Advice on picking Hive, Google Nest or Something else?

Wkmg

Hi, I live in a cold 4 bed 1920s detached house (need new windows but not for a while!). We’re having some major renovations done and are moving the boiler so thought it might be a good time to update our very old analogue thermostat. I really like the idea of being able to turn the heating on when I leave work. I’m also interested in the “learning” aspect of the Nest although not sure how useful it would be for me as my schedule is very erratic. We have a standard conventional boiler and hot water tank. I’ve made a little pros and cons list. Just wondered what other people’s thoughts were. 

Nest Pros: Thermostat can be wired in and doesn’t need batteries. It is a “learning thermostsat”. Probably have more faith in Google’s app support. Slightly more functionality (although not sure how useful it will actually be). Geolocation is a bit slicker than on Hive (I’ve heard). If I extend in 5-10 years (reasonable likely) will be easier to integrate with a new heating system than Hive.

Nest Cons - Most expensive. I’ve heard that the post sales customer support is poor. I’ve heard they have a high failure rate (although there is definitely a reporting bias for this sort of thing). It probably won’t really save money.

Hive Pros: Bit cheaper. Can pair with TRVs to individually control rooms (quite interested in this).

Hive Cons - Not desperate to change the batteries every year or two. Also, not as Smart as google (if that matters, I’m reality I’m not sure)

The alternative is just to get a standard thermostat and controller. Any thoughts, advice is appreciated.system. It’s single pipe system but with a little bypass under each radiator so I can turn them on and off individually. Builder suggested redoing the whole things but it was too expensive and would have been destructive in rooms we weren’t renovating.

tim_p

I’ve got a Nest, had it for years, long since given up on all the so called smart features as they were costing a fortune. Now use it as a fancy programmer with fairly flexible scheduling. It’s not perfect but I’d never want to lose the flexibility, particularly the ability to fire up the heating when away from home. 

keithgawler

I'm very happy with Hive. 5 years in our current property and an early adopter for about the same time in our previous property. Only use the heating and hot water facilities. The newer security products look a bit pricy and I have other products already for that, though clearly there is benefit in having a full product set integrated into one hub. I don't use the TRV product and you might want to do some research on this as I know there have been some widely publicised issues with it.

Wkmg

tim_p said:

I’ve got a Nest, had it for years, long since given up on all the so called smart features as they were costing a fortune. Now use it as a fancy programmer with fairly flexible scheduling. It’s not perfect but I’d never want to lose the flexibility, particularly the ability to fire up the heating when away from home. 

Thanks. What do you meant by saying the smart features cost a fortune? Did it leave your heating on all the time? Why?

Wkmg

keithgawler said:

I'm very happy with Hive. 5 years in our current property and an early adopter for about the same time in our previous property. Only use the heating and hot water facilities. The newer security products look a bit pricy and I have other products already for that, though clearly there is benefit in having a full product set integrated into one hub. I don't use the TRV product and you might want to do some research on this as I know there have been some widely publicised issues with it.

How long do the batteries last in the thermostat in real world use?

rp1974

It's quite marmite but I'll suggest it anyway,you could do worse than taking a look at the Drayton Wiser products.
No problem with mine in the past 18 months,or the previous not quite as smart Drayton connected thermostat.
Something to bear in mind though,it can get expensive depending on how granular you need your control to be,usually cheaper buying a combi pack from Amazon for example,using what you need and selling on the unneeded parts.

Soot2006

I am new to Nest (since September) but am very happy with it. I haven't used the smart features other than linking to Alexa since we're working from home, every now and then it asks me for permission to take over the schedule for "smart savings" and I let it  redesign the heating schedule and so far we've been very pleased with it.  When it was very cold last week I woke up in the night. I like a COLD room at night, but that night I was struggling to get back to sleep so I shouted at Alexa to heat up the room a bit and it was very satisfying when the radiator next to the bed started to warm up and helped snuggle me back to sleep ... My next project is to zone the house so I can heat upstairs and downstairs separately, but I'm not yet advanced enough for such things . Next winter, maybe ...

fred246

I have had a thermostat with TPI for years and I am used to the temperature being constant. I just expected a modern thermostat like the Hive to have it. I bought a Hive but the temperature was all over the place. Massive over and under shoots. You are supposed to be able to request TPI to be activated. I phoned them up and they said it was activated. It was no better so I phoned them again. They said it hadn't been activated but it was now. It obviously wasn't so I phoned them again. They had no idea. Clueless. Talking rubbish. So I sent it back. Google Nest has TPI called True Radiant. Considering a Nest at the moment. Has anyone got one? Is True Radiant any good? If you have never had TPI I guess you wouldn't know how good it was and might think the Hive was OK.

Wkmg

What’s TPI?

tim_p

Wkmg said:

tim_p said:

I’ve got a Nest, had it for years, long since given up on all the so called smart features as they were costing a fortune. Now use it as a fancy programmer with fairly flexible scheduling. It’s not perfect but I’d never want to lose the flexibility, particularly the ability to fire up the heating when away from home. 

Thanks. What do you meant by saying the smart features cost a fortune? Did it leave your heating on all the time? Why?

It was massively increasing my gas usage - as an example, having set it to be 20 degrees when we got up, at say 0700, it seemed to think the heating needed to come on before 0500 to achieve 20 by 0700.  This was after it had gone through all its learning stuff. Now I set it to come on at 0615 and depending on the overnight outside and room temp it’s usually there or thereabouts at 0700.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my Nest but I just don’t trust or agree with all the bs around how much you can save. In my experience, you don’t. 

Tallerdave

I've always liked Honeywell programmable stats, great optimum start that learns well - but no remote smart stuff. No idea if their smarter stuff is to the same quality but worth checking out. 
I'm currently using a Heatmiser setup which offers phone/tablet control. It sounds great on paper but everything has to communicate via a hub and it regularly goes "offline" which means I lose control of the heating and freeze (because I'm relying on remote sensors). Wireless is crap - hardwire as much as you can for an easier life!