Hive thermostat worth it ?

[cyberknight]

Mrs CK is on about getting a hive thermostat to save money but im not sure it adds up ?
Apart from the 2 half days a week she works there is pretty much always someone in so the current thermostat is set at a comfy temp permanently ( but not overly warm i need a thin jumper/ track suit top ) .
Given that a smart thermostat is £180 and a radiator valve is £54 each im not sure it would save us any money ?

 

[geocycle]

I doubt it would save you money. I like ours because of the remote access via our phones but haven’t signed up to any of the additional charged services. Ours came with the boiler install.

 

[cyberknight]

I doubt it would save you money. I like ours because of the remote access via our phones but haven’t signed up to any of the additional charged services. Ours came with the boiler install.

mrs ck wouldnt know how to use the app, struggles sending a text sometimes ,

 

[bikingdad90]

No not worth it. Instead you’d be better off doing the following;

-Turn the flow rate down on the combi boiler to 55 degrees so that the boiler can recover more gas. This doesn’t affect the hot water circuit.
- get thermostatic radiator valves and zone the house by turning off radiators in surplus rooms,
- tin foil behind the radiators to reflect heat.

 

[Slick]

I've always liked Hive but have only ever had the thermostat. I've been in this house for just over a year now and when we were told we needed to replace the old thermostat, it was an easy choice to get hive back. The app is simple to use and whilst it is more useful to those who aren't always home, its still worth it for ease of use alone. It does sound like you are quite happy with the current set up though.

 

[cougie uk]

mrs ck wouldnt know how to use the app, struggles sending a text sometimes ,

You can use hive with Alexa too so you can just say 'alexa ask hive to boost the hot water for an hour, or boost the heating for two hours'.

Very easy to use.

 

[gbb]

We have the hive and while it won't directly save you money, it graphs the days temps, boiler On times, hours run etc, which can allow you to modify settings and watch the results with the aim of reducing gas usage. We don't have the radiator valve, unless you intend heating one room only, not sure i see the point.
We like it, it allows you to program run times easily, turn the boiler on remotely etc which has been very useful on cold days as you're headed home to what would have been a cold house.
I suspect they're so accurate, I can tell when the front door has been open on the graph. A sudden drop of a few degrees in the house and the resulting boiler going on.

 

[mr_cellophane]

We went to a basic Hive 'stat years ago when the old one broke. About 4 years ago we decorated most of the house. The CH was 25 years old and all the TRVs were different where the original ones had gone wrong or we had extended the house. At the same time Hive brought out their smart valves so for £33 they weren't a bad deal to smarten the house a bit. I was sceptical whether they were a good deal until I started working during lock down. I was getting up at 6:00 to go to work, so I set the small bedroom, bathroom and kitchen to come on for 30 minutes at 5:30 and then stay off until just before my wife got up.
Now that fuel prices are a lot more, I set the rooms we use for the times we are in them and let the "Heat on demand" function take care of when the boiler comes on. The rest of the time rooms stay cold. We aren't heating pipes that go to rooms not in use and I am sure that they are now paying for themselves.
Other advantages, you set the room temp exactly, no more wondering how much warmer 4 is to 3 and you can set loads of time slots in 15 minute options and different temperatures at different times.
I have also extended the Hive to door switches and smart lights. No more fumbling for the light switch when we come home at night, open the door and the hall light comes on for 10 minutes.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

You can use hive with Alexa too so you can just say 'alexa ask hive to boost the hot water for an hour, or boost the heating for two hours'.

Very easy to use.

Is this remote?

 

[Gwylan]

Mrs CK is on about getting a hive thermostat to save money but im not sure it adds up ?
Apart from the 2 half days a week she works there is pretty much always someone in so the current thermostat is set at a comfy temp permanently ( but not overly warm i need a thin jumper/ track suit top ) .
Given that a smart thermostat is £180 and a radiator valve is £54 each im not sure it would save us any money ?

Even at present prices a thermostat and however many radiator stats would require a huge saving. A probable payback of about 25 years.

On cash flow, loss of income and the probable life span or obsolescence of the kit (10years?) you will never recover the investment. Sounds like a government project.

I'm 75 so like so many other projects I will never get to see a benefit. Doing it for the good of mankind does rather trump my crass financial model.

But I do cycle around the town and further afield rather than use the car.

 

[cougie uk]

Is this remote?

I can ask Alexa to do this from whatever room my Alexa is in or from the Alexa app on my phone.

Although I have the hive app on my phone too so I could do it on. That as well.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I can ask Alexa to do this from whatever room my Alexa is in or from the Alexa app on my phone.

Although I have the hive app on my phone too so I could do it on. That as well.

Obviously at home you could just get up walk to an old school thermostat and put it on boost.

 

[JB052]

When our existing timer/thermostat stopped working we replaced it withe a 'Nest' learning thermostat. Very easy to use, and can also be accessed remotely from a phone app which can be quite useful at times. As we needed a new timer/thermostat it was an easy option and is stands quietly on the hall table rather than a box on the wall.

 

[derrick]

Fitted our one a year or so ago, i like it because we never no what time we will be home, so i can turn it on when i am on my way home.

 

[presta]

Even at present prices a thermostat and however many radiator stats would require a huge saving. A probable payback of about 25 years.

On cash flow, loss of income and the probable life span or obsolescence of the kit (10years?) you will never recover the investment.

This.

I've measured the difference it makes switching my heating off overnight. Switching off for 7 hours a day, you might expect a 29% saving in gas compared with running the heating continuously if the gas use was pro rata with the duty cycle of the timer, but in reality it doesn't work like that. I get an 8% reduction in gas use, which is pleasingly close to the 10% figure I've calculated using a computer model. The figures are certainly a lot closer to each other than either of them are to the 29% figure. Switching odd rooms off just for an hour here and there rather than the whole house all night, I think you can expect even smaller savings.

Explaining in detail why this occurs is a bit long winded, but it's because the house cools down more slowly when the heating goes off than it warms up when it comes back on again, and you're losing heat you've paid for all the time the house is warmer than the outside, not just the time the boiler's running.

Is anyone actually measuring the benefit they're getting from this sytem?