Hive Active Heating etc

dSleeper wrote: »

I was a bit confused. Does the hive only allow you to control the hot water if it’s heated by the heating system?

I’ve a one zone, rads and hot water system. Additionally my water tank has an immersion.

Can I have it so that the heating (and water is heated by Gas) and the hot water controlled by the immersion? Or can the hive only control the central heating system.

Can it control the central heating and the immersion on the same installation?

You can't control the immersion with Hive.

If you only have one zone for your gas, then you cannot control heating the water separately with Hive.

Hive doesn't do anything new to your heating system. Hive just let's you turn your existing system on\off with an App.

If your existing system lets you turn on\off (a) water (b) rads upstairs (c) rads downstairs separately then you can turn them all on\off separately with the Hive App.

If your existing system only lets you turn the gas on\off (i.e. it heats all rads and water), then this is all you can do with Hive also i.e. turn gas on\off.

I want to get a couple of bulbs today before the 25% off finishes for when i'm away, do they have a good life span?

Right im really going to town now on the card. The website says lights can be turned on with motion, so this would be really good for say the hall light coming in the front door. But I dont get it, what do i need, a sensor and a bulb? Unless im missing something, the website is selling senors but saying they are to alert for windows or doors?!?! What am i not getting?

Folks,

I have a gas boiler which can separately heat the hot water tank and heat the radiators. I've a timer which runs one schedule for the heating and a different one for the hot water.

Will a Hive Active Heating - https://www.hivehome.com/ie/products/hive-active-heating - be able to replace my current timer on its own or do I need to add a Heating zone?

The product page above and the product guide suggest that it will. However BGE when I contact them to schedule the installation say that it won't.
Hive's online chat say that they don't know much about boilers but they generally go with what the installer says

I think previous posts in this thread indicate it will do what I want, but I'd appreciate it if anyone can confirm.

Also to add, If your not getting it free from BG and buying it yourself, there is 25% discount on until midnight direct from hive. Not sure how their prices compare from amazon but worth checking out.

BGE have almost 7 weeks lead time for installation at the moment

a148pro wrote: »

I wonder do I have to buy hive for all zones or just the ones I want to control remotely? I.e., can I leave some of the zones so they can only be activated from the house? Does that functionality remain on site?

You will need to buy Hive for all zones. Hive replaces your existing controller.

If your existing controller is controlling 3 zones and you set up Hive with just two zones, then you will have one zone that you have no control over (no control from within the house or from the App i.e. you won't be able to turn that zone on or off).

a148pro wrote: »

I'm actually installing a new system and the classic Irish luddite refuse to change attitude is to refuse to install any of this fancy stuff, so have to get it myself. Just didn't want to double up on cost, or labour.

Rang hive and they said I could use the old thermostats but why would I as it would not be much more to put in a hive thermostat than one of the old style ones. I think they're prob right.

So the next q is, if doing that do I need a time clock or does hive do that? Hive told me I don't need a time clock.

Finally, given that its a long delay to get hive installed, can you go with people other than bord gais and could I just get plumber to leave all the heating and water running so i would literally just turn on the boiler to heat the entire house and water while I'm waiting for hive to arrive?

(or else I just buy it myself and get someone to do it - I'd bet its actually just the same and the lads have the fear)

The attraction of an established company like bord gais doing it for you, at a pretty good price (299 without additional stats, think its 120 per additional stat) is that you have recourse if something goes wrong, which given the fear of the people involved, seems a reasonable prospect

Are BG not giving them out free anymore?
Even if not, ring them and tell them your switching if they dont want to offer you one, they usually do then. For the sake of all the hassle, its worth getting off them where possible, its all free and at least your getting it installed by someone registered!

Bord gais now telling me they're not compatible with wet underfloor, which is one of my zones, and given that I understand it takes a bit to heat up, probably the one i'm going to use the most apart from water.

I hadn't come across this problem in my research?

Is the thermostat built into the main controller? Can I control the temp in each room or is it only by zone?

Are there smart thermostats that would allow individual room control?

And I assume the upstairs control would actually need to be placed upstairs to get the temp?

You need to have separate zones (as far as I'm aware).

I've 3 zones in my house - hot water, living rooms and bedrooms - the Hive basically fires up the boiler and opens whatever zone(s) I tell it to.

irishproduce wrote: »

Just looking at this, do you know, must one have the hot water and general home heating separated for this to work? At the moment, when my gas boiler is on, water and rads all heat together. One zone basically.

I was in a similar situation only with an oil boiler, when it was on it heated the hot water and the radiators. Looking at the set up we had we had the boiler which fed two circulating pumps, one supplying the radiators and other the hot water tank. This was timed using a simple immermat timer. I felt that it should be an option to split these so that we could switch on one, the other or both as we didn't need to heat the house in the summer but could the hot water.

When I seen the Hive with Hot water on sale on Amazon last year I ordered it in the hope that it would work.

I consulted a plumber with a view to having just one pump and then adding zones valves and splitting it this way and replacing the timer with the Hive. He thought that it should be do-able leaving as is and we consulted an electrician.

The electrician then went about taking off the immermat timer which he replaced with the Hive receiver. A small consumer box was added with two relays and the pumps wired to these and then back top the receiver. We didn't have a thermostat in the house so the Hive, being wireless could be placed anywhere.

All in all I would say he was done in less that an hour and we have happily been using hive for the last year. You would need to consult an electrician to see if this would work. Wasn't a particularly complicated job for him and thankfully access to everything was on the one wall.

I'm getting hive installed in the next few weeks...
i've ordered the hive active heating that says it controls hot water and an extra multiroom thermostat...just wanna double check my set up..i have 2 thermostats, 1 up and 1 downstairs and water tank in hot press with stat...there's also 3 of those zone valves/actuators in hot press...i presume i don't need another thermostat for the hot water do i? i'm not too pushed about using the zones separate as i don't mind putting all on at once..any info appreciated...

ah perfect that's the job..I got the google home too so it'll be a novelty for a while :)

xabi wrote: »

Some questions:

If I install Hive, will my old timer become redundant?
Where is the stat housed?
If the Hive gets installed in place of the old timer, wont it then take the temp readings from that location (under stairs) meaning if i set the temp to say 22 it could be warmer or colder in the main living areas?

I think all these questions are answered in this thread if you take a read back.

Can I control 3 zones from the Hive receiver when phones battery dies etc?

Quintis wrote: »

Has anyone tried the Hive active smart plug?

Have one running for a lamp.

Quintis wrote: »

Do you find it good value from money, it seems expensive compared to other brands and doesn't have any energy monitoring?

Do you have the slimline one?

Assume it integrates with the app easy enough?

To be honest I picked it up when on a black Friday sale as all my Hive stuff was. The energy monitoring would be a good addition alright. To be honest I use it on a side light in a spare bedroom more as a security measure than anything else. I have an action set that if motion or a door/window opening is triggered then the switch turns on the light, I have similar triggers for the bulbs also.

Found it was easy to integrate into the app, just turned it on and used add device on the app no problem. I went with the plug as I wanted to keep everything on the one ecosystem.

Waiting on a Google Home arriving but have been playing around with the assistant on my phone and added and can control the Hive products with voice control also, another reason that may be worth considering.