Any opinions on Google Nest vs Hive for controlling heating?

[Finals1234]

H,

I am in the expensive fortunate position of refurbishing my house completely at the moment.

I need to choose between Google Nest and Hive system to do this, but I don't have any experience of either and I am not sure where to start with this, so I have come to my default starting point here

Does anyone have experience of these two systems and the pros and cons of each?

I WFH full time, so I'll be looking to have heating on in 1/2 rooms only during school hours. My DDs will want different levels of heating in their bedrooms at various times.

We need hot water at set times each day, possibly with a small boost here and there eg washing up if guests are over.

I'm having radiators installed (as opposed to underfloor heating). Also getting external insulation fitted so hopefully its nice and cosy.

Any experiences would be great to hear.
thanks!

[Kamma89]

Following as we're about to swap. We went with netatmo & the valve batteries constantly need changing. Shame as system pretty good otherwise & syncs well with Google home.

[hgaj]

I'm not an expert but it probably depends what your physical boiler system is (NEST/HIVE are just some electronics that help control it).

For example if you have a combi boiler hot water is produced on demand I don't think either NEST or HIVE have any role in this. If you have a system with a cylinder to store hot water than they might (but not all NEST/HIVE versions can do this).

[Knotaknitter]

I have a NEST which was installed in June. I had to have the expensive one as I have a hot water tank and the cheaper ones don't control water. It sounds as if you have a water tank, this is something that you need to check on the various systems because it's not a standard these days.

My research involved asking my plumber what he had - he lives in a similar house down the road. Mine is a simple set up with one sensor in the dining room, the whole house heats but I have thermostatic control on the radiators. This is not what you are looking at doing, you want something more complicated with zoning.

It is simple to set up and use, when we get to heating season it should start to earn its keep as it will turn off when I leave the house. It also means in the depths of winter when I wake up early I can turn on the heating without getting out of bed.

[IndieTara]

I have Hive but no experience of Nest. i love mine. It's really simple to control

[Bwlch]

We have had a Hive for about three years. It's a fairly basic setup that controls the gas heating and hot water, plus the electric immersion heater. We work irregular hours so find it very useful to be able to control the heating remotely, even from the other side of the world.

I'm not convinced that it saves us any money, but it does add a lot of convenience.

[LolaSkoda]

I have Hive. I really like that it messages me when I’m a certain distance from home and asks if I want to put the heating on etc.

Don’t know anything about boilers etc. But the user experience of hive is good imo.

[MiddleClassProblem]

We have nest but have doorbell too. We really like it. Being able to turn the heating on when on your at home, or being able to do from the sofa/bed etc.
Setting times was easy too. It gives a count down of how long it will take to get to the desired heat. It knows when I’m home and when I’m out. It has an auto eco setting.

For us though, we knew we wanted a camera doorbell (catalytic converter was stolen from our car on the drive) and the nest doorbell felt like the best too. We also have a google home that DH got as part of another deal so it just all synced up.