Are we just inventing rubbish?
 

Here in the south east there have been some adverts with companies spouting on how you can now check your heating on your mobile device.

I am just trying to remember the last time I went out & worried about or felt the need to check on my central heating.
Mmmmmmmmmmmm......................Nope can't remember.Must be just me then.:brickwall

Don't knock it til you try it. British Gas have Hive Remote Heating, I have the kit installed as part of the trial and it's great. I finish work at varying times and if I finish early I can log on via the app on my phone on advance the heating. The house is nice and comfortable by the time I'm home.

There is also a long term plan for the remote heating/app control heating system to eventually incorporate remote heating diagnosis for the boilers ie. the boiler will alert you via your smartphone if there is a problem with it.

Just because you can't see the point of something doesn't mean it's not a benefit or good idea ;)

The next thing will be having apps to control your bath tub such as filling and temperature!

How cool would that be, on your way home from work, bad day .. woken up to a cold morning .. grab your phone, set the depth and temp and it runs a bath for you, heating comes on to warm the house and your car starts to warm up ..

:thumb:

I've got remote access to control the air conditioning of my place in Florida. It has saved me a fortune as I can turn it off when the place isn't rented.

Before I had that control my typical running costs in August was $500 it is now $200. I'm seeing similar savings every month. No brainer.

Google have just paid big bucks for a company doing this sort of stuff

My brother has configured his whole houses' heating system himself, using the arduino suite of sensors and software (and a pi for external access)

All controlled via his iPhone, says it works for him

No heat pump?

I can see the attraction for these systems ( depending instalation costs! ) if you're in dunks position, but surely most of us aernt and just a programmable timer will suffice

British gas Hive system is £199 fitted and is compatible with combi or system boilers. According to the customers that have looked into it, they say that it's much cheaper than other kits. I do know that it's and introductory price so It won't stay that price for long.

Don't think my cat would be impressed, she sleeps in the bath quite often :lol1:

Sadly the device is made in China so your car is filled with water, the boiler explodes and your bath is ful of petrol meaning the whole house goes up in a fireball ;)

I watched a documentary this week about sofas being sold in all the major high stores failing their fire tests, All came labelled with labels labelling them as fire retardent, when tested everyone failed.

Every one of them was made in China.

Makes you wonder, what else are we buying that's been passed fit for purpose but isn't?

And also ensures there are two gorgeous girls (or guys) waiting for you in the bath/Jacuzzi as well. Yup, I can see the benefit of that :)

Does not surprise me in the slightest!

A couple of years ago I spoke to a fire officer who said one day there will be a loss of life caused by these transformers for low voltage lights etc. all of which are British/EU standard marked, but some of which do not have a British/EU Standard construction.

He said he had investigated a number of small fires in domestic properties where these had melted and ignited and after having them inspected they were found not to meet the British Standard.

These were/are on sale in major UK stores and all were made in China, but apparently standards authorities attempts to track down the manufacturers met with the usual 'you are disrespecting The People's Replublic of China' bollocks the Chinese Government use to cover up anything they don't want to be found out about!

As I have said many time I really try and avoid 'Made in China' but it is just about impossible in some cases!

I just got a new BG boiler installed and looked at the remote control system via iPhone
The engineer advised me to wait a few weeks to my old timer went wrong and they could fit one under my maintence policy for half Price

Think I will get it done then turn the heating off when the misses is out shopping or falling asleep on the sofa to save a few pennies

I'm having a new heating system installed soon and will be looking to fit one of these remote devices.

I think it's a very useful tech.

Yes you can do a lot with the pi. You could also run a security system from one.

If Ding got one he won't have to live in fear any more. :lol1:

Hmmmmmmm.

If YOU can remotely access it, THEY can remotely access it.

What price them telling you in a few years time that they have notched you down two degrees or so to save the environment?

I wouldn't trust BG as far as I could chuck them.

he does -

he has the pi and ardiuno system email him when the front door is open etc

in fact all sorts - water temp, house air temp etc etc

he is very big into automation too

so - on his way home from work - if he needs to do some work from home

he simply sends an email (via siri) with the subject computer on

and all his home servers/clients turn on - and are waiting for him

he can then send an email with the subject - "compile report", and he can run his weekly report and send the file to his boss

all hands free from his car or motorbike - pretty cool

Until it throws a rod and starts giving him error messages......LOL

You must have quite a big bath of you can fit two men and two women in plus yourself. Who gets to handle the knobs though. :lol1:

I said "or" :)

Just to ensure we cater for all tastes for those on SN.

Funny you should bring this up, but I've been researching in great depth a suitable heating control system to replace our old AQ6000.

Currently I'm in the process of getting a Honeywell Evotouch system (latest version just relased this month with internet capability).

This is a full wireless system (wired, optional) that can control indivdual room temepratures and/or multiple zones zones via motor actuated radiator valves. Its also controllable via Mobile phone (optional, but I'll probbaly have it too - save messing about finding a good home for the control panel).

Its a true multi zone system that is easily retrofitted on existing systems. Unlike British Gas's "hive", Heatmiser or Viessmann's Vitorol/Vitocom, which in my case requires extensive plumbing modification to get it to work in the manner I need it to (I need 4 zones).

That said, bar the multi-zoning flexibility and mobile phone coms, is it any better than what I already have....a Honeywell AQ6000 weather compensated heating controller? Probably not! The AQ6000 has been leagues ahead of most heating controllers fitted in 99% of UK homes...and its 24years old! Unfortunately, nobody understood them (most still don't) so they never sold well - even though it was designed to optimise condensing boilers (yes condensing boilers did exist in 1990), which most controllers don't - even current ones unless they are built into the boiler's own internal controller or operate via the Opentherm control protocol.

Nor the Evohome - as it cannot monitor and regulate boiler flow temperature like the AQ6000 can (although it does use TPI control, which passively lowers flow temperature). Nor is it weather compensating either.

So yeah, I'm replacing something that doesn't quite do the job, with something else that still doesn't do the job. :lol1:

Thankfully I have a life and trivial issues about how warm my slippers are, don't come out on top!

Just think of all the data your Chinese made mobile phone/laptop/tablet/TV etc could be storing or transmitting?The NSA got f**k all on Chinese!

THIS is not new or fantasy, saw a demo of such at gadget show live in 2010

Is there a way to get Hive kit(s) for DIY install for a pair of oil boilers?

If there is tech info on it I could work it out, but can't find any.

i know there's a smartphone / wifi module for the Worcester-Bosch boiler in my flat, i've been meaning to buy one.

I've got a remote controlled TV , she can also cook :)