Hive or other remote management - what do you use, how do I set it up?

[MissAmbrosia]

Bought a house back in UK after 20 years abroad. I understand the current boiler set up allows us to set up a remote management of heating and we potentially add lights, cameras, motion sensors etc. I looked at Hive website and am totally confused by how best to go about this. As I understand it, I can set things up to control thermostat etc remotely and also use Google, or Amazon echo to do things when we are there...I need someone to explain the possibilities to me like I am an idiot What works in your house? Looking for recommendations.

I don't think Hive offer cameras anymore

I have Hive for the heating and Hue for lights. All voice activated via their apps or via Alexa

Following!

Id be interested to know if the Hive can be wired to the boiler so it doesn’t need batteries (which are bound to fail at the wrong moment)

Also whether it can work off a sim rather than WIFI?

Just here to find out the answers. I don't know them, sorry !

How do you set this up though?

Boiler - yes.

Sim - no, it is linked to your home wifi network.

A hive/British Gas installer comes round and connects it all. You get a tiny receiver connected to the boiler, and a small portable control panel/thermostat which you put somewhere in your house, and multiple people can download the Hive app to manage it (you can use the thermostat controls but it is fiddly).

We have a 7 day schedule for the house temperature, and then on top of that I can boost the temperature by a couple of degrees for an hour or two if it feels cold. There’s a holiday mode to keep the house > 10C if you go away. All works fine. I can’t say I have noticed any major cost savings, but the house is usually a decent temperature now (used to swing between freezing and boiling).

There’s a Hive app, you set the schedule on there then link it to Alexa. Really easy once you have the app open.

There’s also something called Heat Miser as an alternative to Hive which is not quite as user friendly but is better if you have multiple heating zones / underfloor.

You get your gas engineer to set it up.

We use Ember to control the heating at my Mum's, which I think is similar to Hive. It cost just over £100 to install.

Edited to correct typo

Sorry- just to add the cost structures differ- some are upfront with no subscription - you just buy the unit and that’s it- but Hive has subscriptions for some features.

I’ve had hive for a few years, you need to following their guidance for Moving Home

If they’ve left the “hub” a small square plastic box that plugs into your broadband router, it will need a factory reset. You then download the App and register an account. You then need to pair the hub with the thermostat attached to the boiler.

If they haven’t left it, you need to buy one.

The App will allow you to control the heating remotely and sync things like lights.

You can use the portable thermostat on its own to control the heating without the App. If the batteries fail, you just press the green On Off button on the thermostat attached to the boiler to put the heating on or off. Just replace the batteries when you can.

The guides online are very useful, they used to have a helpdesk, but I’m buggared if I can find the number now. Typical of many companies they have very few humans you can get to.

Thanks!

Hive is ok. But doesn't represent a one stop solution for all your smart home needs.

The app on android is a bit flakey, especially the widgets, and they did annoying things like stopping the development of the cameras and leak detectors.

The problem with all of the smart home apps these days is that they are all trying to get more money out of you with subscriptions that offer relatively little extra value, and are probably selling your data on to all and sundry.

You can run Hive without a subscription but you do lose access to a few features.

I have different apps for heating control and cameras. The camera one seems to be the least offensive in terms of the info it asks for (location data etc). I have no idea why a smart home app should need to know where you live.

I did consider Hive when I bought this house, as I was away a lot and the thought of starting the heating when I was part way home was appealing, in practice the house warms up quickly enough for it not to be a problem. I have a programmable thermostat, 6 temperature/time events a day, holiday mode - set which day to restart and frost protection which works fine, it did take a while to establish the optimum times and temperatures to set, but now I rarely touch it. Having previously had a more conventional clock and stat controller, I found the cycling,where it cuts the boiler before the set temperature, then fires it up again for a short period to be a bit strange, but it does keep the temp in a narrow range. I don't need an app to switch the lights on and off when I have perfectly adequate switches. If you go for a Hive type system try to find out how long they intend to support it and provide full functionality, otherwise you may end up with another piece of electronic junk.

I've had Hive for a number of years and it frequently drops the internet connection between the bridge, the smart thermostat and the boiler, which then requires a painful restart process. It's OK and I got it cheap on Amazon Prime Day. But they try and get you on the subscriptions and if you add anything else like smart radiator valves.

A friend has the Tado smart thermostat X (available on Amazon) which not only is much better but they screw you less on any subscriptions or additions (but they still screw you!).