Hive or Honeywell - Oil Boiler / Holiday Home
Discussion
Have a cottage in Norfolk, with wood burner in lounge but main heating and water are provided by an external oil boiler, a Worcester Bosch. Its a Greenstar Heatslave, I think the 12/18 model.
We currently have some controls mounted on the inside of the outside wall (in a kitchen cupboard) and then a thermostat in the lounge. Single zone, so no thermostat upstairs. I think its a Drayton controller - so we just have a 7 day programmable timer, so the heating / water tend to be on even if there's nobody there, which is just a waste of oil...
Looking to replace the controls with something 'smarter' that we can control remotely (turn it off if there's no guests, etc.)
Thought about a Hive (I think it works with Oil & Worcester Bosch, as they do exclude some WB boilers but not ours) but others are also available, especially as BG won't install a Hive for free anyway.
What's the best thing to opt for?
And does anyone know / recommend someone who can install in North Norfolk some time in May?
We currently have some controls mounted on the inside of the outside wall (in a kitchen cupboard) and then a thermostat in the lounge. Single zone, so no thermostat upstairs. I think its a Drayton controller - so we just have a 7 day programmable timer, so the heating / water tend to be on even if there's nobody there, which is just a waste of oil...
Looking to replace the controls with something 'smarter' that we can control remotely (turn it off if there's no guests, etc.)
Thought about a Hive (I think it works with Oil & Worcester Bosch, as they do exclude some WB boilers but not ours) but others are also available, especially as BG won't install a Hive for free anyway.
What's the best thing to opt for?
And does anyone know / recommend someone who can install in North Norfolk some time in May?
Honeywell Lyric T6 wireless.
Had one fitted recently, it's great. There's an app, a decent wireless controller, it's simple and quite accurate. I think about £130 all-in. And it supports geofencing which gives my nudger a little tweak.
We have a Nest in the other place. It's very nice and tactile but not sure if it's as functional as the Lyric. Kids prefer the Nest though.
Had one fitted recently, it's great. There's an app, a decent wireless controller, it's simple and quite accurate. I think about £130 all-in. And it supports geofencing which gives my nudger a little tweak.
We have a Nest in the other place. It's very nice and tactile but not sure if it's as functional as the Lyric. Kids prefer the Nest though.
Or, the simplest solution might be just to replace your Drayton controller with a Drayton controller, the MiGenie is Drayton's remote/wireless app. 
I tried Nest at my house, hated it, sent it back. Then had a look around decided to try the Drayton MiGenie's on the grounds it's a simple plug and play.
Worked a treat, took a bit of getting used to the app as it's a little slow to reflect back to you the changes you make remotely. So you change the temperature, and it might take 10 seconds to communicate that to the control in your house and then confim it back to update on your phone. Once you suss this and learn some patience it's actually really good and gives you the remote access over all the functions you have with a standard controller, and more. I found this especially beneficial as my living patterns in my house do not lend themselves to the Nest methods.
I have the two channel setup so it can do heating and water separately.
In the 6 months plus I've been using it, there's been interruption to remote access/update twice, which is a bit irritating, but you can still adjust manually on the controller if you need to.
Setting the timer and then changing it, is an obsolute doddle with the app on your phone, way easier than it ever was with the old wall mounted controller.
ETC: Oh, and it costs about £100-150 for the kit, so seemed much cheaper than the Hive stuff, etc... I paid just £100 for mine in the last Black Friday sales.
I tried Nest at my house, hated it, sent it back. Then had a look around decided to try the Drayton MiGenie's on the grounds it's a simple plug and play.
Worked a treat, took a bit of getting used to the app as it's a little slow to reflect back to you the changes you make remotely. So you change the temperature, and it might take 10 seconds to communicate that to the control in your house and then confim it back to update on your phone. Once you suss this and learn some patience
it's actually really good and gives you the remote access over all the functions you have with a standard controller, and more. I found this especially beneficial as my living patterns in my house do not lend themselves to the Nest methods.I have the two channel setup so it can do heating and water separately.
In the 6 months plus I've been using it, there's been interruption to remote access/update twice, which is a bit irritating, but you can still adjust manually on the controller if you need to.
Setting the timer and then changing it, is an obsolute doddle with the app on your phone, way easier than it ever was with the old wall mounted controller.
ETC: Oh, and it costs about £100-150 for the kit, so seemed much cheaper than the Hive stuff, etc... I paid just £100 for mine in the last Black Friday sales.
Edited by Piersman2 on Friday 21st April 15:24
Piersman2 said:
Or, the simplest solution might be just to replace your Drayton controller with a Drayton controller, the MiGenie is Drayton's remote/wireless app.
I tried Nest at my house, hated it, sent it back. Then had a look around decided to try the Drayton MiGenie's on the grounds it's a simple plug and play.
Worked a treat, took a bit of getting used to the app as it's a little slow to reflect back to you the changes you make remotely. So you change the temperature, and it might take 10 seconds to communicate that to the control in your house and then confim it back to update on your phone. Once you suss this and learn some patience it's actually really good and gives you the remote access over all the functions you have with a standard controller, and more. I found this especially beneficial as my living patterns in my house do not lend themselves to the Nest methods.
I have the two channel setup so it can do heating and water separately.
In the 6 months plus I've been using it, there's been interruption to remote access/update twice, which is a bit irritating, but you can still adjust manually on the controller if you need to.
Setting the timer and then changing it, is an obsolute doddle with the app on your phone, way easier than it ever was with the old wall mounted controller.
ETC: Oh, and it costs about £100-150 for the kit, so seemed much cheaper than the Hive stuff, etc... I paid just £100 for mine in the last Black Friday sales.
DO NOT USE THE DRAYTON MiGENIE KIT................I tried Nest at my house, hated it, sent it back. Then had a look around decided to try the Drayton MiGenie's on the grounds it's a simple plug and play.
Worked a treat, took a bit of getting used to the app as it's a little slow to reflect back to you the changes you make remotely. So you change the temperature, and it might take 10 seconds to communicate that to the control in your house and then confim it back to update on your phone. Once you suss this and learn some patience
it's actually really good and gives you the remote access over all the functions you have with a standard controller, and more. I found this especially beneficial as my living patterns in my house do not lend themselves to the Nest methods.I have the two channel setup so it can do heating and water separately.
In the 6 months plus I've been using it, there's been interruption to remote access/update twice, which is a bit irritating, but you can still adjust manually on the controller if you need to.
Setting the timer and then changing it, is an obsolute doddle with the app on your phone, way easier than it ever was with the old wall mounted controller.
ETC: Oh, and it costs about £100-150 for the kit, so seemed much cheaper than the Hive stuff, etc... I paid just £100 for mine in the last Black Friday sales.
Edited by Piersman2 on Friday 21st April 15:24
I installed a 4 channel, 4 wireless stat system in an house in dec 2015. I was called back in the January as 2 of the stats has lost contact with the programmer. Spoke to Drayton technical who were superb, They identified that the unit did not have the latest software revision and that it had not done the over the air update. New unit sent out by them via courier along with anther unit for my inconvenience as way of compensation. June 2016 the client goes on holiday and sets the unit into holiday mode, they return 2 weeks later to the programmer going through a cycle of rebooting. I get called back and again speak to the tech team at Drayton, yet again the unit has failed to update after a known bug was found. Another unit was sent out which took 4 days to arrive which is not great but at least it was not cold. December 2016 and yet another call from the client, power cycling programmer again. Ripped it all out and replaced it with a Honeywell Evohome system.
At the time of fitting the first Drayton system i fitted another 2 channel system in another property which also had issues, again this was replaced by Drayton but within a month it had failed again.
I like the look of the MiGenie stuff but its way way to flakey for me to recommend to clients any more.
Gareth79 said:
I bought a Honeywell CM827 (non-smart) in 2010ish after seeing it recommended everywhere, then last year half the digits failed. Bought a Hive and it's very nice. You can get it for about £200 including installation, although it's often on sale.
British Gas won't install a Hive to an Oil boiler as part of their service, so I'd have to hunt around for a 3rd party to do it.Nest, on the other hand, will... which kinda makes it a much easier solution all round.
Tempted to get the Nest at the moment, and combine with a couple of Protects, and maybe put a camera up outdoors.
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