Hive, is it worth it?

joehfax wrote: »

Hi all, hope I'm in the right place.
I have just had a new central heating system and boiler installed and hive was included in the package, I am now looking at hive bulbs and other products and wondering if it's worth it?
If it is where is the best place to buy compatible products.

Thanks

Personally i don't like the idea of the bulbs because if someone turns of the light switch then you have to manually turn it on again defeating the point of a smart bulb.

I have Sonoff light switches in my house that cost around £12 each which simply replace existing light switches so they can be turned on and off as normal as well as remotely.
But don't go out and buy one of these before you do some research and you may need to choose a different switch if you have no neural wire.

r2015 wrote: »

I just had an email from Scottish Gas Rewards wanting to give me one for £199 fitted.

Even if it saves me 5% (if even that) on the 10500 kWh that is used for heating (does not include hot water and cooking which according to my smart meter is 11 kWh a day) it would probably take about 15 years to break even.

Would you fit one given these circumstances?

It's not purely designed to be a money saving device so you can't really justify it that way.

It's primary purpose is to be able to remotely control your heating and having it come on when your on your way home and not come on when your out etc. So you that means you have a house that is always at a comfortable temperature but saving energy by only being heated when necessary.

You could of course manually turn the heating on when you arrive home and save even more money but you would always come back to a cold house.

Personally i would recommend the Nest over the Hive as the Nest also remembers what temperature you have at certain times of the day. So you don't have to keep lowering and raising the temperature if you prefer is colder at night for example.