Hive, a good place to start?

Daisy 55

Thinking of getting hive from bord gais. Wondering if it's a good place to start!

Stoner

Daisy 55 wrote:

Thinking of getting hive from bord gais. Wondering if it's a good place to start!

In short yes. It's good kit. There's other options and it depends on your set up

Daisy 55

Have nothing in that line yet. Standard one zone heating. Standard electrics. Good broadband.

Stoner

Daisy 55 wrote:

Have nothing in that line yet. Standard one zone heating. Standard electrics. Good broadband.

Yes hive, natamo, nest etc all.good kit

scarke1

We have had the HIVE for over a year. But we bought it ourselves in the UK in a store and my husband brought it home and installed it. It was so easy to do. So we didnt have to enter into a contract or pay extra other than the cost of buying it. All you do is mount it on the wall. We use it constantly as we travel a huge amount and its been brilliant.

skerry

Apologies for jumping in but looking for something similar myself and need it to be able to control multiple zones (upstairs, downstairs and water). Would the Hive suit this or what do people recommend? I looked into Nest but only does one zone

beanian

skerry wrote: »

Apologies for jumping in but looking for something similar myself and need it to be able to control multiple zones (upstairs, downstairs and water). Would the Hive suit this or what do people recommend? I looked into Nest but only does one zone

Tado can do this (multiple zones) also you can have each room become a zone using their TRV's. Using it the last few weeks and couldn't be happier. Keep an eye on Amazon in the run up to black friday... a few weeks ago they dropped their price of TRV's from £59.99 to £35! Absolute bargain for the best looking smart TRV around.

bod71

skerry wrote: »

Apologies for jumping in but looking for something similar myself and need it to be able to control multiple zones (upstairs, downstairs and water). Would the Hive suit this or what do people recommend? I looked into Nest but only does one zone

I just got this exact setup installed two days ago on my oil heating, bought it online when it was 20%off and bord gais installed it in about an hour.The app is easy to use, and the thermostats looks good.

Daisy 55

Bod, is that hive or nest?

bod71

Daisy 55 wrote: »

Bod, is that hive or nest?

It’s hive.

skerry

bod71 wrote: »

skerry wrote: »

Apologies for jumping in but looking for something similar myself and need it to be able to control multiple zones (upstairs, downstairs and water). Would the Hive suit this or what do people recommend? I looked into Nest but only does one zone

I just got this exact setup installed two days ago on my oil heating, bought it online when it was 20%off and  bord gais installed it in about an hour.The app is easy to use, and the thermostats looks good.

Thanks for the info. Does the setup control multiple Zones?

skerry

beanian wrote: »

skerry wrote: »

Apologies for jumping in but looking for something similar myself and need it to be able to control multiple zones (upstairs, downstairs and water). Would the Hive suit this or what do people recommend? I looked into Nest but only does one zone

Tado can do this (multiple zones) also you can have each room become a zone using their TRV's. Using it the last few weeks and couldn't be happier. Keep an eye on Amazon in the run up to black friday... a few weeks ago they dropped their price of TRV's from £59.99 to £35! Absolute bargain for the best looking smart TRV around.

Had never heard of this one. Must look into it. Just bought a house and all the infrastructure seems to be in place and of good quality but its screaming for a smart thermostat for multiple zone control etc

bod71

skerry wrote: »

Thanks for the info. Does the setup control multiple Zones?

Yeah, it does, but I’m not sure how many.

Dazzy

I have the original version of Hive which supports only one Zone. At the time (over a year ago) a new version was on the way that would control 2 zones.

Overall I've found Hive to be an excellent system. We dont really use the thermostat, just the App.

skerry

Done a bit more reading up on this. I have a basic thermostat on the wall in the kitchen and one on the wall upstairs so looks like I would have to have both replaced with a Tado smart thermostat to have full smart control over both zones. Have a third zone for the water so not sure how this would be controlled.

Think the V2 are a bit cheaper than the V3 so that might be an option. Will keep an eye for any Black Friday reductions.

Could be an expensive upgrade.

bk

skerry wrote: »

Done a bit more reading up on this. I have a basic thermostat on the wall in the kitchen and one on the wall upstairs so looks like I would have to have both replaced with a Tado smart thermostat to have full smart control over both zones. Have a third zone for the water so not sure how this would be controlled.
Could be an expensive upgrade.

Yes, sounds like you would need two Tado thermostats and the extension kit to control the hot water zone.

skerry

bk wrote: »

skerry wrote: »

Done a bit more reading up on this. I have a basic thermostat on the wall in the kitchen and one on the wall upstairs so looks like I would have to have both replaced with a Tado smart thermostat to have full smart control over both zones. Have a third zone for the water so not sure how this would be controlled.
Could be an expensive upgrade.

Yes, sounds like you would need two Tado thermostats and the extension kit to control the hot water zone.

Just looking there and that's around 380 Euro in smart gadgetry :'( I'll have to put that one on the back burner for a while (excuse the pun).

I guess I could always do one zone at a time. Anyone know if these things are ever discounted by much around Black Friday?

bk

skerry wrote: »

Just looking there and that's around 380 Euro in smart gadgetry :'( I'll have to put that one on the back burner for a while (excuse the pun).

I guess I could always do one zone at a time. Anyone know if these things are ever discounted by much around Black Friday?

There have been good deals on Netatmo in the past (bundled with an Echo Dot), not sure about Tado.

jaggiebunnet

Do you need to have a seperate hive device for each zone you install in (I have the standard 3 zones including 1 water)?

scarke1

We have a large house and we have one hive downstairs, it has two controls, one for just heating the water and one for the central heating. its just brilliant

bk

jaggiebunnet wrote: »

Do you need to have a seperate hive device for each zone you install in (I have the standard 3 zones including 1 water)?

Yes you will need two hive thermostats with one of them being a unit that supports hot water control.

scarke1

We have the control panel in our house downstairs.there are two thermostats on it, one for heating and one for the water so there is only one panel in total. We bought ours in Maplin in the UK for 99 sterling. It covers all zones.

Daisy 55

OP here. Two questions!
Presume the hot water is through the boiler, not an immersion?
Also, does the app work well? The comments on Google play aren't great!

bod71

Daisy 55 wrote: »

OP here. Two questions!
Presume the hot water is through the boiler, not an immersion?
Also, does the app work well? The comments on Google play aren't great!

Yes the hot water is controlled by the stat and the app, you can still use your immersion separate to heat your water. No problem yet with the app, but it’s early days yet.

scarke1

We have the Hive for well over a year. Never had any problems. We travel so much so we are constantly using it. We also have the hive plugs to turn lights when we are away and these are brilliant too. Best thing we ever bought to be honest.

lepoatnam

Thinking of investing in Hive, but need a little advice.

Have the boiler in the garage about 15 feet from the house. From reading the installation guide it appears that the receiver has to be wired directly to the boiler, is this correct? I have the boiler on a plug so will I have to rewire.

Also there is 3 zones ground floor, 1st floor and water. So will need a dual channel receiver I presume?

Thanks for being patient with the silly questions. Would like to do this myself without looking for plumber or electrician.

scarke1

I dont really understand all the talk about zones.....our boiler is a massive new type and has a pressure pump too. our hive is in our kitchen which is not near the boiler. our hive covers the entire house. we only have one hive and it does the whole house.

Daisy 55

Anyone have any advice on buying plugs, bulbs or sensors? Looking for a bargain!!

bk

scarke1 wrote: »

I dont really understand all the talk about zones.....our boiler is a massive new type and has a pressure pump too. our hive is in our kitchen which is not near the boiler. our hive covers the entire house. we only have one hive and it does the whole house.

It sounds like you have just one zone (whole house) and it sounds like you might have a combi boiler.

How does your hot water work? Do you have a big hot water one tank/emersion separate from your boiler? Or does your boiler just heat the water as you use it?

Anyway, no need to worry, you setup is fine.

A lot of people have separate zones, for instance, a downstairs zone and an upstairs zone is quiet common. This allows you to heat downstairs to a different temperature then upstairs. This can be handy as heat rises and sometimes upstairs can end up way too hot while downstairs is just comfortable.

scarke1

we have individual controls on each radiator...the bedroom ones are hardly turned on unless its bitterly cold. our water is heated if we select it but it is not an immersion as they are way too expensive...we have an enormous boiler and if we turn on the hot water for say 2 hours its enough for a full day

bk

scarke1 wrote: »

we have individual controls on each radiator...the bedroom ones are hardly turned on unless its bitterly cold. our water is heated if we select it but it is not an immersion as they are way too expensive...we have an enormous boiler and if we turn on the hot water for say 2 hours its enough for a full day

Ah, ok it sounds like you have the normal system boiler so. Also sounds like you have two zones. One all rads, the other a hot water zone.

mel123

I got my Hive free from bord gais, and I love it, I wouldnt be without it now.
BUT, ive actually come to the conclusion that it costs me more, so its not wonder BG are giving them out free.

Typically, i'm all over the place, so I never had timers set. Id get home, bang on the heating and stick on a dressing gown till the place heated up, and wait for two hours till the water was hot enough for a shower. NOW, i stick the heating on an hour and a half before i am due home, just so its nice and toasty when i get home and i can literally walk in the door and go for a shower. So in actual fact, i've got it on much more which is costing me more.

oinkely

mel123 wrote: »

I got my Hive free from bord gais, and I love it, I wouldnt be without it now.
BUT, ive actually come to the conclusion that it costs me more, so its not wonder BG are giving them out free.

Typically, i'm all over the place, so I never had timers set. Id get home, bang on the heating and stick on a dressing gown till the place heated up, and wait for two hours till the water was hot enough for a shower. NOW, i stick the heating on an hour and a half before i am due home, just so its nice and toasty when i get home and i can literally walk in the door and go for a shower. So in actual fact, i've got it on much more which is costing me more.

sounds like you need to look at your boiler and your insulation.

We flick the heat on with Hive on the way home from work about 15 to 20 minutes before we get there and the place is toasty warm. No schedules set up at the moment, but will probably set one up so the heat is ion before we get up in the morning. I reckon it's cut our already minimal oil usage down by at least 20%.

bk

mel123 wrote: »

Typically, i'm all over the place, so I never had timers set. Id get home, bang on the heating and stick on a dressing gown till the place heated up, and wait for two hours till the water was hot enough for a shower. NOW, i stick the heating on an hour and a half before i am due home, just so its nice and toasty when i get home and i can literally walk in the door and go for a shower. So in actual fact, i've got it on much more which is costing me more.

I've said exactly the same in the past. I'm like you, I use to only turn on the heating when I got home, now I turn it on when I leave the office and as a result maybe using slightly more heat.

But as you say, I wouldn't be without it, it makes life easier and more comfortable. Lovely to come home to a nice warm house, without it be too wasteful.

On the other hand they are definitely people who save from these. The type of people who just leave on the heat all day, even when out, etc.

mel123

oinkely wrote: »

sounds like you need to look at your boiler and your insulation.

We flick the heat on with Hive on the way home from work about 15 to 20 minutes before we get there and the place is toasty warm. No schedules set up at the moment, but will probably set one up so the heat is ion before we get up in the morning. I reckon it's cut our already minimal oil usage down by at least 20%.

Not an old house, so the insulation isnt an issue. Down stairs is very 'open plan' so harder to get the heat to build when you first turn on the heating, thats why id give it an hour to be nice and comfy.

As a matter of interest, what temperature is yours at? Cant really compare as we would have different houses, but in general, say night time in this weather, whats your temp set at?

BK, whats yours set at?

bk

First off I've Netatmo rather then Hive, but much the same thing.

I've mine set to 18c at night. But to be honest, it almost never goes down that low. The natural temp of my place is around 21 - 22c most of the year, even with heating off. But then I live in a modern, very well insulated apartment.

Stoner

mel123 wrote:

BK, whats yours set at?

I've mine at 19 degrees

I've TRVs in spare rooms set to 15 degrees at night.
So the office, dining room, spare bed room etc are all more or less off with the door closed

I've lightwaverf though. The TVRs have a boost button so if I want to work in the office in the evening I press it and it pops the temp up to 19 degrees for two hours

dinky earnshaw

I got hive recently free from Bord gais. Does it only work with other hive products bulbs etc or can I use other branded smart bulbs with it ie xioami.
Also does it work with google home ?

Stoner

dinky earnshaw wrote:

I got hive recently free from Bord gais. Does it only work with other hive products bulbs etc or can I use other branded smart bulbs with it ie xioami. Also does it work with google home ?

Hive works with Google home.

If you have a Google home got into Gone Control and manage accounts

All the supported stuff is there.
Hive is good for heating but you'll need something to tie it all in. Google home is good for that it works with Yee lights too

I bought one recently. Not a bad fitting

yannakis

Does the Hive give any sort of analytics and/or bulk historical data on what it gathers?

I'd love to see stats over longer periods of time with small granularity, but the online dashboard shows today and yesterday by hour for example, and then weekly and monthly only by day.

sillysocks

For anyone considering getting the Hive if you're with Bord Gais give them a call and say you're thinking of cancelling and can they offer you anything. I did this and got my one zone Hive free and installed free as well. I did have to sign a two year contract but it only had a penalty of €30 if I cancel before then.

With Regards the Hive itself we love it. We never had a thermostat before so when the heating would come on sometimes the house would end up stifling hot if we didn't turn it off quick enough, and as well when we were out and came home the house would be freezing. With three kids in the house especially it's great having the house at a constant temperature rather than the fluctuations we hd before. Love it!

THE ALM

yannakis wrote: »

Does the Hive give any sort of analytics and/or bulk historical data on what it gathers?

I'd love to see stats over longer periods of time with small granularity, but the online dashboard shows today and yesterday by hour for example, and then weekly and monthly only by day.

Don't think there is a way with hive's app or online to view this data, I would hope that they would update that in the future but wouldn't bet on hit.

To get that info I have actually started playing around with home assistant which I have Hive set up in. I currently have outputs showing when the heat and hot water are on along with a graph showing the temperature throughout the day as well as showing me the state any bulbs are in. They is also a statistical component in home assistant which I am trying to integrate as well.

The graph looks a bit random as I don't have home assistant running full time, waiting for a rpi to arrive to use as a dedicated home assistant machine.

yannakis

Thanks @THE ALM. Not sure if I'd go that far with Home Assistant etc.

I thought about this more yesterday evening, and wondered if I could get a bunch of small temperature/humidity sensors and spread them around the house. Inside and out. Is there any kind of installation of that kind that would gather data?

sillysocks

That's actually the one thing I wish my Hive had.... some kind of log to say when the heat has come on each day. Just would be interested to know especially when I'm out to know if it's coming on a lot.

yannakis

sillysocks wrote: »

That's actually the one thing I wish my Hive had.... some kind of log to say when the heat has come on each day. Just would be interested to know especially when I'm out to know if it's coming on a lot.

And the frustrating element is that I think they do gather our data for their own hoarding/analytics purposes :pac:

THE ALM

no doubt the data is these, just getting and viewing it is the tricky part.