Hive or EPH Ember

Mac-Chops

Looking for opinions on my following situation.

Doing up an old house at the moment and our plumber is fitting an EPH Ember 2 zone pack for our heating system.

We had a free installation of a Hive single zone kit as part of going with Bord Gais earlier in the year when we moved in and seems a shame that we can't just stick with this and upgrade to a Multizone.

Plumber is keen on the Ember and isn't familiar with Hive so wasn't giving me that option. I'm assuming they get a better rate on the Ember which is fair enough I guess.

Question is, should I give the Ember a go and see if there's a taker for a single zone Hive kit or insist on the Hive and do the upgrade myself to a Multizone?

I should add: Only thing tying me to Hive other than the fact it was "Free" is that we have some Hue lights and like the Google Home integration which I don't think Ember has (yet).

K.Flyer

I've installed several Ember packs and all of the customers are very happy with. One was particularly happy with their after sales service, after talking her through the steps to re-configure the internet connectivity after an glitch.

5500

Just jumping in on this, have a 2 zone system at present and was going to change the controls to Hive for smart functionality, but noticed you cant control the water tank temp with their 2 zone pack, so was looking at the eph ember setup that has a stat for the water tank and also wireless gateway and app.

I'm just wondering are there any other brands or alternatives that also have a stat for the cylinder that can be controlled via app like the ember that I should look at or is the eph the best man for the job?

raytaxi

Check if you can get the newer Ember pack if its out. Newer one does temp adjust rather than time, so its more like a nest and smarter.

5500

Is it this version below or a newer variant

https://www.ephcontrols.com/section/ember-ps-2-zone-systems/

raytaxi

This is the system I have https://www.ephcontrols.com/section/ember-ps-3-zone-systems/
Which seems to be the 3 zone version of the one you are looking at, the fault I find with it is it only allows one temp so you are controlling by time, where as when I had a nest you could set heat by time and temp.
ie morning 7-8am temp 20 degrees drop then to 16 degrees till 5pm when everyone home back to 20 degrees.
Where as this version of ember its 20 or off.
This is the newer version https://www.ephcontrols.co.uk/section/cp4i-smart-thermostat/
But it appears to be more suited for gas boilers its open therm which i don't think oil boilers do.