As we are now well and truly in to the season of winter and approaching Christmas, I decided to discuss the Hive App and hub. The app is fully accessible for both Apple and Android devices and is relatively easy to navigate and use.
I purchased the Hive Hub back in August of this year and although it is pricy at £300 I have found the benefits to be enormous in terms of giving me more control and access to my heating, lighting, security and everyday appliances in particular.
As I have a busy daily schedule, I wanted to make the process of operating my heating that little bit easier to manage. Until I purchased Hive, I had no way of setting timers or controlling the thermostat when trying to warm my home up effectively. This is now a thing of the past thanks to the Hive app and hub. From controlling heating and hot water, switching lights on and off and even turning everyday appliances such as the kettle on using Smart Plugs, I have total control of my entire home using the Hive app on my iPhone at anytime, anywhere. This has helped make my life much easier and in theory, should help me keep my utility bills affordable.
So how does Hive work?
Firstly, you must have a smart meter and a reliable internet connection through your wifi router before even considering looking into purchasing the Hive Hub. Also important to note is that Hive is exclusive to British Gas customers. Therefore, if you are with an alternative energy supplier you will need to contact them directly to find out if they have a similar option.
You then need to have the hub installed by a qualified engineer. Once this has been achieved, you can manage and setup your smart thermostat, plugs and lights straight from the Hive app on your smart phone. The Hive thermostats allow you to monitor the temperature in your house, set heating timers and even set the thermostat to a target temperature so that if it falls below the set degree, the heating will turn on automatically.
The Hive Smart Plugs can make energy use more efficient by enabling electrical appliances in the home to be turned on and off or by setting schedules. So for example, if I am walking my guide dog and returning home, I can turn the kettle on using my iPhone and it will be ready to pour as soon as I am through the door. The use of smart plugs also gives the added benefit of allowing me to switch off appliances I might have accidentally left on even though I am not actually in the house. So they basically can help take the stress out of my working day because I can monitor everything on the go. The Hive smart light bulbs work in essentially the same way as the plugs meaning you can schedule timers so they will be switched on when you are out of the house which is really good from a security point of view. The additional advantage of being able to connect all of your Hive appliances and heating to a smart speaker such as a Google Home or Amazon Echo means that you have the opportunity to control everything just by using your voice.
In summary, finally going down the route of making my home “smart” gives me total control of almost every appliance, heating and security, all through the use of an app. It makes my life far easier and definitely gives me peace of mind for the future, both in terms of monitoring my utility bills and also for security reasons. In my personal opinion, for those of you who are smart phone users and are reasonably tech savvy, this kind of technology could be a game changer for you in the future.
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- Featured in the Karten Autumn 2019 Newsletter
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