British Gas Hive

Goldberg

Goldberg

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Howdy,

Just switched to British Gas from Eon using Uswitch (very very impressed!) as it will save us a lot of coin each year on the tariff we have signed up for.

For being a British Gas Customer they have offered me Hive for £150 installed.
It is something I have being mulling over for a while now, that and Nest etc.. But as Hive is British Gas and they have offered to install it at the reduced price I am very very tempted to go for it.

I love apps, I love that this can be controlled by an app and online. I also hear that they are going to start introducing home automation into it shortly.

But before I dish out the £150 (I only upgraded my thermostat last year to the cost of £40!) I would like to know if anyone else has it and what they think.

Key Points/Questions:

* It is Hive or nothing. I know others are around but the advantages/disadvantages are minimal.
* My Thermostat is set to 18 degrees all year round. In the summer it never comes on, in the winter it is on/off a few times a day. Occasionally we will knock it up to give the house a blast of heat but we always set it back to 18. I know Hive has more control which I like.
* Can more than 1 person control it, or can more than one device log into it. The Geolocation feature sounds good, but does it take into account Mr & Mrs...??
* Have you saved any money? All I want to ensure is that I don't spend any more.

Think that is it.
 
Hive sounds a nice idea, but for me I just use the timer and manual advance when I need it, if it was free that would be different but not at £150.
 
I have to be honest, I have looked at these devices for about a year now. I was hoping one of the providers would offer one for free as an incentive..

I am certain some do, but after reading certain reviews the Hive does Water and Heating (massive bonus) where as the Nest is heating only for now and British Gas are going to save us money on our bills, roughly £400 we reckon and that is before any money the Hive system does.

The wife just gave me the nod to order it and it gets installed on 10th Nov :)
 
who the heck were you with if BG can save you money
 
We were with Eon for many years, but thought I would give Uswitch a run for it's money and it turns out for our use British Gas and their fixed until Nov '15 deal was the best for us.

Uswitch is great, you give them your account details and they find everything. They then deal with the whole switch over and it does not cost you a penny. All I had to do was submit a meter reading this morning as it is switch over day :)
 
Goldberg said:
I have to be honest, I have looked at these devices for about a year now. I was hoping one of the providers would offer one for free as an incentive..

I am certain some do, but after reading certain reviews the Hive does Water and Heating (massive bonus) where as the Nest is heating only for now and British Gas are going to save us money on our bills, roughly £400 we reckon and that is before any money the Hive system does.

The wife just gave me the nod to order it and it gets installed on 10th Nov :)
Click to expand...

My parents have just had a room thermostat fitted by British gas and instead of fixing it to a wall they take it with them to bed and switch it on just before they get up. They are not very clued up with gadgets but this little piece of kit they love. The hive does look rather tempting for me and I am thinking about having that installed. Could you please let me know what it is like once installed @Goldberg. I will then decide on your recommendation. Thanks :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I had Hive fitted in early September , great when its working . They keep having issues with outages on their network amongst other errors. Last month I turned heating on via the ios app on my way home from work , it buzzes to confirm the message has been sent and received ok , turned it off via the app before I settled down for the night about 22:30 same buzz as always to confirm the action . Got up to a warm house as it hadn't turned off and been going on and off all night . BG Hive team can see all the on off requests where as on the web interface you can only see the temperature chart , to cut a long story short they updated the hub , thermostat and receiver firmware while I was on the phone and as a goodwill gesture refunded £10 for the 22hrs of gas use I didn't request !!
They are having problems again today as I found out via hive facebook page , I have suggested they have a status page on the login screen when accessing via the web but as yet there isn't one.
 
timekeeper said:
I had Hive fitted in early September , great when its working . They keep having issues with outages on their network amongst other errors. Last month I turned heating on via the ios app on my way home from work , it buzzes to confirm the message has been sent and received ok , turned it off via the app before I settled down for the night about 22:30 same buzz as always to confirm the action . Got up to a warm house as it hadn't turned off and been going on and off all night . BG Hive team can see all the on off requests where as on the web interface you can only see the temperature chart , to cut a long story short they updated the hub , thermostat and receiver firmware while I was on the phone and as a goodwill gesture refunded £10 for the 22hrs of gas use I didn't request !!
They are having problems again today as I found out via hive facebook page , I have suggested they have a status page on the login screen when accessing via the web but as yet there isn't one.
Click to expand...

Can you not manually override it?
I did see some we posts about outages... I would expect that once you have configured it for a daily routine that it would be stored locally and not on a remote server?

If that's the case then that is poor..
 
I only use manual setting , the schedule is of little use when working shifts and starting and finishing different times each day . All the schedules are stored on the hive network so if they have an outage you heating wont turn on or off when it should . When there is an outage you can still use the thermostat to turn it on and off or by pressing the manual button on the receiver at the boiler.
 
Yes Manual override on the receiver is what I was talking about.

Phew! Panicked then..
 
Yeah I was reading that one earlier.

I have asked Father Christmas for a Pebble Watch for Xmas, I have read that it can be linked to your Hive also (via the phone etc).
 
Nest is really good lads,

Heatmiser do a much cheaper alternative too...

Regards
Mick
 
Yeah, but once you take into consideration fitting etc..
Plus nest can only do heating at the moment I believe? Not hot water? Unless an upgrade has come out.
 
i am a bg engineer and we have been getting emails to say there is a outage today,i have had it installed for about a year now and i like the conviencence side of it i amd not a big gas user about £33/month so not really sure if it saves anything but its dead handy, yes you and your mrs can have the app on your own phones and both can control it its all regestered to the same account ,and you can manually over ride it
 
Napster said:
Hive sounds a nice idea, but for me I just use the timer and manual advance when I need it, if it was free that would be different but not at £150.
Click to expand...

I'm with you.it does look great and I have looked into it as wanted it for my place so I could control CH from iPad etc but as you say it's far to much money for what it is..I already have a wireless thermostat thing unit that does the job now.
 
The question is do you really need an app to control your heating?

If the answer is yes, then go for it :)

If not then leave it as it is...

Heatmiser wifi stats are around £60 but you will need someone to fit it, which will cost.

If you can get it all done by British gas and you are happy to pay the money go for it.

Cold day, you are on your way home, turn on the heating before you get in :)

Nice.

Mick
 
Mick said:
The question is do you really need an app to control your heating?

If the answer is yes, then go for it :)

If not then leave it as it is...

Heatmiser wifi stats are around £60 but you will need someone to fit it, which will cost.

If you can get it all done by British gas and you are happy to pay the money go for it.

Cold day, you are on your way home, turn on the heating before you get in :)

Nice.

Mick
Click to expand...

Yes m8 that's the reason I had it fitted , didn't want to have to keep setting the programmer day in day out , not good when you work crappy shifts :-/
 
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