Hello,

Is there anybody out there using one of these HIVE Active Heating
thermostats.

Are they any cop?

I have 2 heating zones; one controlled by a byzantine Danfoss controller
and the other by an early "heatmiser" wired stat. Both are very irritating.

Entry cost (£179 on Screwfix. Product 4632J for one zone. Second zone
extra £99 with a 9625K) is too high for an impulse purchase.

David

"Vortex12" wrote in message
...
Hello,

Is there anybody out there using one of these HIVE Active Heating
thermostats.

Are they any cop?

I have 2 heating zones; one controlled by a byzantine Danfoss controller
and the other by an early "heatmiser" wired stat. Both are very
irritating.

Entry cost (£179 on Screwfix. Product 4632J for one zone. Second zone
extra £99 with a 9625K) is too high for an impulse purchase.

We are considering getting one for our oil-boiler central heating system
with a combi boiler. Currently we have a thermostat upstairs and a timer for
the heating and for the hot water.

We are thinking of Hive for its ability to turn the thermostat up/down
remotely by mobile phone app so the heating comes on and heats the house
ready for when we come home.

As I understand it, the timer controller by the boiler would be replaced by
the Hive control unit which turns the boiler on or off, with the control
signal being sent to that control unit wirelessly by the thermostat.

We don't have separate zones: we tend to leave all the internal upstairs and
downstairs doors open so any heat from downstairs goes upstairs - hence the
usefulness of the thermostat being upstairs.

On 01/10/2016 16:47, Vortex12 wrote:
Hello,

Is there anybody out there using one of these HIVE Active Heating
thermostats.

Are they any cop?

I have 2 heating zones; one controlled by a byzantine Danfoss controller
and the other by an early "heatmiser" wired stat. Both are very
irritating.

Entry cost (£179 on Screwfix. Product 4632J for one zone. Second zone
extra £99 with a 9625K) is too high for an impulse purchase.

David

I have a Heatmiser Smartstat which I can control withan Android phone
and a PC with 64 bit Windows. Two of them would be cheaper than the above!


--
Michael Chare

On 02/10/2016 12:50, Michael Chare wrote:
Heatmiser Smartstat

With support withdrawn after around 5 years. Unless you keep your older
phones/tablets etc. you may find that your expensive purchase cannot be
operated 5 years later with the latest OS on the phone/computer.

--
mailto: news {at} admac {dot] myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On 02/10/2016 13:56, alan_m wrote:
On 02/10/2016 12:50, Michael Chare wrote:
Heatmiser Smartstat

With support withdrawn after around 5 years. Unless you keep your older
phones/tablets etc. you may find that your expensive purchase cannot be
operated 5 years later with the latest OS on the phone/computer.


You may find it can be operated by anyone if there is a bug and they
don't fix it.

dennis@home wrote:

Michael Chare wrote:

Heatmiser Smartstat

You may find it can be operated by anyone if there is a bug and they
don't fix it.

Provided you don't open it to the internet, that boils down to the same
as saying anyone inside your house could alter a manual thermostat ...

On 02/10/2016 16:30, Andy Burns wrote:
dennis@home wrote:

Michael Chare wrote:

Heatmiser Smartstat

You may find it can be operated by anyone if there is a bug and they
don't fix it.

Provided you don't open it to the internet, that boils down to the same
as saying anyone inside your house could alter a manual thermostat ...



There isn't much point in buying a smart stat that you can operate
remotely and then blocking it.
Those of us that are IT literate could set up a VPN to do it but I doubt
if many would be able to.

On 02/10/2016 12:50, Michael Chare wrote:
On 01/10/2016 16:47, Vortex12 wrote:
Hello,

Is there anybody out there using one of these HIVE Active Heating
thermostats.

Are they any cop?

I have 2 heating zones; one controlled by a byzantine Danfoss controller
and the other by an early "heatmiser" wired stat. Both are very
irritating.

Entry cost (£179 on Screwfix. Product 4632J for one zone. Second zone
extra £99 with a 9625K) is too high for an impulse purchase.

David

I have a Heatmiser Smartstat which I can control withan Android phone
and a PC with 64 bit Windows. Two of them would be cheaper than the above!




Frustration with my Heatmiser is the huge hysteresis (about 2 degrees)
in normal operation, and total absence of logging (which is an
interesting Hive feature). Also it's a wired one so inflexible for
install location.

I bit the bullet and ordered a Hive earlier. Will report how I get on.

Vortex12 wrote:

Frustration with my Heatmiser is the huge hysteresis (about 2 degrees)

You can reduce the switching differential to 1.0, or even 0.5 degrees
using feature 2 in the programming table.

On 02/10/2016 16:37, dennis@home wrote:
On 02/10/2016 16:30, Andy Burns wrote:
dennis@home wrote:

Michael Chare wrote:

Heatmiser Smartstat

You may find it can be operated by anyone if there is a bug and they
don't fix it.

Provided you don't open it to the internet, that boils down to the same
as saying anyone inside your house could alter a manual thermostat ...



There isn't much point in buying a smart stat that you can operate
remotely and then blocking it.
Those of us that are IT literate could set up a VPN to do it but I doubt
if many would be able to.

A VPN would not be appropriate. The Smartstat makes contact with a
Heatmiser Internet site via local Wifi. I enter my account details into
the phone app and ask for details from my Smartstat.

There is no direct connection between the app and the Smartstat and if
the Heatmiser Internet site ever ceases (like another vendor proposes to
do) then this function will no longer work.

The app can run on a Windows 64bit PC using Chrome's ARC Welder.


--
Michael Chare

Michael Chare wrote:

dennis@home wrote:

There isn't much point in buying a smart stat that you can operate
remotely and then blocking it.
Those of us that are IT literate could set up a VPN to do it but I doubt
if many would be able to.

A VPN would not be appropriate. The Smartstat makes contact with a
Heatmiser Internet site via local Wifi. I enter my account details into
the phone app and ask for details from my Smartstat.

Ah, you've got one of the newer "supposedly secure" ones, with the older
generation you established contact inbound from wifi or internet to the
stat. The new stats make contact outbound to their server, and your
phone does the same ... better hope they don't turn the servers off live
Nest did.

On 03/10/2016 10:01, Andy Burns wrote:
Michael Chare wrote:

dennis@home wrote:


Ah, you've got one of the newer "supposedly secure" ones, with the older
generation you established contact inbound from wifi or internet to the
stat. The new stats make contact outbound to their server, and your
phone does the same ... better hope they don't turn the servers off live
Nest did.

Indeed. Quite possibly the server task could be done by a Raspberry pi.
Should not be a major expense.

--
Michael Chare

On 01/10/2016 16:47, Vortex12 wrote:
Hello,

Is there anybody out there using one of these HIVE Active Heating
thermostats.

Are they any cop?

I have 2 heating zones; one controlled by a byzantine Danfoss controller
and the other by an early "heatmiser" wired stat. Both are very
irritating.

Entry cost (£179 on Screwfix. Product 4632J for one zone. Second zone
extra £99 with a 9625K) is too high for an impulse purchase.

David

So far so good. Installed in what is effectively a holiday cottage in
Jan 2015, and very useful for remote monitoring of heating in the
winter, and switching heating on a couple of hours before arrival.
Nothing too complicated, only one zone. Early on, didn't survive power
fluctuations too well, but that seems to have improved (but I've put it
on a surge protector now anyway, along with the router, a computer, and
a phone).

In article ,
Vortex12 writes:
Hello,

Is there anybody out there using one of these HIVE Active Heating
thermostats.

Are they any cop?

I have 2 heating zones; one controlled by a byzantine Danfoss controller
and the other by an early "heatmiser" wired stat. Both are very irritating.

Entry cost (£179 on Screwfix. Product 4632J for one zone. Second zone
extra £99 with a 9625K) is too high for an impulse purchase.

I've had my own home-built remote control system for ~17 years now,
and over that period, installed it in 3 houses of family members,
and even a garden shed.

Some thoughts if you are buying a system:

Make sure it will work if you lose your internet connection.

Make sure it will still work without any external server, or
buy on the basis that it will probably only last a couple of
years before you have to replace it.

Vendors (Google) already pulled the plug on one product, leaving
owners unable to even turn their lights on and off. Offering to
refund the cost of the product is not suitable compensation in
cases like this where you've built it in to your home management.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On 06/10/2016 20:43, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
Vortex12 writes:
Hello,

Is there anybody out there using one of these HIVE Active Heating
thermostats.

Are they any cop?

I have 2 heating zones; one controlled by a byzantine Danfoss controller
and the other by an early "heatmiser" wired stat. Both are very irritating.

Entry cost (£179 on Screwfix. Product 4632J for one zone. Second zone
extra £99 with a 9625K) is too high for an impulse purchase.

I've had my own home-built remote control system for ~17 years now,
and over that period, installed it in 3 houses of family members,
and even a garden shed.

Some thoughts if you are buying a system:

Make sure it will work if you lose your internet connection.

Make sure it will still work without any external server, or
buy on the basis that it will probably only last a couple of
years before you have to replace it.

Vendors (Google) already pulled the plug on one product, leaving
owners unable to even turn their lights on and off. Offering to
refund the cost of the product is not suitable compensation in
cases like this where you've built it in to your home management.


I finally installed it today. Very easy.

The setup instructions, however somewhat lacking in detail but once the
3 components - stat; hub and controller are "paired" (there must be a
better word for this) it seems to just work.

I did have a telephone support question and it was handled very
professionally. Was not even expecting a human to answer on a Saturday
afternoon!

There is a standalone mode so internet not pre-requesite. Scheduling
setup via web or app seems pretty simple.

Temperature history logging is cloud based and only visible on
web....there doesn't seem to be any way to export data.

So far six out of ten. May be prepared to upgrade that in time,
depending on whether there is any aggravation.

D