Updated on 03/10/24 by Abby_OVO
So you are with an amazing energy supplier but still want to save money on your heating bill? Look no further! Although OVO offers an incredible deal with Tado, there are alternatives. I am not saying the product I have implemented into my home is better than Tado but I will go over why I chose Hive over Tado further on.
Let’s talk about the advantages before we get to the disadvantages. So the advantages with replacing your current thermostats with a smart one? Well, let’s rewind this back in December when I got the thermostats installed into my home as this is when people tend to use their heating right? So rewind to December 2017. British Gas man arrives at my house to install thermostat in the hallway and upstairs, offer the man a cup of tea and he refuses, so far not a good start turning down a cup of tea. The whole installation process took 45 minutes due to the way my house does it’s heating. I have a separate thermostats to control down stairs and a separate one for upstairs heating. Ok, getting off topic here.
Like I said, installation took 45 minutes so the next part was to connect my thermostats to the hive hub or the receiver I believe some people call it. This just simply allows hive products to connect to my router. A simple process like many other hive products in my house (lights & plugs) you just open the app on the phone, turn the products on and link it to the hub. All done great! So now what? Not like I can tweak it to cook me dinner so what is so fancy about smart thermostats? What is the advantage owning one? Well for one, I can now control the heating with either my phone or at the time use IFTTT (if this then that) to use my google home to control the heating. But now google home has updated to be compatible with Hive products. Secondly, I can control the heating while I’m at work and make sure my partner isn’t cranking it up to 30c! So a big bonus there! The hive thermostats have a pipe freeze protection so when the house reaches a certain temperature. For mine it’s 8c, the heating will kick in to stop pipes from freezing.
There is not much I have used the thermostats for because they just work, I have the thermostats set so when my phone GPS is a certain range to my house the heating turns on. And when I leave the heating turns off. Other than this, I still have loads of features to try. I would highly recommend you look into purchasing Tado or hive.
The only disadvantage so far with hive is the app for iOS still does not support iPhone X display. This doesn’t stop the functionality of the app but would be nice to use the app with a big screen.
Like I said I only went with the hive thermostats because I already have lights and plugs in my home so it only made sense to keep it all standardised.
Sorry for blabbing on as usual! But hopefully you enjoyed it
Any questions, drop them down below and I am happy to answer as efficient as possible.
Keen to learn more about how you can control your heating with a Smart thermostat? Check out this great guide.
OVO offers an exclusive deal on a tadoº Smart thermostat, or check out what one of our members had to say about using a Hive in their blog below.
That being said, you have come to the right place to find the best programmable thermostat. Need comfort under a budget? No problem! We got your back and have a list of the best programmable thermostats under $50 ready for you. 
