To ask about smart thermostats (Nest & Hive)?

[KathleenTurnerOverdrive]

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?

I want a traditional scheduler which you can't really do with the Nest
You can. I turned off all the smart learning stuff in our Nest a week after getting it and just use it as a traditional scheduler.

I'd settle for a standard thermostat that was just installed in a more sensible place. I live in a 3 story house and the thermostat is in the coldest part of the house downstairs, where we rarely are. I have to turn it down to 12-14 deg or the bedrooms are boiling.

@DappledThings - 9 degrees? NINE??? Aren't you cold?

@LivingDeadGirlUK - You could also turn down the radiators upstairs, and get better weatherproofing / new radiators downstairs, then you'd have a more consistent temperature. (Obviously your way works, just a suggestion if it's annoying).

[quote MRex]@DappledThings - 9 degrees? NINE??? Aren't you cold?[/quote]
Not at night! I prefer to have a thicker duvet plus throw than have heating on. Most nights I'm in pyjamas and dressing gown when the DC go to bed and that keeps me plenty cosy.

We have a hive which I love with a wife booster as the boiler is in the garage but hub and thermostat are in the living room. . Signal is fine since the booster plug went into the kitchen (between garage and living room).

wife booster cracking typo in a conversation about heating where stereotypically many wives complain about being cold.

Yes, we just use the Nest as a programmable thermostat, don't bother with the home and away thing or the preheating or any of the other smart features. It's very easy to set schedules, I also lile rhat I can turm it up but it reverts back to schedule at the next temperature change time, means you can whack it up a bit on cold evenings without risking accidentally having it on all night. We just flick it to away manually when we're going on holiday.

Wife booster. Haha can I get one I could do with a boost

I do agree the WiFi booster can make all the difference. Our hub and boiler are on different floors and different sides of the house so we needed one.

We have Hive. Works a dream as far as I’m concerned.

We like our home quite cool compared to others so if we have visitors (pre covid) it was handy to just use my phone (or Alexa) to increase the temperature for an hour or two whereas before we’d have to turn it up on the thermostat and then remember to turn it back down.

Wi-Fi boosters are amazing little things. We got TP-Link that's amazing for the TV, it runs the signal through the house wiring so it's like having a direct connection. We bought some for both parents so that we can call them on WhatsApp without the challenge of their respective house deadzones.

We have a built in smart thermostat with our new boiler. I think it’s a Worcester Bosch Greenstar. It seems very good so far, and programmable from our phones.

I love our Hive. If it's a particularly cold day I can open the app to see what temperature it is in the house and then turn the heating on. Same if I wake early in the morning and it's cold, I can turn it on from my bed.

@Alwaysandforeverhere

Wife booster. Haha can I get one I could do with a boost

I do agree the WiFi booster can make all the difference. Our hub and boiler are on different floors and different sides of the house so we needed one.

We have a wifi booster in the kitchen but doesn't work for boosting the Hive link between the hub / thermostat and boiler. We got sent a Hive booster plug in as it's radio wave related. Our boiler engineer also confirmed this - we used to lose connection when local taxis kept pulling up too. So far, so good with the Hive booster!