Another Hive thread

whatnext

I'll try set out all the facts in the hope that someone can set me straight.

We ordered Hive Active Heating for our home built c. 2004
We have a gas boiler - Mynute 20e
The timer / controls are on the boiler.
We have a thermostat in the master bedroom that allowed us to control the upstairs radiators and a similar one downstairs. This allowed us to have the heating on upstairs or downstairs (or both). If both were turned down the boiler still heated the hot water tank.

The Engineer came out to install the Hive system and brought the gear in with him. Without even looking at the upstairs thermostat or anything apart from the boiler he stated that our system was only compatible for one control (the one he brought in with him.)

The situation is that now that we can not have the upstairs heating on without having the downstairs on also. We can still turn off the upstairs heating manually by turning the old upstairs thermostat down.

Realistically apart from the remote operation of the boiler we are in affect in a worse situation in that if we want to heat upstairs or the water we have to heat the whole house. This cant be right is it?

I phoned Bord Gais when I got home and they said they would come back to us. They did not. We chased them again and the reply was quite abrupt - " the engineer was one of our most experienced and if he said it was not compatible it isn't". - I'm paraphrasing.

I phoned Hive technical support - (in the UK) they said that sounds ridiculous an to contact Bord Gais again.

I am in no way technical - but I find it hard to believe an upgrade leaves us in an inferior situation.

I'm I losing my mind or could our system not be capable of supporting Hive in zones?

Thanks in advance

LirW

Hi, we're getting a lot of plumbing work in our house and want 3 zone heating. I had a few plumbers in and I find it very difficult to get a definite answer.
Our house is from the mid 80s.

One of the plumbers said, 3 zones should be possible no problem, the other one said we could without re-piping only really get 2 zones. So it seems it's possible that your plumbing doesn't automatically support a Hive.
It's a tough one. Try getting another plumber in and let them have a look at it.

DGOBS

@Whatnext, let me try to explain whats going on here.....

Firstly I will address the Hive comment, in the UK things with heating controls are pretty awesome, because they systems are wired as they should be (using a system known as an 's plan or a y plan, and some other priory hot water plans..etc) but in essence, they are wired as they should be. Hence the response for someone in the UK, as they don't understand we have 'bespoke' systems (for want of a much unkinder description)

A lot of system here unfortunately are not wired as they should be, if you have a 'zone' system, as you have, hot water, upstairs and downstairs, if wired correctly, you would have a timeclock that would allow you to time and switch each zone individually, unfortunately, you do not, what your installer (and many like him) is took a short/cheap cut, in using the single channel timer on your boiler, and not using the grey and orange wires (axially switch) on the motorised valves that control each zone (you will find them cut back on your valves in your hot press).

As Hive is only a 'switch' that you can control remotely, the only thing it can replace is your timeclock, and as yours only has a single switch, thats all you can get in replacing it.

All Hive can do for you is allow you to switch on and off your heating, and allow your existing thermostats to decide if that zone requires heat. I assume these stats are still working?

I understand that this is frustrating, as it is for many people, but with the system not wired as intended (as I said earlier, an S-Plan) unless you have some rewiring done (hard part would be get those wires back from your existing motorised valves to the boiler) there really isn't much else that can be done.

whatnext

@DGOBS

Thank you for your detailed reply.

My downstairs thermostat is gone, replaced by the hive controller.

Basically my understanding is it now looks like I'm best off getting the old gear back.
For winter its ok, but having to heat the house for a tank of water seems like madness in the summer.

I'm not asking you to commit without seeing, but to fix the issue am I talking about a €500, €1000 or €5000 job. I cant believe the engineer came, put the gear in with the understanding that we would be significantly worse off both in relation to cost and user experience after the install.

DGOBS

What I would have preferred in your situation is that both thermostats stayed in place, at least you could have still shut both down in the summer, and still used hot water the way you normally did, and just use the Hive thermostat as a 'governing' stat for the other two manual stats. (then you would have the same level of control as you had previously, but with the app control for the heating too)

Was the old stat left onsite?

I couldn't possibly comment on the cost of what you'd need to have done

I assume: you only have 2 motorised valves, for full control you would need 3 (the extra being the one for hot water), you may need a bypass fitted with this, then you would need a 7 core cable from the motorised valves back to the boiler area.

Finally the Hive system you would need would be a mulit-zone (2 heating zones and 1 hot water) this would mean you'd have a Hive stat both upstairs and down stairs, and this would give you full control of all zones on your app too.