You don't have to use the footprint mode on Heat Genius, you can just use conventional schedules but the big advantage is these can be customised for each room. So you could use the footprint mode to automatically learn in some rooms and use a schedule for the room you don't use. The best way to think of the way Heat Genius works is as an automatic way to adjust the TRVs in each room whenever you like, according to one of three methods: a user-created schedule, manually or learned from people's movements. In our house some rooms are used on a schedule (bedrooms, bathrooms), others are used randomly during the day and on a schedule in the evening. So I manually put the heating on in these rooms when required during the day, otherwise it is switched off. Some rooms like the hallway have no TRV, I upgraded individual TRVs as I could afford it. Not all my old TRVs were compatible, so I had a plumber come and install cheap bodies and heads and then as I had the £60-70 for each electronic TRV, I replaced the manual one, putting it aside for when/if I move - I'll be taking my Heat Genius system with me!
Nest just seems to switch the whole boiler, a bit 20th century if you ask me.
Nest just seems to switch the whole boiler, a bit 20th century if you ask me.