hive heating controls feedback please

[catskittens]

hi,ok ive just had a survey regarding a grant for energy saving,the guy said i may be entitled to hive.I have heard of it but dont know to much so thought this would be a great place to find opinions on it and maybe likes/dislikes.

At present have a condenser boiler 7yrs old never broken down and individual stat controls on rads and a central stat in the hall,also ive a 3bed detached if that makes any differrence

so feel free to tell me the good/bad etc
many thanks

I’ve got hive and it was installed with a boiler a few years younger than yours. British Gas came and installed it. It controls the hot water as well as the heating.

I’m not sure I save money with it but it’s handy to pop the heating on through your phone when you’re on your way back from somewhere. The schedules easy to set up and change and you can set a holiday mode if you’ll be away. I don’t know if I’d say that I’d be without it but it’s a handy thing if you don’t have your heating on a regular schedule or just need a boost of heat.

I've had Hive for around 7 years now on several different boilers - one was really old, another brand new and one in between. No problems controlling the Hive heating on any of them and it's really handy (lazy) for controlling when you're in a different part of the house (eg lying in bed). Or even when you're away from the home and want the hot water or heating to come on. I haven't worked out if I've saved on it, but I think it probably does save a bit as sometimes I will do a quick 'boost' for an hour or two rather than just switch it on and forget to turn it off.

I love ours. It’s very easy to change the schedule on the app to work with your plans. So if you’re not home you can make sure it doesn’t come on.
ive been keeping ours on a lower setting and just boosting instead. I switch it off quite a lot now.

I have Hive.

I like it, the controls are obviously more sophisiticated than a normal timer. So for example normal timers might allow you to program two on times a day, but with Hive you can do as many as you want and have different timing on different days which a lot of basic timers don't have.

It's far easier to switch the heating on and off from the sofa than go poking around in the airing cupboard. You can also switch it on and off remotely, so if you are staying late at work you can hold it off, and turn it on before you get back.

You can also use it to track hours of heating, although I think the more sophisitcated bits of the app are on subscription.

I would say the downside of Hive is that I get the distinct impression they are working hard to squeeze more money out of consumers. So adding functions to the app at cost. There are other Hive sensors that have been abandoned - the cameras - there are also TRVs and door sensors which I think are still in production. The fact that they have abandoned one sensor concerns me they may abandon more in the future. I don't know whether they would ever be able to charge monthly subscription for the basic app (I suspect it would be met by a significant amount of outrage) but from what I see of them I think they might like to if they thought they could get away with it.

Google nest seems to be a bit more of a hackers system. But I haven't really looked into it.

I hate mine with a passion, it eats through batteries in a matter of weeks and constantly disconnects so you have to reset it. We also don't get any of the benefits as it was already in the house when we moved in, so we can't use the app etc

That is very odd, I’m not even sure how it’s feasible. Unless it’s faulty. The screen switches itself off after about a min so very little battery use. Mine prob disconnected twice in the last year but I easily connected it again

i use my phone though mainly. It’s very easy to use, I just switch the heating on and off, and control temp as and when I wish on the app.

I hated and loathed it - it was compulsory when we had our boiler installed, Thank God we were eventually allowed to get it removed after a couple of years, dont touch it

"May be entitled to" means he is trying to con you into getting it, and dressing it up as an opportunity

for years our next door neighbours had more control over our heating than we did, and we had to pay for the priviledge

Surprised you can't do some sort of factory reset and re establish a new account.

https://community.hivehome.com/s/article/If-I-buy-Hive-products-and-then-move-home-what-should-I-do

Mine doesn't eat batteries. Maybe one set per year.

Maybe you have got some strange settings. Or the constant disconnect and reconnect is draining the battery. Or maybe you have the older/newer version.

I hardly actually touch the thermostat - its all done through the app and the hub.

Had Hive for 2 years. Never replaced batteries. I find it handy. We have a TRV (thermostatic radiator valve) to separately control the temperature of our box room nursery - useful to control both all on the same app.

However, sometimes (rarely) it's trippy. I put a boost on for 30mins and find after it times-out it's kept the temp on high...?

Long time hive user, from back when it was called My home.
No problem with batteries, they last over 18 months. Very happy with it, rarely touch the thermostat, as I use it with Apple Siri via home pod minis.

It saves money for us:-

I schedule it quite low, and turn it up/down on demand.
Have Office scheduled to only come on days I'm WFT.
Automatically turns off when the last person leaves the house. (via Apple Home).

I had it free with a new boiler a few years ago. I didn't want to have it or the app so it isn't connected to the internet, I just use it as a normal thermostat and program the settings manually on the thermostat itself, therefore no ongoing subscription costs I like the fact you can have multiple heat settings per day and it's easy to program but maybe you can get that with any modern thermostat.

It is connected to the internet. Either the hub or the thermostat. It can’t work any other way.

We inherited ours with our new house- and have added some TRVs to some rooms so we can have individual schedules eg our bedroom with a large radiator goes on an hour before bedtime, as no point heating a room we don't use during the day, likewise out little boys radiator comes on for his bedtime routine. So it gives you more control over where you heat and for how long, saving on heating empty rooms. We hope we are saving money, but as we've moved from a flat to a 4 bedroom detached property it's all new to us!

mine used to do this - new batteries constantly and hours and hours spent trying to reconnect it.

I didnt want it in the first place, british gas were forcing them onto customers at the time - it saw awful

well i dont need to pay for it as its on a grant so free but i take your point

Yes,also said radiators would have new TRVS,already got the normal ones but will replace them for the hive

also adding trickle vents for the windows and replace old cavity wall insulation for new and the loft could do with some more insulation,he did say about replacing the boiler but its a condenser and has never gone wrong about 8ish years old and am reluctant to replace

im just greatful its all free and will help keep the house warmer

thanks for all the replies

I disconnected the hub so just have thermostat and receiver. I manually program the thermostat. My understanding from the fitter is that when you do that it operates like eg a TV remote control ie without internet.

We love ours, its just a much better thermostat than our old one. Heating only comes on for really minimal amounts of time and house stays toasty.

We use app for boosts, holiday settings, changing schedules etc. Thats all free - dont think the paid for bit really offers very much. I read a review of it somewhere, better graphs re usage I think.

I agree the paid options seem a little pointless.

The integration with Apple Home is also good, but I don't think many people realise this is an option, but it adds a lot of functionality for "free".

Hi you seem to be expert on Hive. I have had since September and quite happy with Hive. My concern is going on holiday and the wifi/broadband/batteries in thermostat connection goes down. I've read about holiday mode but still confused. Just want reassurance that my pipes won't freeze. Do you have any guidance, thanks.

At the moment we’ve had to disable ours and it’s not worked as intended since being fitted a month ago. Some how it and our boiler are having a fight for control, the plumber who fits these regularly can’t work out why and Im heartily fed up of the situation

I would put a new set of batteries in the thermostat, (mine last at least a year) and set the heating to manual and 10 degrees C.

The thermostat will still communicate with boiler if the wi-fi goes down as it uses its own network, you just won't be able to access it via the phone or web app.

If you're really worried, (overkill) then turn your water off at the mains and run any tanks out, including toilets. The central heating will still have water in it as it's a closed loop, but the damage would be less if it failed and burst.

Hope you enjoy your hols!

Thank you for your guidance, happy new year.

You need to replace the thermostat. I had this issue, known fault, got a Hive mini instead.