

Whole house control can be achieved using a home autmation system,see below. Our choice is AMX(www.amx.com). Home automation is not required for Zentum and Ursium, they are a ver simple product to use

This can be used as a standalone control using a small touchscreen or iPad if required. If you are a company that sells Polar Bear Design thermostats but want a whole house solution, call us. We can help.