Talk to me about..... Smart thermostats

tek-monkey

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
Any use one? Any thoughts on what works best, and with what? I have an old fashioned dial stat that seems particularly inaccurate, and figured if replacing I may as well go the whole way. I can see that the main contenders are Hive and Nest, but most articles I've read seem a little biased towards one or the other without really explaining why. If anyone has experience of using said devices I'd be interested in hearing about it.

My house comprises of three adults, 2 of whom are out during the day Mon-Fri but have roughly 2 hour differences in schedules. The third is generally about most days other than Saturday and one weekday.

The main things I want from it are:
  • Accurate heat measurement
  • Possibility of saving money
  • A log of when it has been on/off (cumulative stats would be interesting)
  • A log of the house temperature would also be nice
I'm not that interested in the logging when I'm home and making schedules around me, as the other 2 have fairly dependable schedules and it's extremely rare I'm ever at home on my own. That said if it can learn what temperatures I like and when that could be interesting. It will be a direct replacement for a room stat so I hope they can just be swapped out? Do they need power supplies? That would probably be a deciding factor for me as I'd prefer it wall mounted where the old one was.

Also how easy are they to fit? Can I just connect the wires from my old crappy stat? I don't need the hot water part particularly as I leave my water always on but not pre-heated.

I've also ordered one of those Amazon speakers to yell at when drunk, so if it works with that its a bonus.
 
Lucy

Lucy

Well-Known Forumite
Add Tado into the mix. I know some need a convertor kit in the boiler but then the thermostat just replaces your main wall one.

The OH has built his own, and that coupled with wireless TRVs mean we can zone every room, which none of these quite do yet.
 
Rikki

Rikki

Well-Known Forumite
None of them will just wire as a stat replacement. Roomstats are just a temperature switch often with only switched live in/out.
I've not fitted any nest ones but have most of the others and basically you have a receiver box that replaces your programmer and the existing roomstat is just removed and the wires linked.
On a s or y plan system (hot water cylinder) you can often just unclip the programmer and connect the reciever box as the base plates on most are universal. With a combi with an external programmer it's the same. If you have a built in one it just means wiring the receiver into the boiler which isn't difficult. However technically only someone gas safe registered should be removing the boiler case.
The actual thermostats then are all battery operated and wireless to the receiver unit. This then has a hub you connect to your router.

I've got a hive which is fine and works with the echo dot I got yesterday. I don't beliee any of them allow temperature logging though.
 
tek-monkey

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
Lucy said:
Add Tado into the mix. I know some need a convertor kit in the boiler but then the thermostat just replaces your main wall one.

The OH has built his own, and that coupled with wireless TRVs mean we can zone every room, which none of these quite do yet.
Click to expand...
I did see your post on this, but I wanted something simple hence starting a fresh post. I don't have that much spare time!
 
tek-monkey

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
Rikki said:
None of them will just wire as a stat replacement. Roomstats are just a temperature switch often with only switched live in/out.
I've not fitted any nest ones but have most of the others and basically you have a receiver box that replaces your programmer and the existing roomstat is just removed and the wires linked.
On a s or y plan system (hot water cylinder) you can often just unclip the programmer and connect the reciever box as the base plates on most are universal. With a combi with an external programmer it's the same. If you have a built in one it just means wiring the receiver into the boiler which isn't difficult. However technically only someone gas safe registered should be removing the boiler case.
The actual thermostats then are all battery operated and wireless to the receiver unit. This then has a hub you connect to your router.

I've got a hive which is fine and works with the echo dot I got yesterday. I don't beliee any of them allow temperature logging though.
Click to expand...
So I'm guessing that the current status just becomes useless? I'd actually like the new one where that one sits but I guess I can just remove it and put this over the hole.

Does the hub do other stuff? I know the hive has compatible lights, but what concerns me is not everything plays well together. I prefer Google generally as they tend to be more open, but I ordered an echo so......

Amazed none log temperature, you'd think knowing just when it was on/off at the very least would be helpful.
 
hardwood

hardwood

Well-Known Forumite
I have a Hive at home which is simple to fit, a hub replaced the programmer and the thermostat links wirelessly.

I have also wired a nest at a holiday home, which was more of pain. It’s not difficult but it needs 3 live wires and doesn’t have a standard back plate which you get in most programmers. Additionally the thermostat part requires 12v and you will often find the existing wiring is mains voltage.
I fitted the nest in the holiday home since it has a feature enabling you restrict the temperature range. It also doesn’t have a normal constant mode (you can do this from the hub by pressing a button but most people would try and do it from the stat itself). Also good for a holiday is it has a sensor where if it believes the property is empty will turn the heating off.
 
Cue

Cue

Well-Known Forumite
Okay, so:

Tado is location sensitive, I like ours, and it does have wireless TRVs if you want to control every room (the TRVs will demand heat from the boiler if the room is too cold). It doesn’t learn, you set the schedule and then location overrides the schedule if the house is empty, reducing the temperature by distance so if you’re just down the road it doesn’t need half an hour to warm back up.

Nest learns, but I have an issue with Nest because Google have a habit of shelving products all the time.

You can literally just replace your existing one if it’s wired. You don’t need to replace the programmer (just set it to always on). This is how my folks have it.

If it isn’t wired then you need the extension kit for the stat, which links to it wirelessly and controls your boiler. If you have a programmer this replaces it. This is how we have it installed.

It’s relativrly easy to do. I set one up for my parents and also wired ours when we were in our rental (heating engineers installed it when installing our new boiler at our current place).

Tado does log temperature, as well as when it was on/off, the humidity and if the sun was out. Don’t know about others.

As for working together with other stuff... most won’t do this. I think some are expanding out though. You’re better off getting a hub if you want everything working together, but I have yet to find a reason to change my lighting based on the home temperature.
 
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Lucy

Lucy

Well-Known Forumite
I know for a fact there's a lot of development going on with Tado, to make it even better.
 
tek-monkey

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
Ordered the hive as was £140 installed, didn't realise the wait for BG to do so was nearly a month :(
Booked in for December 14th.....
 
tek-monkey

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
Just a thought, do any of you isolate your smart home devices on your network? Worth setting up a VLAN just for them? Note read up on the security aspects, guess I have a few weeks to do so!
 
Rikki

Rikki

Well-Known Forumite
The hive stats seem to be on sale at the moment at a few places, but £140 installed is really cheap. I couldn't do it anywhere near that, looks like I won't nstalling anymore.
 
tek-monkey

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
Rikki said:
The hive stats seem to be on sale at the moment at a few places, but £140 installed is really cheap. I couldn't do it anywhere near that, looks like I won't nstalling anymore.
Click to expand...

Its only because ao.com had a £30 cashback deal on, which has since been pulled (almost as soon as I ordered!). Its back at £170 now, although amazon are doing it for £160.

The thing is though thats with BG installation, and with black friday coming and I suspect many more orders I doubt many people will get it installed before xmas whereas you can do them sooner (I assume).

No sign of nest stats coming down yet, I was torn between the 2 but at this price had to jump.
 
Rikki

Rikki

Well-Known Forumite
£170 is about right now assuming the unit costs £120 which it appears to be available for at the moment.
TBH it's usually a nice easy job but as I've said some do require a bit of wiring alteration.
 
hardwood

hardwood

Well-Known Forumite
tek-monkey said:
No sign of nest stats coming down yet, I was torn between the 2 but at this price had to jump.
Click to expand...

Nest announced a new model a few months ago the ‘thermostat e’ which is cheaper but not widely available in the UK at the moment. You can find them on eBay for £100. Search for nest thermostat e or nest t4000.
 
tek-monkey

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
BG called, won't be installing it now as they are busy and I don't pay for homecare so am not a priority. Is Jan 19th OK? Told them to go fudge themselves, thats 2 months from the initial call!
 
tek-monkey

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
Rikki said:
£170 is about right now assuming the unit costs £120 which it appears to be available for at the moment.
TBH it's usually a nice easy job but as I've said some do require a bit of wiring alteration.
Click to expand...
Guessing you're busy at the min, with this weather? If not I have a self install kit coming which I'm not too confident on fitting myself!
 
Cue

Cue

Well-Known Forumite
For what it's worth, Tado are currently doing their self-install starter kit (v3 with Homekit support) for £159 if you don't need the extension kit (i.e. if you already have a wired thermostat). If BG are giving you the runaround you could cancel and go elsewhere? I can also give you an extra tenner off via a referral link if you like.

If you do already have a wired thermostat anyone who's confident in replacing one can do it, and a sparky or gas engineer could do it with their eyes closed.*

* Do not recommend installing it blind, there are no braille markings.
 
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