Connecting home thermostats to the internet of things (IoT) is big business these days, and now Ireland has a new addition to the market with Hive, offered by the Irish energy provider, Bord Gáis Energy.
The Hive thermostat is aiming to bring down Bord Gáis consumers’ bills using IoT that will learn the home owner’s patterns as well as being controlled remotely from a user’s device, with Bord Gáis claiming it could save up to €120 per year.
Bord Gáis said that the smart thermostat – officially called the Hive Active Heating kit – will include a hub receiver as well as the thermostat with LED display.
Hive will offer a range of features, including: flexible scheduling, a ‘holiday mode’, frost protection and a geo-location feature, which can send an alert if you’ve gone out and left your heating on.
For those without a smartphone, Hive also works off a basic SMS response.
The Hive thermostat. Image via Bord Gáis
As part of the launch of Hive, the energy provider ran a survey among 862 of its customers, with eight out of every 10 respondents revealing they had left the hot water on unnecessarily.
Of this percentage, 62pc claimed that forgetfulness was the main reason for accidentally leaving the heating on, with most being unaware of the costs that come with such an attitude.
Bord Gáis said Hive is available to anyone on the gas network with a broadband connection and is available to anyone, regardless of their energy supplier.
Once installed, users can then control their home heating through a web portal, or on any Android or iOS device, and it will cost the homeowner a one-time charge of €299.
Hive infographic image via Bord Gáis
Beehive image via Shutterstock
