Internet- based heating controls

[jansman]

Too much bloody technology in life. I can just about cope with my phone and tablet. My job entails ‘basic’ use of a computer, and my boss gives me a hard time ‘ cos I ain’t Bill Gates :|I really struggle with it, and my lovely younger colleagues help me ( I am a bloody workplace dad!) Now I realise I am getting old. I need to go fishing.

[peejay]

I understand the attraction of the whole thing about "switch on your heating remotely" - but that sounds a lot more useful than it probably is, frankly. Unless you've got different timings every day, it seems to me something that people will just get bored of eventually. Mind you, I hear people chatting to Alexa (niece in law, my dentist) and they all seem to swear by it.

TBF there are other capabilities. I work from home two days a week, and those are typically the only days I need heating in the study, so those are the only days I have it set for heating (other than keeping the chill down).

They can detect an open window in a room & shut off the TRV in that room for a specific duration.

These systems can be geotagged meaning they automatically switch off when everyone leaves home, i.e. you can set it to not heat an empty house, equally they automatically start to ramp heating up when you're getting closer to home.

Rooms can have individual timers/temps configured & tweaked as required.

In my previous house it improved the comfort of the house by an order of magnitude, just be heating when required, when required rather than randomly throwing heat at the whole house every time for the set (timer) duration every time.

There's a lot to them, but granted they're not for everyone.

[jansman]

I understand the attraction of the whole thing about "switch on your heating remotely" - but that sounds a lot more useful than it probably is, frankly. Unless you've got different timings every day, it seems to me something that people will just get bored of eventually. Mind you, I hear people chatting to Alexa (niece in law, my dentist) and they all seem to swear by it.

TBF there are other capabilities. I work from home two days a week, and those are typically the only days I need heating in the study, so those are the only days I have it set for heating (other than keeping the chill down).

They can detect an open window in a room & shut off the TRV in that room for a specific duration.

These systems can be geotagged meaning they automatically switch off when everyone leaves home, i.e. you can set it to not heat an empty house, equally they automatically start to ramp heating up when you're getting closer to home.

Rooms can have individual timers/temps configured & tweaked as required.

In my previous house it improved the comfort of the house by an order of magnitude, just be heating when required, when required rather than randomly throwing heat at the whole house every time for the set (timer) duration every time.

There's a lot to them, but granted they're not for everyone.

When you describe it in that way, then yes, I can see the attraction. However, I suspect that in the main, it’s a generational thing. My daughters are technologically equipped to the eyeballs, and embrace the whole shebang.

Me, as I get older, find that simple simplicity is more desirable. I totally understand now why my late father didn’t’hold’ with the internet. Even Tim Berners Lee, the creator of the web is now concerned about it’s misuse. I adopt the attitude of taking from technology what is useful to me. My workplace is totally controlled by ‘Smart’ technology, and when the web kicks out( which it frequently does) or the power goes off, albeit for short periods, ( which it frequently does) then we are crippled! I guess that puts me off it in my own home.

Going back to my original post, my daughter’s system is all singing, all dancing- and she is happy with that, so that is good. Anyhow, just gonna haul some low-tech logs and coal in for later, before I do the hunter-gatherer bit and go fishing!

[grenfell]

Funny you should say it's a generational thing. I believe we are a similar age and i have a similar skeptical attitude towards this sort of thing. I know younger people who embrace it far more readily and that seems perfectly natural. The odd one out to me seems to be the generation older than ours. Granted i've only experience of a very small proportion of that generation but there are a fair few friends and customers that i know who have things like alexas and hives. Some have reduced mobility , some have sight problems and one friend who lives alone finds it comforting to have an alexa to talk to and who will answer back. I've been round there and she showed me how see can ask alexa to talk to her dog. It just makes the periods of loneliness better. Perhaps our generation is the odd one out.

[Arzosah]

That's interesting - maybe its less of a generational thing, more of a "stage of life" thing - if I couldn't get out the way I do, I might well find comfort in a techno gadget that answered back, and didn't need looking after, because if I couldn't get out, I'd be struggling just to look after myself.

As things currently are, if I don't feel I *need* technology, then I don't get it. I don't need a fitbit - I do need a smartphone and a kindle, both of which I have. The phone leaves the house with me, of course, and to ensure I don't take it out quite as often as I might, I have an ordinary wristwatch, a £9 Casio job, to tell the time that doesn't need smart, it just needs accurate.

[daylen]

I think the technology itself is fundamentally useful if anyone has a use for it.

The scary and bizarre thing for me is the combination of manufacturers being criminally negligent (imho) and consumers being blissfully unaware of, the security implications of such connected technology.

[korolev]

I have a Nest thermostat and it works well but, due to the layout of my house (3 storey and open plan) it doesn't work at it's best. It really needs to be dual (or even triple) zone with controllable TRVs.
I'm holding off upgrading as we want to move and there's no point throwing money at the house now.
When we move, though, I intend to have the heating upgraded if necessary to have a smart home, along with solar panels and smart controllers.

[diamond lil]

Jansman that sounds like the stupidest system I've ever heard of!

[jansman]

Jansman that sounds like the stupidest system I've ever heard of!

Lil, I try not to be a caveman, I really do. I have a smart phone, which is useful. When I was a butcher/ driver for a catering firm, that phone doubled as a satnav. On the odd occasions my van broke down, the RAC located me in the middle of nowhere via my phone. It gets used a lot at work too via alarms and reminders etc. So that is the extent to which I use that. My tablet I use for viewing my favourite websites ( it’s not many) eBay and YouTube. My wife however, is far more tech- savvy than me.

She has just bought one of these Alexa things. At the moment it is just a posh radio! “Ok”thinks I. Let’s get with it! “Alexa, please play BBC Radio 4” says I. It directed to BBC Sounds, which is catch-up radio. Apparently, we have to have some kind of subscription to get the BBC. Piece of junk.

So, I am not anti- tech, but the NEST and HIVE systems, and other SMART systems like them, I retain a sceptical attitude toward.Its too vulnerable to failures imho.

[Yorkshire Andy]

Funny looking on face stalk there's hell on bt are working on the mobile telephone mast and it's knocked out O2 and its side loaded affiliates such as Tesco mobile