Hive, a good place to start?

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.