Hive Thermostat in new home help!

Bendo

oldagetraveller1 said:

I have spoken to my Daughter, who has Hive Heating. Their hub packed up some time ago and, rather than buy a replacement, they control and programme the heating using the thermostat only.

The cheapest way to get a replacement if you have a broken one is phone them, sign up to hive plus and they will give an extended warranty and post a new one. Think I paid £20 for a year and got the replacement that way.

Hive plus is gash so don't forget to cancel before the auto renewal. 

The_Green_Hornet

Pat38493 said:

oldagetraveller1 said:

I have spoken to my Daughter, who has Hive Heating. Their hub packed up some time ago and, rather than buy a replacement, they control and programme the heating using the thermostat only.

Possibly there never was a hub, it failed or it was taken away by the previous occupants?

It would seem, going from my Daughter's experience, the hub isn't necessary. The hub only connects to Hive via t'internet and to their app..

I suspect you need to visit Hive's website where there's hopefully instructions to programme and control the heating and hot water using the thermostat.

 https://assets.ctfassets.net/mijf9lz5yt3u/1QuhwkP8SPcF9V5ohO8cuA/44c0bdf91dc0d05e7fba589297d132c9/Hive_Thermostat_SLT3_User_Guide__1_.pdf

In their FAQs it does confirm that heating and hot water programming may be set up using the thermostat without the hub.

Yes I have already figured out that I can just use the thermostat directly on the wall.

I would like to have the hub though - in our previous house we had a Next thermostat and we got quite used to being able to control the heating with our phone - useful if you have been away for a holiday and you want to warm the house up a few hours before you get back.

Nest also automatically switches the heating off if it sees you are not home for a few hours, but I haven't seen any documentation that says that Hive can do that.  It also learns your patterns of behaviour and can adjust the schedule dynamically over time  based on what you do to the thermostat and when you are in/out.

Hive has a holiday mode which you can set at the thermostat.

Hive Active Heating - Thermostat User Guide

KittenChops

Pat38493 said:

northernstar007 said:

Pat38493 said:

oldagetraveller1 said:

I have a Hive system and conventional boiler for heating and hot water.

Mine is not controlled by a mini thermostat, a different one with a temperature control. However, as previously mentioned there should be a hub and a receiver which is wired into your boiler.

The thermostat connects wirelessly to the hub, the hub is connected directly to the router using ethernet cable and the hub is connected to the receiver wirelessly.

The hub is connected to Hive via internet. An account and app. is required for it all to work. Picture of hub with the power and ethernet cable and the receiver with the h.w. and heat symbols.

There is no hub anywhere in the house that we can find so we will buy a new one.

check your boiler it must have a "reciever" (bottom picture) connected to it for the thermostat to talk to the boiler already
the reciever will also talk to the hub when you get it to start the connection off
i think on the amazon review someone has put great instructions , it is easy to do 

ps a tip, plug the new hub straight in and connected to your router via ethernet cable as it does take a while to connect to the hive server and updates etc (aprox 10-15mins) you will get a solid green light on the hub when its connected and ready to go
then connect the reciever to the hub so they are paired up, there is instructions online, its done holding heating button on  the reciever

Does anyone know if British Gas provide programmers that look identical to the Hive, but are not actually enabled for the Hive Hub?

I found some documentation in the house for the new boiler that was fitted in 2022.

There is a receiver unit that looks identical to the one in the above photo with the green light top right and the 2 buttons.  It doesn't have a Hive logo at the top right like the photo above, but neither does the one at this link:
https://community.hivehome.com/s/article/Which-thermostat-do-I-have

Then in the hall there is a Thermostat that looks identical to the photos of Hive Thermostats online - the only menus I can find on the Thermstat are for scheduling the heating and water and holiday.  There is nothing in the settings about any connectivity and nothing that says Hive anywhere on anything.

With the boiler instructions there is a little book "How to user your programmer" which explains how to use this, but the book does not mention anything about being able to connect it to a Hive hub or even mention the word Hive - it's all just branded as British Gas.

I am now questionoing whether this is even a Hive unit or maybe BG uses the same control panels for non Hive programmers?

We "inherited" a Hive thermostat, like the one in your link when we moved here.  Don't have a hub / subscription service.  We just use it as a thermostat.  Works for us as I work from home.  If that changes, we'll most likely upgrade to a better non Hive / non smart thermostat - the one we have only has the capability to have one heating cycle per day - so you can program it to come on in the morning for example, but you can't also program it to come on in the evening

northernstar007

KittenChops said:

Pat38493 said:

northernstar007 said:

Pat38493 said:

oldagetraveller1 said:

I have a Hive system and conventional boiler for heating and hot water.

Mine is not controlled by a mini thermostat, a different one with a temperature control. However, as previously mentioned there should be a hub and a receiver which is wired into your boiler.

The thermostat connects wirelessly to the hub, the hub is connected directly to the router using ethernet cable and the hub is connected to the receiver wirelessly.

The hub is connected to Hive via internet. An account and app. is required for it all to work. Picture of hub with the power and ethernet cable and the receiver with the h.w. and heat symbols.

There is no hub anywhere in the house that we can find so we will buy a new one.

check your boiler it must have a "reciever" (bottom picture) connected to it for the thermostat to talk to the boiler already
the reciever will also talk to the hub when you get it to start the connection off
i think on the amazon review someone has put great instructions , it is easy to do 

ps a tip, plug the new hub straight in and connected to your router via ethernet cable as it does take a while to connect to the hive server and updates etc (aprox 10-15mins) you will get a solid green light on the hub when its connected and ready to go
then connect the reciever to the hub so they are paired up, there is instructions online, its done holding heating button on  the reciever

Does anyone know if British Gas provide programmers that look identical to the Hive, but are not actually enabled for the Hive Hub?

I found some documentation in the house for the new boiler that was fitted in 2022.

There is a receiver unit that looks identical to the one in the above photo with the green light top right and the 2 buttons.  It doesn't have a Hive logo at the top right like the photo above, but neither does the one at this link:
https://community.hivehome.com/s/article/Which-thermostat-do-I-have

Then in the hall there is a Thermostat that looks identical to the photos of Hive Thermostats online - the only menus I can find on the Thermstat are for scheduling the heating and water and holiday.  There is nothing in the settings about any connectivity and nothing that says Hive anywhere on anything.

With the boiler instructions there is a little book "How to user your programmer" which explains how to use this, but the book does not mention anything about being able to connect it to a Hive hub or even mention the word Hive - it's all just branded as British Gas.

I am now questionoing whether this is even a Hive unit or maybe BG uses the same control panels for non Hive programmers?

We "inherited" a Hive thermostat, like the one in your link when we moved here.  Don't have a hub / subscription service.  We just use it as a thermostat.  Works for us as I work from home.  If that changes, we'll most likely upgrade to a better non Hive / non smart thermostat - the one we have only has the capability to have one heating cycle per day - so you can program it to come on in the morning for example, but you can't also program it to come on in the evening

on the hive app you can have as many cycles you like for 7 days

Pat38493

northernstar007 said:

KittenChops said:

Pat38493 said:

northernstar007 said:

Pat38493 said:

oldagetraveller1 said:

I have a Hive system and conventional boiler for heating and hot water.

Mine is not controlled by a mini thermostat, a different one with a temperature control. However, as previously mentioned there should be a hub and a receiver which is wired into your boiler.

The thermostat connects wirelessly to the hub, the hub is connected directly to the router using ethernet cable and the hub is connected to the receiver wirelessly.

The hub is connected to Hive via internet. An account and app. is required for it all to work. Picture of hub with the power and ethernet cable and the receiver with the h.w. and heat symbols.

There is no hub anywhere in the house that we can find so we will buy a new one.

check your boiler it must have a "reciever" (bottom picture) connected to it for the thermostat to talk to the boiler already
the reciever will also talk to the hub when you get it to start the connection off
i think on the amazon review someone has put great instructions , it is easy to do 

ps a tip, plug the new hub straight in and connected to your router via ethernet cable as it does take a while to connect to the hive server and updates etc (aprox 10-15mins) you will get a solid green light on the hub when its connected and ready to go
then connect the reciever to the hub so they are paired up, there is instructions online, its done holding heating button on  the reciever

Does anyone know if British Gas provide programmers that look identical to the Hive, but are not actually enabled for the Hive Hub?

I found some documentation in the house for the new boiler that was fitted in 2022.

There is a receiver unit that looks identical to the one in the above photo with the green light top right and the 2 buttons.  It doesn't have a Hive logo at the top right like the photo above, but neither does the one at this link:
https://community.hivehome.com/s/article/Which-thermostat-do-I-have

Then in the hall there is a Thermostat that looks identical to the photos of Hive Thermostats online - the only menus I can find on the Thermstat are for scheduling the heating and water and holiday.  There is nothing in the settings about any connectivity and nothing that says Hive anywhere on anything.

With the boiler instructions there is a little book "How to user your programmer" which explains how to use this, but the book does not mention anything about being able to connect it to a Hive hub or even mention the word Hive - it's all just branded as British Gas.

I am now questionoing whether this is even a Hive unit or maybe BG uses the same control panels for non Hive programmers?

We "inherited" a Hive thermostat, like the one in your link when we moved here.  Don't have a hub / subscription service.  We just use it as a thermostat.  Works for us as I work from home.  If that changes, we'll most likely upgrade to a better non Hive / non smart thermostat - the one we have only has the capability to have one heating cycle per day - so you can program it to come on in the morning for example, but you can't also program it to come on in the evening

on the hive app you can have as many cycles you like for 7 days

Thanks for your help everyone - after a righ palava and a few failed attempts, I have now managed to connect a hive hub to the receiver and the thermostat - the process seems pretty clunky as it said it had failed, but then when I rebooted the hub everything suddenly worked!

One question for those already using Hive - if both myself and my wife wants to control the heating from our phone, should we set up 2 separate hive accounts or do we use the same account for both of us?

The_Hawk

Pat38493 said:

Thanks for your help everyone - after a righ palava and a few failed attempts, I have now managed to connect a hive hub to the receiver and the thermostat - the process seems pretty clunky as it said it had failed, but then when I rebooted the hub everything suddenly worked!

One question for those already using Hive - if both myself and my wife wants to control the heating from our phone, should we set up 2 separate hive accounts or do we use the same account for both of us?

I've no idea if setting up two accounts would be possible.

In my case I have the Hive app on multiple devices (one account) and I can control the heating from any of those devices. I also have it connected to my car (via Google Assistant) so that I can turn the heating on (by voice) when I'm on my way back home.

So my recommendation is one account.

Pat38493

The_Hawk said:

Pat38493 said:

Thanks for your help everyone - after a righ palava and a few failed attempts, I have now managed to connect a hive hub to the receiver and the thermostat - the process seems pretty clunky as it said it had failed, but then when I rebooted the hub everything suddenly worked!

One question for those already using Hive - if both myself and my wife wants to control the heating from our phone, should we set up 2 separate hive accounts or do we use the same account for both of us?

I've no idea if setting up two accounts would be possible.

In my case I have the Hive app on multiple devices (one account) and I can control the heating from any of those devices. I also have it connected to my car (via Google Assistant) so that I can turn the heating on (by voice) when I'm on my way back home.

So my recommendation is one account.

In the  meantime I found out that if someone else has a Hive account on the app, you can invite them to be able to control your thermostat or other gadgets.

debitcardmayhem

These assistants are great, wife turns on light, I turn them off. 

Pat38493

debitcardmayhem said:

These assistants are great, wife turns on light, I turn them off. 

I have to admit I'm not so impressed by the Hive app compared to the old Nest Thermostat we had in the old house.

Missing features
- Ability to automatically alter the heating schedule according to your thermostat changes over a time period (learning mode).
- Ability to view whether the heating and hot water are actually running at this moment (this was shown by a colour on the Nest app).
- Ability to automatically control the heating when you are away from home - i.e. the heating switches off automatically once you are away for a certain amount of time - with Hive it just sends you a notification but does not take any action.
- Motion detector in the house to detect whether you are in or not, in addition to the phone.
- Harder to set up and you need a separate hub - with Nest, you can connect your wireless wifi to the Nest Thermostat.
- The hub doesn't even have wifi - you have to connect it to the router by Ethernet.  Further, the hub refused to negotiate a speed with my 10Gb switch so I wasted half an hour trying to figure out why it wasn't working and had to put a slower switch in between.

It might be that some of this is available on subscription and/or as an add on device, so I might try out the free month, but with Nest this was all included with no subscription to pay and the motion detector was part of the Thermostat.

Reed_Richards

You have/had the option to replace your Hive parts with the Nest equivalents.  That might have been a better option than buying the Hive Hub.  Is there time to send it back for a refund?