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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask about smart thermostats (Nest & Hive)?

89 replies

KathleenTurnerOverdrive · 31/01/2021 19:24

Boiler is in its death throes and will need replacing in a few weeks. Our existing boiler doesn't have any thermostat and one of the upgrade options is a smart thermostat from Hive or Nest.

The cost compared to the rest of the boiler is insignificant and they claim that they save you money due to their clever jiggery-pokery.

Anyone have them or are they just a pointless gimmick?

OP posts:
Teaseall · 02/02/2021 00:41

Aaaand I've just realised your specific question was about 'smart' thermostats so ignore me Smile

luanmapo · 02/02/2021 01:48

We have Tado, nice and sleek not all glory looking.
We also have the Tado thermostats on every radiator too.
Separate zoning for upstairs and another for downstairs.
We love it, can both control from our phones for every single radiator in the house!
We def save this way. So easy to control.
We had the whole system sorted when installing new boiler, water tank and pipework.
Made sense to be smart with the heating.
Have a look into Tado, it got better reviews than hive and nest from a tech magazine we use.

Freddiefox · 02/02/2021 08:01

[quote SEE123]@Freddiefox if internet is down you can manually override Hive. To utilise features on smartphone it does need to be connected though [/quote]
Thanks

orangejuicer · 02/02/2021 08:03

@atomicnotsoblonde

I have nest and I love it. No problems with it.
Same here!
SatishTheCat · 02/02/2021 08:55

We had a Hive when they first came out and we replaced it. It was not for us. Maybe the manufacturers have improved them but I personally would not get one.

SisyphusDad · 02/02/2021 09:30

We have a Hive controller. Very easy to DIY install - plug and play replacement for our old controller / thermostat. Works fine. Far, far easier to set and change the schedule.

TastyTicklemore · 02/02/2021 09:44

We have Nest - it definately doesn't save money.

In fact, I think it burns more because when I am up in the office and a bit chilly, it is too easy to use my phone/Alexa to turn the heat up a bit. In the 'olden days' I wouldn't bother to go downstairs to turn up the thermostat, I'd just put a cardi on.

The feature to turn heating off/down when everyone is out of the house might be good - but no one is ever out of the house, these days :)

I do like it, though. Just not sure we've seen any real savings because of it.

MRex · 02/02/2021 09:53

We have Nest. I like that we can adjust the heating from the phone and adjust the temperature. It did start turning the heating up too high sometimes by going to 21 degrees at night or plunging us to 12 degrees if we ignored it, I found setting Eco to 17 degrees and various calendar times to 20 degrees keeps us consistently fairly warm and we spin it up to 21 when we feel like getting toastier in the daytime. I strongly dislike that it keeps informing me we are "Away". No, we are not "Away", we haven't been "Away" for nearly a year FFS. Due to it constantly turning off the heating, perhaps we saved some money. It keeps telling me we have earned leaves, but there doesn't seem to be a tangible benefit from that.

I also strongly dislike that it has some kind of issue with its Google login, twice we've just reset the whole system and now left it off Google, yet that's required for multiple phones to access the app. Be careful trying that.

Crosstrainer · 02/02/2021 09:58

We were persuaded to have a Nest. Had endless problems with it, resulting in our being unable to get the heating on at all for several days. The customer service they claim is -well, non existent. We ripped it out and reinstalled a traditional one in the end.

The plumber who ripped it out said they are okay if you a) have a small house and b) a pretty consistent routine. We have neither. That still wouldn’t get round the customer service issue, but might explain some of the problems we had. But I really wouldn’t recommend them.

samanthawashington · 02/02/2021 10:00

We have a nest and it's great as a thermostat. It lives to be near the boiler though so it's stuck at the top of the stairs I don't leave it in eco as it determines that we live at 18C.

FoofOfTheWalkingDead · 02/02/2021 10:01

Another one with a Nest installed with our new boiler just before Christmas. I love it. Our house stays at a nice even temperature most of the time without me having to think about it. We've had no connectivity issues except for it once logged me out. It was easy enough to log back in through google. We just have the timer function on and it works brilliantly. I don't know if we are saving money but the fact that we never have to think about it is worth it.

Calmandmeasured1 · 02/02/2021 10:06

they claim that they save you money due to their clever jiggery-pokery.
They don't save you any money per se. Savings are claimed because you can the thermostat down or turn the heating off while not at home. It isn't a true saving based in current usage. The same argument is used to encourage the move to smart meters. If you leave the same things on at the same temperature, you will not save any money. The suppliers will save though as they don't need to employ companies to send out meter readers.

Lampan · 02/02/2021 10:07

I have had both, Nest where I lived before and Hive now. I much prefer Hive as the interface is more user-friendly. For me though, it was dictated by where the control went - I only ended up with Hive here as the controller is in a place where it can’t be wired in. I love being able to put the heating on when I’m on my way home and as my schedule varies it works better than set times for me. Mine doesn’t control the hot water as I have a boiler that just makes hot water as I need it.

TastyTicklemore · 02/02/2021 10:21

I don't recognise the comments about the Nest needing to be near the boiler/wired in.

I might be missing something but our nest thermostat is in the living room, plugged into an electical socket and 3 rooms away from the boiler in the utility room.

Apologies if I missed something, but thought I would mention in case anyone thought they had to be wired into the boiler or similar?

rslsys · 02/02/2021 10:44

We've got an Evohome system. Total granular control over every radiator. Links to Alexa and it's own app. Local control hub in the house so you can still run it if the Internet is down.

EventuallyDeleted · 02/02/2021 10:45

Unless they've changed (ours is about three years old), the Nest hub needs to be wired in, ours is in the airing cupboard next to the hot water tank. The thermostat itself doesn't though, ours is plugged in in the living room.

MRex · 02/02/2021 16:03

Because of this thread I saw the Google account issues we're supposedly fixed, so I spent 90 minutes putting everything back to factory settings and reconnecting bit by bit. Thankfully I got it to work eventually. So it can be set up with more than one phone operating the app. It's a pain in the arse to set up though with all the resets.

Alwaysandforeverhere · 02/02/2021 16:07

Yes we have special bulbs to the person that asked but we paid something like £8.50 per bulb and they are also colour changing when Amazon had a deal on.

With the internal going down the hive you can turn on or off still at the boiler and you can override the lights by simply turning the switch off then on again and the light will come on like a normal manual light. The plugs again if no WiFi just go and press the button to turn on or off.

You just lose the smart bit if the WiFi goes down.

IliveonCoffee · 02/02/2021 16:24

We have a Honeywell one...its not the smartest but I like it. We've pretty much always had it, we got it 2/3 months after we moved in. I think it does save us some money in that it heats when we want it.

First it has a schedule, so it knows the house has to be a least a certain temp between certain times. So we can say 19 morning, evening, 16 day and 17 night.

Plus unlike scheduling in the boiler, it only calls for heat when the temp drops below. Means it doesn't turn on all summer but we don't have to change it specially for winter.

Then it has geofencing, only set up properly on my partners phone as I wfh and I'm content with the away settings. But basically it has home and away, and so at home it follows the schedule, if you're away it has an away setting. Added bonus that the app notifies me when my partners phone has crossed the boundary. We've set it about 2 miles, I think, with the logic being it can start heating ready for his arrival.

Override on the boiler to turn it permanently on if something happens to the unit.

Unit is wired but has wifi so means we can place it anywhere with a plug. Allowed us to move it to the colder living room, from the landing next to the boiler cupboard (which meant it never decided it was cold enough despite it being freezing downstairs).

Finally, I can turn up the heating at whim, but it 'forget it' at next schedule so if I turn it up to say 21 in the day, it drops back into its schedule later so you don't have fiddle it up and down constantly.

Also, I can ask google what the temp in the house it and ask it to turn it up or down.

ChocOrange1 · 02/02/2021 16:26

@shouldistop

We have nest, don't think it saves money but I love the ease of setting what time and temperature I want etc or turning the heating on when we're not home and want it warm for getting in.
This

If you dont like it, you can just set it to come on at certain times if you prefer. I've turned off the "knows when you're out" setting because it kept thinking we were in and having the heating on all day when we weren't there.
Now I just set it to come on at normal times but sometimes put it on for an extra hour if I'm getting cold or we have been out, which I can do from my phone.

kasho5 · 02/02/2021 16:28

We have a Hive at home and a Nest in a rental property. It depends what you want - personally I hate the Nest as I want a traditional scheduler which you can't really do with the Nest. The Hive is much better if that is what you want. Everything else is pretty similar - you can control both and boost them from your phone wherever you are.

Elephantscantfly · 02/02/2021 16:31

We have a hive, I love that it triggers to come on when I leave work and can be turned on/off remotely in normal times. We’ve recently invested in some hive radiator thermostats that are great as there are some rooms not in constant use and the radiators can be controlled separately. Took us a while to get used to it but in a house with teenagers and unpredictable working hours it’s great 👍

CookEatRepeat · 02/02/2021 16:34

We have a Nest and love it. I especially like being able to control the heating when we are not in the house - great if you have been out all day and want to get home to a toasty house, or know you'll need extra hot water.

Gobbolinothewitchscat · 02/02/2021 16:39

We have two nests - one upstairs and one downstairs. I don’t love the intuitive learning stuff so have set a schedule which is really easy on the app. I love being able to change it remotely and it works out if you go out and can adjust the temps. We just leave our hot water on all the time on it as have a huge tank and don’t want it to ever go cold. Plus I read it is cheaper to keep it at a constant temperature. Would thoroughly recommend

Gobbolinothewitchscat · 02/02/2021 16:41

For people saying you cant run a traditional schedule with the nest - you can and it is incredibly easy - you can even cut and paste from one day to the next if doing it in the app