Hive/Smart Thermostat, is it worth it?

jelliot

I live in a 3 bed semi and use approx. 14000 kWh of gas a year, 10,000 kWh for heating and 4015 kWh for hot water and cooking.

That is what I have used in the past year, when my heating was off in the summer I was using 11 kWh of gas a day for hot water and cooking.

My present heating is a Worcester Bosch combi with 8 radiators and a DT20RF PROGRAMMER which is set at a temperature of 21 deg C and the timer to have the heating on from 07:30 to 23:30 each day.

We are retired and in most days.

If I fitted a Hive thermostat or any other smart thermostat how much would I realistically save?

10% - 20 % or more like 2%?

I calculate that paying 2.709p per kWh (there is of course a SC as well) and saving 2% a year it'd take about 38 years to pay for a smart thermostat.

Even at 10% it would take about 8 years.

Is it even economical and money saving to spend £200 or more for such a lengthy return time?

System

We have the Honeywell Evohome system which is now starting its third Winter. I saw the cost as an upgrade to my existing system; that said, even though we will probably never get a return on our investment, we do have heat when and where it is required and our gas usage has fallen by an average of 18%. (Evohome replaced a hall thermosat and manual TRVs). Hive will give you control but it is best suited imho to those who do not live/work to a schedule.

FWiW, recent evidence to the HoC's Science and Technology Select Committed suggested that if every house in the U.K. was fitted with Hive rather than a smart meter then the total savings would be 10 times greater.

Cardew

jelliot wrote: »

We are retired and in most days.

If I fitted a Hive thermostat or any other smart thermostat how much would I realistically save?

10% - 20 % or more like 2%?

I calculate that paying 2.709p per kWh (there is of course a SC as well) and saving 2% a year it'd take about 38 years to pay for a smart thermostat.

Even at 10% it would take about 8 years.

Is it even economical and money saving to spend £200 or more for such a lengthy return time?

In your situation I cannot see how Hive would save anything. As Hengus says above it is more suited to those who do not have a settled schedule. Catch an earlier train home and you can switch your heating from the train!

Gizmo247

As above, Hive is just an expensive toy unless you have an unpredictable schedule. Only zoning products like Evohome or Tado can yield real savings and can be remotely control via your phone too.

System

For completeness, it is worth pointing out that Evohome will do everything that Hive will do and more. Let us say, for example, that you use the sitting room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom as your primary rooms. You can configure these rooms with HR92s and leave the rest of your rooms with basic TRVs. The downside of this is that manually-controlled rooms will get heat whenever a HR92 demands heat. You cannot use a mixture of HR92s and manual TRVs in the same room (zone).

C_Mababejive

Just buy a programmable roomstat instead ?

danbutler89

I agree with other posters - in my own experience (Tado) technical issues have wiped out any savings I'd hoped to make. Instead I have just wasted the money I spent on it, and wasted the infuriating hours on the phone to chronically unhelpful 'technical support.' For example, the device turned my heating on full blast for days whilst I was away. That incident alone cost be a fortune, there's no way I'll make that money back through savings. There are better ways of saving money on your heating - if you use a lot of energy, you could try joining a collective purchasing scheme, for example. This is technology for its own sake, the only 'smart' thing about these devices is the marketing!

pampet

Had mine fitted early December when we got our winter fuel payment and don't regret it at all. We use our conservatory 52 weeks of the year and everything is controlled from there (or my iPhone outside). The bungalow has never been so warm, we have trv's on all rads, and also switched from B GAS to Sainsbury's energy with smart meter. Would definitely recommend Hive £249 with 10% discount = £200 (our heating allowance) jobs a good 'un

pampet

Sorry about that the discount was 20% that'll teach me to check before I send lol

Raxiel

We have a Worcester Bosch Wave smart thermostat, paired with our Worcester boiler, and I'm completely satisfied.

The Wave works well with Worcester's own boilers because rather than being a simple on/of, it can hook directly into the boilers controls, allowing it to dynamically alter the radiator flow temperature and/or control the 'eco' mode from the control app rather than having to use the controls on the boiler itself.
(The non-proprietary version is called 'Opentherm' I believe, but I'm not sure any Worcester boilers have it)

The best feature for us is the 'home presence detection' where the heating is automatically toggled off and on depending if the house is occupied. As others have said, its best for people without a fixed schedule, but a normal timed program would never work for us.

Aside from some trial-and-error tweaking for the (optional) weather compensation feature, it's been pretty much set and forget. (We did have a problem with it occasional not detecting absences properly for a while, but after some troubleshooting we discovered that was a network based location problem with the mobile network, nothing to do with the Wave)

I don't know how much it's saved us, It's definitely saved something but we had it fitted at the same time as a new boiler, which resulted in a big drop in consumption anyway, but I wanted the convenience of remote control so it was worth it for me anyway.

You do need a smartphone to control it (one per person for home presence). Not a problem for us, but unfortunately it means I can't recommend it to my parents

teddysmum

OP I am at home all day (retired; 3 bedroomed semi) and we have a WB combi.


I don't see any benefit for you, as, has been mentioned the main gain is the ability to alter regular settings, if you are likely to be home later or earlier than normal.


You don't need to programme your water, anyway, as a combi supplies on demand.


Do you not use your programmer to vary the temperature, during the day, according to what you are likely to be doing (ie warmer when watching tv and cooler when more active), as there are 5 time zones to play with and you can always temporarily adjust for the duration of a zone, should you need more or less heat than usual ?

We leave the radiators in unused rooms on very low and keep the doors closed.