[Broncho]

Awesome, how I’ve lived without this is beyond me, ok so I am a big gadget geek but this is excellent.

To start with I had just the heating and water on it but when we drove past the house the other evening it was obvious nobody was in and after being cleaned out 3 years ago my paranoia got me.

I ordered the bulb for the kitchen and it’s unbelievably easy to use so it’s set to come on at 4pm when it goes dark, you can also dim it from your phone etc or use amazon echo.

Just awesome stuff and I have most gadgets!

[Rbrown]

Agreed. The lights are very helpful!

[vadimo]

i thought this was about band The Hives

[isleaiw1]

Originally Posted by Broncho

Awesome, how I’ve lived without this is beyond me, ok so I am a big gadget geek but this is excellent.

To start with I had just the heating and water on it but when we drove past the house the other evening it was obvious nobody was in and after being cleaned out 3 years ago my paranoia got me.

I ordered the bulb for the kitchen and it’s unbelievably easy to use so it’s set to come on at 4pm when it goes dark, you can also dim it from your phone etc or use amazon echo.

Just awesome stuff and I have most gadgets!

We need to get it - 2 zone thermostat for heating, hot water and then see what else we can add - especially the lights for security. Any recommendations to getting started, costs etc?

[Broncho]

Originally Posted by isleaiw1

We need to get it - 2 zone thermostat for heating, hot water and then see what else we can add - especially the lights for security. Any recommendations to getting started, costs etc?

The stuff is dear, £18 for a bulb but I suppose it’s to be expected, my hive was £159 with £90 off on Amazon.

It’s the fact it can be controlled from anywhere that’s a bonus and it’s very easy to set up on a schedule and very easy to add each device.

I bought my stuff from Amazon but screwfix seem a touch cheaper.

It’s impossible to book the engineer on the hive site as it just wants to direct you to buying more stuff, book on live chat or phone them.

The engineers are British Gas, ours was a local bloke and did a great job, loads of advice etc

[ioannisG]

I’ve bought Tado a couple of years back as the Hive was not up to scratch feature wise back then (for example it did not offer automatic turn on and turn off the heating based on my phones location, so I did not need to setup adhoc schedules when coming home early or leaving the house at random times during the weekend).

Over the years they have made the system even better - outfitted all my rad vavles with their smart radiator valves. This was the cheapest way to setting up a multi zone setup in my house as it did not have separate circuits - living room, one for each bedroom and one for each bathroom. Allows for independent scheduling and temperatures for each room. Very helpful to keep the bedroom at a cool temp while bumping up the living room and the bathrooms. Also it gives more heat to the north facing bedroom that gets quite a bit colder than the others!

It’s been the best thing I’ve spend my money on the past couple of years, easily

https://www.tado.com/gb/

[RickLS7]

I've had Hive since it first came out, I think it's great. You can control it anywhere, even when you cant receive mobile data you can still control it by sending a text. Also you dont need to get out of bed to turn the heating on (assuming your mobile is close at hand that is).

I haven't bothered with all the other gadgets that you can get for it though.

[Steve_M_Sport]

I've used Hive since February 2014 so one of the very early adopters. Initially it was quite poor but with the new hub & updated app it now works a treat. I have 6 Hive active light bulbs too and they work brilliantly , can be dimmed from the phone & timed to turn on & off at differing times.

I agree it is good to be able to turn the heating/hot water on whilst still in bed.

I paid a one off fee of £160 in 2014 although now I think there is a monthly subscription which makes it expensive.

[Broncho]

Originally Posted by Steve_M_Sport

I've used Hive since February 2014 so one of the very early adopters. Initially it was quite poor but with the new hub & updated app it now works a treat. I have 6 Hive active light bulbs too and they work brilliantly , can be dimmed from the phone & timed to turn on & off at differing times.

I agree it is good to be able to turn the heating/hot water on whilst still in bed.

I paid a one off fee of £160 in 2014 although now I think there is a monthly subscription which makes it expensive.

I've only got one bulb which arrived today, I wanted to see what it was like, if I get more are they all synced together or can they be activated individually?

[Lyndon_X3M]

Originally Posted by Broncho

Awesome, how I’ve lived without this is beyond me, ok so I am a big gadget geek but this is excellent.

To start with I had just the heating and water on it but when we drove past the house the other evening it was obvious nobody was in and after being cleaned out 3 years ago my paranoia got me.

I ordered the bulb for the kitchen and it’s unbelievably easy to use so it’s set to come on at 4pm when it goes dark, you can also dim it from your phone etc or use amazon echo.

Just awesome stuff and I have most gadgets!

Very close to getting nest installed which is similar. Love all the home tech.

Had Philips Hue lights for a year or so now... not cheap but brilliant for day-to-day convenience. Sensor in Nursery which turns light on as a 'night light' when you walk in is brilliant for those middle of the night feeds.

Program whilst away on holiday which randomly fades lights on and off again brilliant.

[Nobby Clark]

Honest question - what’s the point? Is this just technology for technology’s sake?

Our heating comes on it the morning and evening and for the few times we are late from say work, I’m sure the extra hour of gas usage is next to nothing and timers on lamps keep the house looking occupied.

I don’t see the point of Alexa either. If we run out of bog roll, I’ll write a note on the fridge.

[Broncho]

Originally Posted by Nobby Clark

Honest question - what’s the point? Is this just technology for technology’s sake?

Our heating comes on it the morning and evening and for the few times we are late from say work, I’m sure the extra hour of gas usage is next to nothing and timers on lamps keep the house looking occupied.

I don’t see the point of Alexa either. If we run out of bog roll, I’ll write a note on the fridge.

Jesus Christ.

[Goneinsixtyseconds]

Originally Posted by Nobby Clark

Honest question - what’s the point? Is this just technology for technology’s sake?

Our heating comes on it the morning and evening and for the few times we are late from say work, I’m sure the extra hour of gas usage is next to nothing and timers on lamps keep the house looking occupied.

I don’t see the point of Alexa either. If we run out of bog roll, I’ll write a note on the fridge.

You could get rid of the car and get a horse too. Who needs all that speed and comfort anyway.

[Broncho]

Originally Posted by Alex440

You could get rid of the car and get a horse too. Who needs all that speed and comfort anyway.

[Nobby Clark]

Originally Posted by Broncho

Jesus Christ.

Originally Posted by Alex440

You could get rid of the car and get a horse too. Who needs all that speed and comfort anyway.

Rather than try to be smart why not just answer the question?

[Goneinsixtyseconds]

Originally Posted by Nobby Clark

Rather than try to be smart why not just answer the question?

Are you writing your posts on your phone, maybe an I pad? What's the point, you could be sat doing it on a keyboard, with a monitor and tower under the desk. Still get the same results.

I've answered your question twice now, if you can't see the advantages of technology I can't say much more.

[Nobby Clark]

Originally Posted by Alex440

Are you writing your posts on your phone, maybe an I pad? What's the point, you could be sat doing it on a keyboard, with a monitor and tower under the desk. Still get the same results.

I've answered your question twice now, if you can't see the advantages of technology I can't say much more.

You’ve not answered anything and you know it.

Broncho is creaming his pants about this “can’t live without” gadget. I’ve simply asked what it brings to the party. So far, it appears to be nothing.

[gr4z]

Had Hive for years. It's great albeit slow to release updates. Also got HUE smart bulbs and motion sensors, Ikea Tradfi bulbs (much cheaper) all tied together using Home Assistant. Works fab

[Watsey]

I think you're missing a big slice of valuable functionality.

Hive, Nest, or similar learning thermostats turn on the heating (and possibly the hot water) for the entire house. All or nothing, unless you split the heating system and they do not provide heating control on a room-by-room basis. To do that you need an electronic TRV system such as Evohome, Tado or Wiser.

We opted for Wiser. The product only launched a few weeks ago and there were some teething problems with the firmware, but now if works very well. Being able to set a heating schedule for each individual room, boost them when needed, and control all of this from in the home or away, all from an App is very useful.

[planemad]

I have a system in my house made by Priva.
It connects straight into the network switch and use get full functionality from any device.

[ioannisG]

Originally Posted by Nobby Clark

Honest question - what’s the point? Is this just technology for technology’s sake?

Our heating comes on it the morning and evening and for the few times we are late from say work, I’m sure the extra hour of gas usage is next to nothing and timers on lamps keep the house looking occupied.

I don’t see the point of Alexa either. If we run out of bog roll, I’ll write a note on the fridge.

Not sure about Hive as I haven’t used it but with tado you can:
1. When you leave the house the heating turns down automatically and the further you go the lower it sets the house temperature saving you money. When you are on your way home it automatically preheats the house so it’s nice and warm before you arrive. It uses your phone’s gps and an app to automatically do that. So you always come back to a warm house without wasting any energy
2. Individual room temperatures and schedules without having a multi zone heating setup
3. Much more accurate temperature control. It reads the weather and adjusts for how long it heats your house so it doesn’t overshoot or undershoot the target temperature. It can keep the temperature to within .1-.2 degrees C which is simply astonishingly consistent. No more too hot/ too cold.
4. Automatic open window detection. If you open your windows it recognises it by he sudden drop in temperature and humidity. So it turns the heating off for a preset amount of time
5. Convenience- being able to remotely turn on and off the thermostat, change schedules etc
6. You can graph out how long and how much your heating was on for each day
7. It has a semi published api which you can use to pull / push data and commands from it. For example I’ve created a workflow running of my NAS that detects when the wife sets the thermostat to 25. And after 30 mins turns the heating back down so she doesn’t overheat the house, as she forgets to turn it down when I’m not there

[simon.]

Keep considering this & love the idea but most of our lights are led now, different shapes & styles of bulb. Can you get different styles as I've only seen the standard 'old fashioned' bulb for hive?

Heating / hot water wise it looks ace but I'd like to use more of the functions. Oh & do they now charge a monthly fee to do so?