Smart home options

collinsca

Hi

Another post from me..! We will soon be moving house and i'm keen to employ some smart tech. I've done a little bit of research and am keen to hear opinions on the best smart tech options available including security and heating and any other options i don't know about...

I've looked at Nest and Hive - but cant decided which best! My usual heating guys only do Hive so would need to shop around for Nest.
How about google home hub?

Also seen about Tado thermostats which look good.


Is there interconnectivity between the heating smart tech and other smart tech e.g Ring security or other burglar alarms?

Appreciate this is a pretty wide ranging post - any advice appreciated.

Thanks!

BUFF

what is the current heating system & controls in your "new" house?

What sort of interconnectivity are you looking for between the 2? Switching on/off by geolocation?
Hive also have alarms so you would only need 1 app. for both. afaik many of these systems are controllable by Alexa/Google Assistant

Ibrahim5

Got the Hive. Absolutely incapable of maintaining a constant temperature. Came on for ages, when it was like a sauna, turned off for ages until it felt freezing when it turned back on. Sent it back. I think the Nest is supposed to be better. I was recommended the Honeywell T6R on here. It's fabulous. Just a great thermostat with added internet control. I don't bother with geofencing. Doesn't make sense to me.

collinsca

BUFF said:

what is the current heating system & controls in your "new" house?

What sort of interconnectivity are you looking for between the 2? Switching on/off by geolocation?
Hive also have alarms so you would only need 1 app. for both. afaik many of theses systems are controllable by Alexa/Google Assistant

Not sure what the system and controls are - they are standard for a new build - not smart.

interconnectivity - i guess im asking what there is... and whether it is worth having... so my requirements are blank canvas at this point.

cheers

collinsca

Ibrahim5 said:

Got the Hive. Absolutely incapable of maintaining a constant temperature. Came on for ages, when it was like a sauna, turned off for ages until it felt freezing when it turned back on. Sent it back. I think the Nest is supposed to be better. I was recommended the Honeywell T6R on here. It's fabulous. Just a great thermostat with added internet control. I don't bother with geofencing. Doesn't make sense to me.

thanks for tip -googled it; looks good.

ashe

I've had Nest and Hive and of the two I would take Nest. The smoke alarms are good peace of mind for when you arent home as well, but not cheap. We dont use the smart stuff in nest in terms of the learning thermostat - we are better placed to decide if we want to be warmer or not, especially with current bills! we mostly just use it to pop the heating on remotely when we are about to head home, or to make sure its not on while we are away. 

We do use geofencing to turn the heating off if we have left the house

things like doorbells, house alarms, locks etc imo the tech is too early to be reliable so I keep an eye on it but don't use it yet. 

For home automation I have found alexa far more customisable than google home. Alexa is frustrating for some things but just so much more you can do with it. 

We have the nest video cameras as well. not perfect, but in the same app as smoke alarms and thermostat. they have facial recognition so we know if its the postman or one of our parents at the door etc. 

we have hue lights in every fitting, and have a harmony remote although we dont use the physical remote, just use it's hub to control everything. e.g if we want to watch the TV it will turn on the receiver, set it to the right input, turn on the TV, set to default channel and set the standard volume setting we use. If its after sunset it will turn on the living room lights and set them to our preferred settings.

We don't use light switches although they are there for decoration/emergency use. everything controlled by routine, motion sensor or voice assistant. 

Ibrahim5

When we leave the house we always turn off the heating and put the alarm on so a geofence would waste energy as it would leave the heating on for longer when we weren't in. We would then keep checking that the geofence had worked. When you are on the way home where do you set the geofence? If you are driving and it's freezing say 3 miles the house would still be freezing when you arrived home. Best just to manually turn it on when you think it's necessary.

collinsca

ashe said:

I've had Nest and Hive and of the two I would take Nest. The smoke alarms are good peace of mind for when you arent home as well, but not cheap. We dont use the smart stuff in nest in terms of the learning thermostat - we are better placed to decide if we want to be warmer or not, especially with current bills! we mostly just use it to pop the heating on remotely when we are about to head home, or to make sure its not on while we are away. 

We do use geofencing to turn the heating off if we have left the house

things like doorbells, house alarms, locks etc imo the tech is too early to be reliable so I keep an eye on it but don't use it yet. 

For home automation I have found alexa far more customisable than google home. Alexa is frustrating for some things but just so much more you can do with it. 

We have the nest video cameras as well. not perfect, but in the same app as smoke alarms and thermostat. they have facial recognition so we know if its the postman or one of our parents at the door etc. 

we have hue lights in every fitting, and have a harmony remote although we dont use the physical remote, just use it's hub to control everything. e.g if we want to watch the TV it will turn on the receiver, set it to the right input, turn on the TV, set to default channel and set the standard volume setting we use. If its after sunset it will turn on the living room lights and set them to our preferred settings.

We don't use light switches although they are there for decoration/emergency use. everything controlled by routine, motion sensor or voice assistant. 

Great insight - thank you

bob_a_builder

Ibrahim5 said:

When we leave the house we always turn off the heating and put the alarm on so a geofence would waste energy as it would leave the heating on for longer when we weren't in. We would then keep checking that the geofence had worked. When you are on the way home where do you set the geofence? If you are driving and it's freezing say 3 miles the house would still be freezing when you arrived home. Best just to manually turn it on when you think it's necessary.

There is no radius setting for the Geo-Fencing in Nest - its just Home/Away Assist setting On or Off

You would like to think, since it already knows how long your house takes to heat up from given temps to the set temp, that it would switch back on return journey so that it was at requested temp on your return 

Not seen anything to say if it does that or not, but as you say you would need to travel significant distance from home for it to have any chance of doing that usefully 

I've always left that setting off 

Best of luck remembering to switch it back on manually - always too distracted with other stuff to remember

collinsca

ashe said:

I've had Nest and Hive and of the two I would take Nest. The smoke alarms are good peace of mind for when you arent home as well, but not cheap. We dont use the smart stuff in nest in terms of the learning thermostat - we are better placed to decide if we want to be warmer or not, especially with current bills! we mostly just use it to pop the heating on remotely when we are about to head home, or to make sure its not on while we are away. 

We do use geofencing to turn the heating off if we have left the house

things like doorbells, house alarms, locks etc imo the tech is too early to be reliable so I keep an eye on it but don't use it yet. 

For home automation I have found alexa far more customisable than google home. Alexa is frustrating for some things but just so much more you can do with it. 

We have the nest video cameras as well. not perfect, but in the same app as smoke alarms and thermostat. they have facial recognition so we know if its the postman or one of our parents at the door etc. 

we have hue lights in every fitting, and have a harmony remote although we dont use the physical remote, just use it's hub to control everything. e.g if we want to watch the TV it will turn on the receiver, set it to the right input, turn on the TV, set to default channel and set the standard volume setting we use. If its after sunset it will turn on the living room lights and set them to our preferred settings.

We don't use light switches although they are there for decoration/emergency use. everything controlled by routine, motion sensor or voice assistant. 

Do you have any experience of Tado?
I like the simplistic design of Tado and im keen to get the Tado thermostats - which i do appreciate i wont necessarily need the Tado thermostat for.

re Nest - the self learning feature looks to me to be the biggest difference... as you dont use that feature, what is it you prefer Nest over Hive for?

Hue really interests me - how complex is it to install? 


thanks!

Martin_the_Unjust

We have a Netatmo thermostat (my wife really likes it) and a Eufy video doorbell, I’m happy with both.