I want to relax, owner controlling central heating remotely

[PaddingtonBearPumpkinstare]

I am currently on a long weekend with DH and two DC. Whilst the cottage is lovely and we can’t fault it, the heating is controlled remotely via an app by the owner. It is set to 22 degrees and to come on at 6.30am to 10am and then 4pm to 10pm. If we want to alter the temperature or turn it on or off we have to text the owner and ask her to do it. Is this the norm?! I’ve never heard of this before.

We only arrived last night and have already had to text her twice. We arrived just as it was starting up at 4pm and as I was unpacking I was absolutely boiling and had to open all the windows upstairs. Our heating at home is never above 19, DH asked her to turn it down. She said she’d turn it down to 20 for the rest of our stay unless she heard otherwise.

During the night DS woke for a bottle at 3am and I was really cold and actually couldn’t get back to sleep for a while. Obviously we couldn’t text her at that time. If that had been at home I would have just put the heating on for an hour whilst he had his bottle. Then this morning at 6am, DS started whinging in his sleep and when I checked him his cheeks were really cold. So this morning DH has texted her again and asked her to put it on at 2am for an hour but she hasn’t yet responded.

I can only assume the reasoning for it is to stop people leaving the heating on all day when they go out. The weather is horrible today and I want to arrive back to a nice toasty cottage but that won’t happen if we arrive back before 4pm.

AIBU to want to relax on this short break and not be pissed off and feel like a child asking for the heating to be put on?

@Oblomov19 I have just found one review which I am almost 99% certain wasn't there before but there was someone booked in last week so I am wondering if it the people who left yesterday morning as I won't be posting a review until we have gone. I am also planning on taking time stamped photos of the property in case they try and say we've damaged anything (although we did take out insurance in case DS threw up anywhere although I meant number 2 not number 1. Mumsnet has taught me well!

We have a nest thermostat and you just turn the dial to override programme

Her husband has responded (interesting she gave the phone to her DH and we were the opposite way round!) telling us a load of blurb about it being set for the optimum enjoyment of the cottage and about the impact on the environment but also where the thermostat is.

He obviously doesn't realise that 'optimum enjoyment' is going to vary between guests as some people enjoy it really hot and some really cold. His optimum enjoyment isn't the same as everyone elses.

optimum enjoyment would have really pissed me off & not having a connection would have been the only thing that prevented me from telling him to stop being such a fucking twat. Optimal enjoyment is INDIVIDUAL. - I can’t stand people who know me & love me presuming they know better than me what I enjoy the most, let alone some twatty stranger

As for Environmental impact - I’d have asked him just how envirimrntally friendly he thought owning more than one house was.

Sanctimonious Git

Still. At least he told you where the thermostat was & he’s given you quotable fodder for your review 🤣

Hope you and the boys have a better night ☺️

It's funny he's so concerned about the environmental impact yet there is no provision for recycling...

Urgh to owners’ spin!

Post a factual, negative review.

They’re just penny pinching.

If he’s bothered about the environment he needs to insulate the place better so that it doesn’t get freezing cold at night. You can’t have it all ways.

Sounds like Hive. I have the app but there are also physical thermostats - which they may have hidden or removed!

OP, look for yellow valve boxes on the central heating / hot water pipes, probably near the boiler or in the wiring cupboard. Push the button! It's the emergency over-ride in case t'internet fails. It'll call the boiler and ask for heat.

Well it's 20 minutes after the radiators should have gone off and we are sat lovely and toasty with the radiators still on

Hit post instead of return I am on the wine

Those who have these fancy Hive systems, as I am completely clueless as we don't have it, are you able to control individual radiators via the app? The kitchen, bathroom and second bedroom ones haven't come on and I just have visions of him turning them off as we are using too much for his liking

No. We have individual, manually operated thermostats on our radiators.

We have Hive but normal thermostats, you can get hive thermostats which look like
www.screwfix.com/p/hive-smart-trv-white/265gx?_requestid=735565. which are controlled through the app

Normal non smart radiator thermostats are just a knob which you turn, usually with numbers on it are these on the radiators, not all radiators have individual thermostats

b careful u x

There is a thermostat on all the radiators, the one in the main bedroom is on 0 and the radiator is on but the one in the second bedroom is on 5 and it's not on. That's why I was wondering about controlling via the app

There's an alarm which keeps going off in the living room which we can't pinpoint, we are wondering if it's too hot

@Ravenswood1977 ??

Do those Hive apps have cameras on them trained on the house internally at all? I seem to remember my dm saying she could tell my df has still not returned from golf as the Hive camera was pointing at the glass front door and his car was not in the driveway.

Way too much snooping for my liking.

I think if the knob turns it's manual the hive ones from the picture look to have a digital display of a temperature, maybe 5 is off and 0 is on which sounds a bit backwards

@itwaseverthus they'd better not be bloody watching us or they'll get more than a bad review!

@itwaseverthus although that would explain @Ravenswood1977 weird post telling me to be careful

Hive do cameras as well it’s not part of the heating system 🤣

Isn’t it illegal to have cameras unless you make people aware of them? He’d be on seriously dodgy ground having them in a holiday rental on anything other than the front door and even then he should have told you they were there.

There might be two separate circuits. One for the main area & one fir the bedrooms.

My work one is split like that.

Oh god I am now convinced they've either seen this thread or actually watching us. We can't get the living room radiator to go off, I turned the thermostat down to 18 at 10pm and it's still boiling and now the second bedroom and kitchen ones are on which they weren't before!! I am going to be boiling tonight aren't I!!

These people kind of sound like utter bastards that only care about how much heating money you’re spending. “Optimum enjoyment” my arse and that bit about the environment when as you said, they haven’t even bothered to provide any recycling!!! All they care about is the heating cost - they must think you’re thick as mince to not be able to know that’s why they’re doing all this.

OP, it is possible to use Hive to control individuals radiators but you have to install something on the radiator. I’ve attached a picture so look for something like that on the radiators. If they have them, you should still be able to control each of them from the main Hub but it might be more complex and he definitely should have mentioned it.

Better than being cold though.

The thermostats may just be a bit old and not working properly, we have a couple which if you turn down they don't make any difference, you have to turn the radiator off