Smart Homes

Beezerk said:
What are considered a decent smart thermostat/timer gadget to control a combi boiler?
Our current timer switches hot water and central heating so it would need to mirror that somehow.
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The nest 3rd Gen thermostat does both. (2nd gen does only heating). However there are others in the market depending on budget and what you want to do. One drawback of Nest is that it is a single unit and therefore central heating trigger depends on localised heating where the thermostat is placed. You cant do multi-room or zoning.

You can also go for Honeywell which is apparently better and can control individual rad, but you will need to change the TRVs on each thermostat.

Hive is another good option

edit: just come across this link that might help: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/test-cen...stems-2017-uk-best-smart-thermostats-3583499/
 
Thanks mate, I'm not really fussed about "multi zoning" just replace my old timer (and thermostat if that's how they work) with a smart one. To be honest I haven't really looked too much at our current set up, I just have the water and heating go on and off at the same time anyway 😁
 
vkurup said:
The nest 3rd Gen thermostat does both. (2nd gen does only heating). However there are others in the market depending on budget and what you want to do. One drawback of Nest is that it is a single unit and therefore central heating trigger depends on localised heating where the thermostat is placed. You cant do multi-room or zoning.

You can also go for Honeywell which is apparently better and can control individual rad, but you will need to change the TRVs on each thermostat.

Hive is another good option

edit: just come across this link that might help: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/test-cen...stems-2017-uk-best-smart-thermostats-3583499/
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That's not true - https://nest.com/support/article/Does-Nest-work-with-zoned-systems
 
One thing I do not understand with the drive for "smart " anything, is the security of the whole thing. Who is to say some teenage geek won't decide to hack into your system or whatever controls it and play merry hell with everything?
I suppose I just don't trust anything linked in to a mobile phone.
 
Bunkermagnet said:
One thing I do not understand with the drive for "smart " anything, is the security of the whole thing. Who is to say some teenage geek won't decide to hack into your system or whatever controls it and play merry hell with everything?
I suppose I just don't trust anything linked in to a mobile phone.
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I assume you're over 55? I jest... it's the same with any online security though. You have to be savvy about it. Ensure you have decent passwords on your home network etc. as that is probably the most vulnerable point. Ultimately, cloud based systems, which most of these things run off when you are away from home are really secure. The vendors of the products have a responsibility to ensure they are secure. It's no different to a burglar trying your windows and doors though to get in, i.e. people will always try.
 
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woody69 said:
I assume you're over 55? I jest... it's the same with any online security though. You have to be savvy about it. Ensure you have decent passwords on your home network etc. as that is probably the most vulnerable point. Ultimately, cloud based systems, which most of these things run off when you are away from home are really secure. The vendors of the products have a responsibility to ensure they are secure. It's no different to a burglar trying your windows and doors though to get in, i.e. people will always try.
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Nope, under 55:)
I look at all things net based, and TBH I just cannot get myself to follow their "we are so secure" mantra. Yahoo and Talk Talk certainly weren't, and if hackers can get into NASA or any of the US defence or intelligent agencies with their supposed mega security how can I really belive my meagre home automation controls won't be messed with along with everything else my super duper life controlling smart phone looks after?
I have no doubt this will come across as technophobia, but ultimately I like control of my life and everything to do with it and given something as basic as controls over my house to a third party device just doesn't enter my mind as a possibility.
 
Bunkermagnet said:
Nope, under 55:)
I look at all things net based, and TBH I just cannot get myself to follow their "we are so secure" mantra. Yahoo and Talk Talk certainly weren't, and if hackers can get into NASA or any of the US defence or intelligent agencies with their supposed mega security how can I really belive my meagre home automation controls won't be messed with along with everything else my super duper life controlling smart phone looks after?
I have no doubt this will come across as technophobia, but ultimately I like control of my life and everything to do with it and given something as basic as controls over my house to a third party device just doesn't enter my mind as a possibility.
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I do see your point, and security should be paramount, but ask yourself why would someone bother trying to hack you if they are capable of hacking NASA or Yahoo!?
 
So I get something like Hive to control my heating and water , from my phone
Costs £9 a month or £249 lump sum

How long is it going to take me to recoup my outlay?
I suspect some considerable time
 
PhilTheFragger said:
So I get something like Hive to control my heating and water , from my phone
Costs £9 a month or £249 lump sum

How long is it going to take me to recoup my outlay?
I suspect some considerable time
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would depend on your lifestyle if im honest. For my house, there is no point. someone is home pretty much 24/7. For a 9-5 family with a badly set thermostat, the ROI could be very quick.
 
Rooter said:
I do see your point, and security should be paramount, but ask yourself why would someone bother trying to hack you if they are capable of hacking NASA or Yahoo!?
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I agree why would they, but then if if they are capable of hacking such supposed secure places why would I think a cloud storage is going to be secure itself?
I can and do see some good in the "smart" ideas, I just cant fully buy into the whole thing feeling it's just another cure or problem solver for somehting that isn't a problem.
 
Heating and lighting is a given. You can save money. If you are not there, you can turn it off, or down. It works. How secure is it? Who knows, but someone hacking intomy house is full on going to be disappointed.
 
PhilTheFragger said:
So I get something like Hive to control my heating and water , from my phone
Costs £9 a month or £249 lump sum

How long is it going to take me to recoup my outlay?
I suspect some considerable time
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I would say you overpaid

I paid £199 for mine and no monthly cost at all
 
woody69 said:
That's not true - https://nest.com/support/article/Does-Nest-work-with-zoned-systems
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In theory yes, but unless you run change your plumbing to include dampers then the Nest multi-zone wont work. My assumption is that most UK houses have a single plumbed system where in the the heated water is circulated thru the whole system both upstairs and downstairs simultaneously. So you wont be able to shut down downstairs heating while retaining upstairs unless you physically turn off the rads. Also the 2 nests need a common wire, so a bit of digging the walls required.

Bunkermagnet said:
One thing I do not understand with the drive for "smart " anything, is the security of the whole thing. Who is to say some teenage geek won't decide to hack into your system or whatever controls it and play merry hell with everything?
I suppose I just don't trust anything linked in to a mobile phone.
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I agree, network security is my concern too, but the move is almost inevitable. On that note, it is also funny how many friends ask for the wifi password when they visit our house. It is now almost considered impolite to refuse giving them the password. So we run a separate 'guest' network as we have a dual band router.
 
Since I rent I'm slow to jump onto it and waiting for a while to see what Google Home plans for the UK market. My brother got an Echo and without smart bulbs etc it's a bit disappointing but from reviews I've seen of Google Home it is likely to have broader appeal for me since I use a lot of the Google echo system anyway.
 
Rooter said:
its deffo the future, not everyone will take it up of course, but high end new builds will be smart, the retrofit market is massive, i would like to set up a company doing exactly this! But no money or balls to do it!

More and more stuff will come in, OK some things like kettles as we discussed a while ago maybe one step too far, but it can be very useful. Lights, heating, security being the big 3 for me, but there will be more things like the amazon buttons, smart fridges, more links to retail so when you run out of milk, its added to your next online shop or texts whoever in the family is nearest a shop.

Still price prohibitive at the minute to go full on mainstream, but count yourself as an early adopter or BETA tester for the rest of us!
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How does it know when you are out of milk?
 
murphthemog said:
Heating and lighting is a given. You can save money. If you are not there, you can turn it off, or down. It works. How secure is it? Who knows, but someone hacking intomy house is full on going to be disappointed.
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They might get disappointed but there are other uses
1) identity theft is a great opportunity
2) if you got cams then you got a potential voyeur at home (you can google open cams and see a lot of open cam feeds around the world)
3) a more interesting opportunity is to use your exposed IoT device to launch a DDoS attack at NASA or Yahoo as Mirai recently showed.
4) finally, as human nature goes we use the same or similar password for everything, so if u use 'abcd1' for ur unprotected thermostat then it highly likely that it is similar to your bank password... so next step would be to..
 
Finally got a Hive heating and hot water winging it's way to me, I'm looking forward to no central heating this weekend 😂
Having a quick read on t' net it says there's different settings for pumped and gravity fed systems, how do I tell which I have?
 
vkurup said:
On that note, it is also funny how many friends ask for the wifi password when they visit our house. It is now almost considered impolite to refuse giving them the password. So we run a separate 'guest' network as we have a dual band router.
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Are you for real?? Friends and family visiting you have a separate network?? You either need to get out more, or find some friends and family you trust.

SocketRocket said:
How does it know when you are out of milk?
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3 options,

1. Smart button you physically press when you are getting low and it gets added to your next online shop automatically.
2. Weight sensor in the fringe 'milk position' which would auto order when it gets down to a pre defined weight.
3. Web cam inside the fridge that you can check from your phone while in tesco.

There will be more soon too i imagine..
 
Beezerk said:
Finally got a Hive heating and hot water winging it's way to me, I'm looking forward to no central heating this weekend 😂
Having a quick read on t' net it says there's different settings for pumped and gravity fed systems, how do I tell which I have?
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Do you have a pump near your hot water tank? can you hear a pump when the CH comes on?
 
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