A while ago I asked a question on a similar subject, but this one is a bit more specific

 

Anyone wired one of these, or have a bit of knowledge in the general area of wireless thermostat wiring?

I have an old Drayton (RTS1) thermostat that I want to replace. It has a 4 core wired to it, the earth being parked and the live and therefore the 'call for heat' are 230V. Hence I fancied the Netatmo as it switches 230v and is quite cheap (the Tado looks nice but is £100 more) and leaving the boiler in the permanently 'on' mode. Fitting the relay box to the boiler is a no go as it wouldn't receive a decent wifi signal, so the approved way seems to be replacing my old therm' directly with the Netatmo (parking Neutral and Earth in a choc block etc) and placing the relay box as a wifi piggy-back somewhere else.

But I wondered if the relay box, which I believe can also switch 230V (hard to find out on the Netatmo site) could directly replace the original therm' and the posh Netatmo therm' (it's battery powered) could be placed in my living room where I spend my life surfing Briskoda?

I'm obviously no 'spark' but have a little knowledge about electrics and a healthy disregard for health and safety (only kidding.....)

An update to this is I see Amazon are doing the Hive for under £110! So my next question is can I fit the Hive control box on to my standard back plate of the existing thermostat (3 = call for heat etc) and also not even have to rewire anything as the Hive appears to use the same fitting? Assuming the control box can switch 230V that is? 

Edited 18 November, 20187 yr by Lady Elanore

I can't tell you if it will fit or not but if a thermostat is on sale for the UK market it pretty much has to be able to switch 240v @ a few amps as that is one of the most common ways a system is wired other than that of a combi where it is just a control voltage.

 

They come with pretty good instructions so if you know which wires are which from your current thermostat it wouldn't be the end of the world to have to re-wire it to the new back plate, having said that I think Hive was British Gas's baby so I wouldn't be surprised if they designed it to fit one of the more common backplates for a thermostat or programmer.

 

Your only issue may be that if your old unit wasn't powered, you may have to find power from a spur for it to work.

Edited 18 November, 20187 yr by SuperbTWM

2 hours ago, SuperbTWM said:

I can't tell you if it will fit or not but if a thermostat is on sale for the UK market it pretty much has to be able to switch 240v @ a few amps as that is one of the most common ways a system is wired other than that of a combi where it is just a control voltage.

 

They come with pretty good instructions so if you know which wires are which from your current thermostat it wouldn't be the end of the world to have to re-wire it to the new back plate, having said that I think Hive was British Gas's baby so I wouldn't be surprised if they designed it to fit one of the more common backplates for a thermostat or programmer.

 

Your only issue may be that if your old unit wasn't powered, you may have to find power from a spur for it to work.

 

 

having looked at many options and wiring diagrams, I think I have come to the conclusion that the current deals on the Hive make it the best option. I'm no sparky but know which around a battery works  and I've had the coverplate off my old 'stat. It has a mains wiring that currently is correct for the Hive single channel set up (ie position 3 is the NO switch feed and as the Hive uses the same UK standard backplate (I really have spent too long looking at all this) it should just plug and play to a degree. I will have to put a jumper in to the Common position from the live, but I've used audio relays  and uniselectors long ago and the theory is rattling around at the back of my head somewhere  

 

Funnily enough the 2 channel systems are showing as cheaper, but I assume it's because they only do 230V switching and not zero/230V switching like the 1 channel. This does add a little bit of a rewire, as the position 4 connector is the NO heating wire (you could leave it where it is in pos 3  and just programme the central heating using the water heating controls on the app of course - but that wouldn't work when I'm drunk  ) 

 

 

The most important thing is to know exactly which wire is for which purpose and how it will connect through the 'stat and return to the boiler.   No messing with mains volts for me. 

Edited 19 November, 20187 yr by Lady Elanore

My dilemma is solved ...for now at least. I went to John Lewis and they did a price match on the Screwfix price for a single channel Hive system. I'm a bit occupied tonight so hopefully I'll get around to installing it tomorrow  

Couldn't wait so I've done it now instead. As thought, I put a link wire in to jump the live to the common of the switch traveler and apart from that it was just the tedious process of starting yet another log-in account with an Interweb site and also waiting for the Receiver to come to life, as it boots up very slowly indeed. Seems to take several minutes to connect to the Hive site and let you play with the full functionality of the device. Once it's up and running everything seems to connect to each other (Receiver > Thermostat > switch unit).

 

The app and website look identical and after a couple of minutes of clicking on stuff I figured out how to program up the timer schedule (6 time blocks a day!) But once you have done one, you can copy and paste it on to other days you might like to run in the same way. There is a plethora of IFTTT sort of stuff, which is to encourage you to buy their lights, mains switches, cameras, door sensors and Santa Claus detector  

 

So far so good and nothing has gone bang yet and I can't smell any burning. 

Edited 19 November, 20187 yr by Lady Elanore

4 hours ago, Lady Elanore said:

Couldn't wait so I've done it now instead. As thought, I put a link wire in to jump the live to the common of the switch traveler and apart from that it was just the tedious process of starting yet another log-in account with an Interweb site and also waiting for the Receiver to come to life, as it boots up very slowly indeed. Seems to take several minutes to connect to the Hive site and let you play with the full functionality of the device. Once it's up and running everything seems to connect to each other (Receiver > Thermostat > switch unit).

 

The app and website look identical and after a couple of minutes of clicking on stuff I figured out how to program up the timer schedule (6 time blocks a day!) But once you have done one, you can copy and paste it on to other days you might like to run in the same way. There is a plethora of IFTTT sort of stuff, which is to encourage you to buy their lights, mains switches, cameras, door sensors and Santa Claus detector  

 

So far so good and nothing has gone bang yet and I can't smell any burning. 

 Glad to hear it went well, so you only have yours set up for heat and not hot water at the moment by the sounds of it? (I'm presuming with the nature of the wiring you have a conventional hot water tank rather than a combi)

 

The Mother In Law has just bought a Hive literally today so I've one to install too but I'm planning on ripping the old programmer out and everything and running it all from the Hive as its all located together in the airing cupboard. Will be good to see how it compares to the Nest I have.

Edited 19 November, 20187 yr by SuperbTWM

I have a combi so hot water is on demand. In the end I went with the single channel option anyway. The single channel can do low voltage and high voltage switching so it has an element of future proofing. The 2 channel version only does high voltage switching. You can pepper a home page with widgets for it too. Things like advance to next timer section (similar to regular 'advance' although I can't find a guaranteed way of cancelling it  ), one touch preset mode, temp adjust etc. Or you can open up the regular app and you have all the controls you would expect. 

 

One thing it can't do is control individual electronic TRVs like many of the other systems. It's not a problem for me as I've put the thermostat in a nifty cradle in my living room and the rest of the house has traditional mechanical TRVs on all radiators anyway. As I want the living room the warmest for me and George it works a treat, although he does think it's a bit warm. Just take your shirt off is my response  

 

Anyhoo the whole shebang cost £108 so I'm not complaining  

As far as I know even the single channel system has 2 relays, one for heating and one so you can control the hot water, and by control I mean turn it on/off/put it on a schedule

 

If not at least I will have less wiring to do 

 

 

 

 

No the Hive single channel is very specific. If you want water (which I don't) you have to buy the twin channel. Not only does the hardware not support a second relay, but the software recognises it's a single channel and doesn't give you the option anyway.

 

As far as instillation goes, you have to move the Call for Heat to pin 4 if you have the twin system if you want the software to operate as you would expect and it appears that the live feed to the common is routed internally within the device as there is no way to jumper it. 

Oooh so today I linked my 'Google mini jobbie' (real thing honest) to the Hive and it works seamlessly. Quite astonished really, although it doesn't seem to like it if your device is connected to the other frequency on your router, to the one your using for Google home on, ie the hub was on the Netgear router, my phone was on it's 5G and I tried to put the Google mini jobbie on the 2G side. Anyhoo that aside, it really does do what it says on the tin. "Ok Google make me toastie" doesn't work sadly. Although it has promised to find me a Tom Hardy for Christmas.  

16 hours ago, Lady Elanore said:

"Ok Google make me a toastie"

Doesn't that need a bit more kitchen automation than we presently have?

Cheat!

 

 

Actually hang on a mo......

 

 

be right back...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No Google won't make me a toastie :( 

it is pretty neat though. "Hey Google, whats the current room temperature?"

 

"18 degrees"

 

"Hells teeth Google"...

 

"..."

 

"Ah"...                       "Hey Google, Turn the heat up to toastie"     

{{ @Lady Elanore }}

On 20/11/2018 at 00:00, Lady Elanore said:

No the Hive single channel is very specific. If you want water (which I don't) you have to buy the twin channel. Not only does the hardware not support a second relay, but the software recognises it's a single channel and doesn't give you the option anyway.

 

As far as instillation goes, you have to move the Call for Heat to pin 4 if you have the twin system if you want the software to operate as you would expect and it appears that the live feed to the common is routed internally within the device as there is no way to jumper it. 

 

After digging a bit deeper it appears there are 3 models.

 

one for heat only with combi boilers

one for heat and hot water

one for multi-zone

 

Lets hope the right one has been ordered  

 

 

Yep, Multi-zone wouldn't have worked for me although the 2 channel one was perfectly fine for single channel use if I couldn't have found a single channel.  

I should have said I believe you can add the multi zone 'stat at a later date if you need it 

Strange they didn't just spend an extra £1 on another relay and incorporate two of the models together like Nest did 

 

 

Edited 21 November, 20187 yr by SuperbTWM

Well they are currently the same price.

 

Anyhoo

 

 

SUCCESS!!!!!!! 

 

I got the lights working on google home just now after several hours of trawling the internet and howling at the moon. You simply say to your Google Mini (substitute your weapon of choice there) and say 

 

 

"hey Google" ("ey Oop Google" if you are oop North)

 

"sync my devices"

 

The nice lady in my pebble (not a euphemism  ) say syncing and the whole shooting match no works. Good job I am hellishly stubborn!"