this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2023
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British gas starts to turn off Hive smart home devices forever (www.t3.com)
submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
23 comments fedilink hide all child comments
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[–] thehatfox 58 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

This is the danger in building a smart home with proprietary, cloud based based platforms. The users have no control over the platform, and and it can be pulled from under your feet at any moment.

To avoid this, it's better to choose an open, cloud free home automation platform such as Home Assistant. It's open source and can't be shut down or remotely disabled, and works with smart devices from almost any vendor, meaning you aren't locked into a single ecosystem. There is even an active Lemmy community at [email protected] to get advice and inspiration.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

~~Check the spelling on the community link mate. It come back as nothing to me.~~

found it: [email protected]

[–] thehatfox 1 points 11 months ago

Oops, I missed a t - it’s fixed now!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

Error couldnt_find_community

🙁

[Edit] Ah it's missing the t!

Thanks @[email protected]

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I think the correct link is [email protected]

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Thanks! I did a search and found a few, I was going to see which one was the most recommended.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

I just subscribe to them all lol, there's no limit to the number of sublemmies you can subscribe to.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Took me a lot more than it should to notice it.

[–] thehatfox 2 points 11 months ago

Oops, I should probably stay of Lemmy until I’ve properly woken up in the morning.

I’ve fixed the link in my original post now.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (5 children)

A lot of the time you're still utilising those proprietary products though. I'm not aware of a home thermostat that isn't both easy to use (for the family) and non-proprietry. Sure home assistant can act as a coordinator, but in a lot of the cases it's doing it via the cloud service.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Most modern boilers can be activated by a simple relay (it's how the thermostat calls for heat).

A basic switch plumbed into hass can be set up as a thermostat entity, that isn't too horrible to use.
And you can add a physical thermostat capable of sending values locally to hass if people want to be able to spin a dial on the wall.

To be honest, I do a lot of my automation invisibly: The target temperature is automated, the only physical button is a "30 minutes heat" one I installed.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

It'd not an off-the shelf solution as such, but I have a relay with an ESP32 that fires up the heating and it's directly controlled by HA. HA uses thermometers around the house - mostly ZigBee - to work out when to run it.

Given that Hive is ZigBee based and will continue to work locally, I wonder if it can be directly linked to HA?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

I’m not aware of a home thermostat that isn’t both easy to use (for the family) and non-proprietry.

I largely use Xiaomi and you can flash the temperature and humidity monitors.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

There are some nice ZigBee trvs now

[–] thehatfox 1 points 11 months ago

There are options for cloud free thermostats. The Drayton Wiser system can be controlled fully locally via a custom Home Assistant integration.

There are also some Zigbee and Z-wave thermostats that run locally.

[–] idunnololz 2 points 11 months ago

HA is pog

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (2 children)

so their solution for customers with the first hub is to buy the new hub? the one which will be shutdown anyway in two years? what a stupid system.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

I was so annoyed to get that email. Never using them again. Going to install a non-smart wireless thermostat, or maybe a HA install if I'm feeling brave.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I happened to be on the Homecare service, and I started an online chat with them to improve the discount and got sent the new hub for free. So it means I get a couple of years to plan my connected lights and heating system away from them without it being a today problem. Glad I never went beyond a smart lightbulb that was on special offer at the time with them.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

just seems a little insulting if anything else. i haven’t had a hive product thankfully but the whole “give us more money to use the products you already bought but only for another two years” thing makes me never want to buy anything from british gas again. i would’ve hoped for some basic function at the least.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Worth starting a smart home community on here? It'd help cover more local issues and solutions.

[–] MrNesser 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Good idea I have hive at the moment I may be switching