It’s hard to ignore the buzz around smart home technologies at the moment. From the smart speaker that plays the music you want to hear, to smart lightbulbs that light up when you walk in the room, smart tech is suddenly everywhere. Our homes are also benefiting from these technological developments. Smart heating is here, and it promises to revolutionise how you look at your thermostat.
Why choose a smart heating system?
Smart thermostats are more than just a fancy gadget for tech lovers. The idea of controlling your home’s heating system from your smartphone might sound fun but is it really beneficial? And how can it save you money?
For starters, the ability to easily control your heating system can save you money. Let’s say you are out at work until 6pm and have the heating set to come on 30 minutes before so the house is nice and warm. But you have to suddenly work until 8pm. That’s a long time heating an empty house, wasting electricity. With a smart meter, you can easily change the time the heating will turn on from your phone and avoid that wasted electricity.
How they work
There are some variations between the different systems but as a rule, they mostly use a single thermostat that is placed in a set location in the home. This is often the same place where a standard thermostat would be.
It pairs up with a device attached to the boiler. You then use the app to program settings into the device and when you want the house to be, say 20 degrees, the thermostat will fire up the boiler to accomplish this. If the house is already that temperature, nothing will happen. If the day is colder or warmer, you can use your phone to adjust the setting easily.
Top smart heating tech
There are two leading smart thermostats in the market; Nest and Hive. They are both good options that allow you to connect your phone to your heating.
Nest
Nest is a learning thermostat, which means Nest will analyse and learn your preferred settings and try to choose what it thinks you will want pre-emptively. You can control it from your tablet or smartphone and it’s really easy and intuitive to use. It works with most main heating systems including combi boilers and heat only boilers. The minimalistic round design makes it an attractive addition to your home.
Hive
Hive is designed by British Gas, and one of its benefits is how easy it is to use. It comes with a hub that can be used to connect to other Hive products including security cameras, motion sensors, light bulbs and more.
Although we’ve only talked about these two, there are other ones in the market. The most important thing is to check if they are compatible with your boiler. DHS offer central heating and are now accredited as Nest PRO installers. This means we have been through training with Nest themselves to ensure we can fit the thermostats and ensure our customers enjoy the maximum benefits that these smart systems have to offer. If you’d like more information on the Nest thermostat, get in touch with us by filling in our contact form or you can call us.
Call DHS today on 0117 924 7200, email us, or request a call back.
Unit 2 Septimus Buildings 
