The wireless control on my old central heating boiler finally packed in at the end of September and replacing the part on back-order was going to take weeks. As an early-adopter, I decided instead to splash out on British Gas Hive Active Heating, the wirelessly controlled remote heating control system that lets you operate your central heating and hot water from an Internet-connected computer or mobile device at any location. [Update: Read how much money I saved with Hive Active Heating].
Launched at the end of September 2013, British Gas Hive Active Heating is a new product for which installations started only in mid-October, so I was one of the first set of customers to get Hive. Actually, to be completely accurate, I should make clear that Hive builds on the British Gas Remote Heating Control product that's been knocking around for a couple of years.
Hive Active Heating comes with three main components: a hub that plugs into a spare LAN port on your wireless router; a wireless thermostat; and a receiver unit wired to your boiler.
All three units connect to each other over a dedicated low-power wireless network. There's also a direct RF radio connection between the thermostat and the boiler receiver unit so you can still operate the system if the wireless signal goes down.
The receiver unit comes in two flavors -- a single channel system for central heating-only systems and a dual channel system for combined central heating and hot water control.
Installation was relatively straightforward, but only a qualified gas engineer can wire the receiver to your boiler. The British Gas engineer who carried out my Hive Active Heating installation was a knowledgeable and friendly guy who clearly knew his stuff. He also volunteered the information that this was the first dual central heating/hot water system he had installed so he was on a bit of a learning curve.
The installation took about two hours and it must be carried out in a specific order:
The hub indicator light flashes red immediately after you connect it to the router while it calls back to the Hive server and updates itself. The light then changes to amber while the hub awaits online registration.
Unfortunately, server problems at Hive prevented the engineer from setting up the remote online access during his visit. Instead, he set the system to standalone mode -- with the wireless thermostat talking directly to the boiler receiver -- to ensure I still got central heating and hot water.
The next day, a Hive tech proactively called me and talked me through the procedure for registering the hub online. The server problems had been resolved and the system was now good to go for remote access. This was a fairly lengthy process, because I had to switch off the boiler/receiver and remove the batteries from the wireless thermostat to ensure the system activates in the correct order. However, the instructions were clear and so the setup was straightforward.
When everything was up and running, the tech asked me to log in to the installation page at hivehome.com and register the hub. Just enter the six-digit code printed on the hub into the registration page and the system completes the online setup.
This is where the fun really starts. After installation and online sign-up, you can control your central heating and hot water from any PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone with an Internet connection (Wi-Fi, 4G or 3G). There's a Web-based frontend for PCs and laptops and a free app for iOS and Android devices that you can download from the Apple or Google Play app stores.
The remote access system allows you to turn your central heating and water on or off and set an automatic schedule with specific temperatures for different parts of the day; for example, I have my central heating set to 19C in the morning and evenings; 17C for most of the day and 12C overnight. You can also turn the heating up or down at any time and this temperature stays until the system reaches the next point in your schedule. A hot water boost function turns your hot water on for an hour (wherever you are in the schedule) if you think you'll need more hot water than usual.
You can also adjust all these settings directly from the wireless thermostat but this is much more fiddly and time-consuming than using the remote system from a PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone.
The remote system also displays useful information, including current inside temperature, a historic temperature chart so you can track the temperature inside your home, and the outside temperature/weather conditions.
I really like Hive Active Heating. The ability to control your central heating system and hot water remotely is useful -- I even make adjustments on my iPhone while I'm in the house because it's easier than using the thermostat device. And, of course, Hive is great if you forget to turn off your heating when you go away. And you can turn it back on during your homeward journey to ensure you return to a nice warm house with a tank full of hot water.
Snags? There are a few. An Internet outage will severely limit the system's usefulness and switching the system to run in standalone mode (direct wireless link between boiler and thermostat) looks like a bit of a hassle. The information displayed and configuration options/method on the mobile app differ slightly from the Web-based frontend on a PC. The Web-based frontend doesn't appear to work well on MS Internet Explorer -- the control sliders seem to automatically move from "Schedule" to the "Off" position when you click anywhere on the page -- I got much better results when I tested it on Firefox and Google Chrome.
There's also meant to be an SMS text function that you can use to text simple commands to your heating system, but I couldn't register my mobile on the settings page and all attempts to do this threw up a red error message.
All in all, Hive gives you much greater control over your central heating and hot water systems and the ability to save on energy costs, but there are a few relatively minor wrinkles that need to be ironed out.
Find out more here.
Launched at the end of September 2013, British Gas Hive Active Heating is a new product for which installations started only in mid-October, so I was one of the first set of customers to get Hive. Actually, to be completely accurate, I should make clear that Hive builds on the British Gas Remote Heating Control product that's been knocking around for a couple of years.
Hive Active Heating Hardware
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| The Hive receiver unit that wires into the boiler. |
All three units connect to each other over a dedicated low-power wireless network. There's also a direct RF radio connection between the thermostat and the boiler receiver unit so you can still operate the system if the wireless signal goes down.
The receiver unit comes in two flavors -- a single channel system for central heating-only systems and a dual channel system for combined central heating and hot water control.
Hive Active Heating Installation
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| The Hive wireless thermostat unit that connects to the hub and boiler. |
The installation took about two hours and it must be carried out in a specific order:
- Plug the hub into the router with the supplied LAN cable and connect it to a permanent power supply.
- Wire the receiver unit to the boiler and a power supply. This is the part of the installation that took the longest.
- Install the wireless thermostat unit at a suitable location. Clearly you need a decent wireless sgianl at all three locations for the system to work reliably, though British Gas does also supply plug-in range extenders to help boost the signal if required. However, if your router's wireless signal is receivable at each location, chances are that the Hive wireless signal will also work satisfactorily. Test this by wandering around with your smartphone and check the wireless signal indicator.
Hive Active Heating Online Sign-Up
After installing the system, you'll need to register the hub online to get the useful remote access feature, which is the main selling point of Hive Active Heating.
The hub indicator light flashes red immediately after you connect it to the router while it calls back to the Hive server and updates itself. The light then changes to amber while the hub awaits online registration.
Unfortunately, server problems at Hive prevented the engineer from setting up the remote online access during his visit. Instead, he set the system to standalone mode -- with the wireless thermostat talking directly to the boiler receiver -- to ensure I still got central heating and hot water.
The next day, a Hive tech proactively called me and talked me through the procedure for registering the hub online. The server problems had been resolved and the system was now good to go for remote access. This was a fairly lengthy process, because I had to switch off the boiler/receiver and remove the batteries from the wireless thermostat to ensure the system activates in the correct order. However, the instructions were clear and so the setup was straightforward.
When everything was up and running, the tech asked me to log in to the installation page at hivehome.com and register the hub. Just enter the six-digit code printed on the hub into the registration page and the system completes the online setup.
Hive Active Heating Remote Access
 |
| Hive iOS screenshot. |
The remote access system allows you to turn your central heating and water on or off and set an automatic schedule with specific temperatures for different parts of the day; for example, I have my central heating set to 19C in the morning and evenings; 17C for most of the day and 12C overnight. You can also turn the heating up or down at any time and this temperature stays until the system reaches the next point in your schedule. A hot water boost function turns your hot water on for an hour (wherever you are in the schedule) if you think you'll need more hot water than usual.
You can also adjust all these settings directly from the wireless thermostat but this is much more fiddly and time-consuming than using the remote system from a PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone.
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| Hive heaing schedule screen on iOS. |
Verdict
I really like Hive Active Heating. The ability to control your central heating system and hot water remotely is useful -- I even make adjustments on my iPhone while I'm in the house because it's easier than using the thermostat device. And, of course, Hive is great if you forget to turn off your heating when you go away. And you can turn it back on during your homeward journey to ensure you return to a nice warm house with a tank full of hot water.
Snags? There are a few. An Internet outage will severely limit the system's usefulness and switching the system to run in standalone mode (direct wireless link between boiler and thermostat) looks like a bit of a hassle. The information displayed and configuration options/method on the mobile app differ slightly from the Web-based frontend on a PC. The Web-based frontend doesn't appear to work well on MS Internet Explorer -- the control sliders seem to automatically move from "Schedule" to the "Off" position when you click anywhere on the page -- I got much better results when I tested it on Firefox and Google Chrome.
There's also meant to be an SMS text function that you can use to text simple commands to your heating system, but I couldn't register my mobile on the settings page and all attempts to do this threw up a red error message.
All in all, Hive gives you much greater control over your central heating and hot water systems and the ability to save on energy costs, but there are a few relatively minor wrinkles that need to be ironed out.
Find out more here.
I've created a Google + community "British Gas Hive Heating"
ReplyDeleteNot too sure if this link will work, but you should be able to find it on G+
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/104499721670091864933
and now a forum:
http://britishgashive.freeforums.org
"All three units connect to each other over your Wi-Fi network."
ReplyDeleteActually, they communicate using ZigBee. They don't use your Wi-Fi network, or create their own Wi-Fi network - so you shouldn't have any problems with signal interference or crowding. That's why you need the hub connected to your router via Ethernet.
I've had a couple of questions about what a solid red light on the Hive hub means.
ReplyDeleteI've had a Hive hub red light a couple of times now since the installation and what this means is that the hub isn't connected to the Internet. Usually this means your router has lost its Internet connection due to a network fault or a technical problem at your ISP. However, on at least one occasion all has been okay with the router I can only assume therefore there were server problems at Hive. On all occasions when I've encountered a solid red light on the Hive hub, the problem has either corrected itself after a few mins, or resetting the router has fixed the issue.
The flashing red Hive hub light also flickers on occasionally. This indicates that the hub is updating itself.
Great article! Does the Receiver Unit replace the existing unit which controls the on-off times, or does that continue to fulfill some purpose?
ReplyDeleteHi, yes the Hive receiver unit wires directly into the boiler and so replaces any existing unit (integrated or externally mounted) that controls on-off times. My installer left the old integrated boiler control in place for cosmetic reasons but it's now completely non-functional and replaced with the Hive receiver.
DeleteI'm considering this. What sort of scheduling does this have?
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I works differing shifts so I'm looking at different on/off times every day of the month with multiple times daily.
Would this be suitable.
Thanks
Yes, I think this would work for you. Hive lets you set four on-off schedules per day and you can set the on and off the times to whatever you want in 15 minute increments. You can also set the specific temperature for each active period.
ReplyDeleteI should add to the above comment that Hive operates on a seven-day schedule so you would need to set the on-off times on a weekly basis. That's easy to do, though, with the web or app-based interface, whereas attempting this with thermostat controls on a traditional system would be a royal PITA.
DeleteNo - Hive lets you select TWO on/off cycles each day, not four. It lets you SWITCH four times, but that translates to two on/off cycles. I've chased them about this (mid-June 2014) and they tell me it's planned for the future...
DeleteIve been having a few problems with Network error when trying to log into my Hive app this evening but my wifi router is fine. I also just had a powercut (after the network problem). What happens to hive after a powercut, does anyone know? Ive been trying to google information on these but little luck so far.
ReplyDeleteYes I had the same, indicating server probs at Hive. Mine corrected itself after about a half hour.
DeleteMy experience with power cuts is that Hive works as normal when power is restored tho it will take a few mins to connect to the Hive servers again.
And just to add that altho network errors prevent access to Hive via the internet your heating should work as bormal because the thermistat is linked ro the boiler receiver via RF
DeleteHi all.
ReplyDeleteDoes anybody know whether the zigbee wireless system on the hive transmits all the time when the system is on or only when changes are made via the app or thermostat? Therefore-does it acts like an RF remote control - only transmitting when the user sends data - or is it like a mini wifi router system where data is being transmitted all the time?
I think it's constant.
DeleteHi I'm thinking of getting this.At the moment though my central heating does not come on at all if I set the thermostat below 20 degrees.I'd like to have the central heating on constant or at least for longer periods at a low temperature.Would hive enable me to do this?
ReplyDeleteHi, it will work well for this -- you can set the precise temperature in 0.5C increments for each period with Hive Active Heating. However, might be worth getting your boiler checked out if it's not coming on below 20C as it sounds like there might be a fault somewhere in the system.
DeleteI'm having problems with the apps on my android and iPad not working. On the iPad I get an error message every time saying that Hive needs a network connection and on my Samsung Galaxy it appears to work but is not communicating with the boiler. We have checked all the connections and tried reinstalling the app but still not working? Can anyone help? I can't find any help on the website.
ReplyDeleteSorry for the delayed reply. It sounds to me like the receiver at the boiler isn't communicating with the thermostat and/or hub. If a red light displays on the boiler receiver, it means it's not connected to the rest of the network. This may be a problem if the units are some distance away or there's several walls or other obstructions between them. I think Hive will supply a free range extender smart plug in these circumstances so it's worth getting on to their support people.
DeleteI had Hive installed yesterday. All is well. I have noticed and was aware the boiler control panel would be of no use as it is dead. The only problem I have is that this has also knocked out the boiler warning light and service light.
ReplyDeleteI think you should call the service engineer to sort this out.
Delete