I see today next have launched the UK version. When I first saw nest that part of my brain that we all have on here that is enlarged compared to other humans really wanted one.
Having read many posts on here about it I’m not sure its as good as other offerings such as the simple one from British gas (hive) which also gives control over hot water etc.
Anyone got any thoughts, currently I’m thinking ?199 installed with hot water control means hive gets my money. Yes it would be stand alone but I think that would be fine and zwave TRV’s could drop the temperature in bedrooms in the evening by themselves anyway (something I’ve yet to try).
Anyone’s real world experience suggest different ? I guess I should also consider how nest might talk to my fire alarms in the future which are the nest protects but again in the UK with good old radiators I’m not sure turning off the boiler if there is a fire is a key priority (getting out fast is the number one objective).
Interested to see what your experience will be with it, I’ve also got a nest protect (others pending whilst they sort out their issues as I understand it’s not on sale at the moment (that said I’ve not tried to get one)).
Having realised that NEST wont take care of hot water needs if you have a HW tank (as I do) then I think it rules it out for me at the moment, so I’m probably going down the hive route and using some Zwave TRV’s to control temperature in each room and let the hive do the controlling of when heating is on and off.
I just had a UK version of Nest Thermostat installed today. Connected to Worcester Bosh Greenstar 37CDi combi boiler. My boiler already had an integrated (Worcester branded) RF enabled controller.programmer with remote room thermostat.
I got free installation when I ordered the Nest. I also hear rumour that if you missed out on free installation (worth ?79) then there may still be some discount options available.
The electrician wasn’t sure if he could do the job, as the office had told him they can’t were not allowed to remove the boiler panel to access the electrical terminals! I don’t know if this was policy from Nest or the electrical company he worked for. Luckily, common sense prevailed and he completed the job OK. Nest had provided various UK companies with education/certification to install this UK version, and this was only the 2nd installation he had attempted so far.
Initially he thought that wiring in the Heat Link meant we could keep the existing Worcester programmer for hot water scheduling, but this turned out to be wrong. You have to remove (i.e. unplug) the multi-way connector to the existing RF controller, otherwise it will override Nest control of the heating. Once the Worcester controller is unplugged, the Nest works OK and the water control defaults to always on. For safety sake, the old Worcester RF-enabled controller is left in place (just unplugged), otherwise there would have been a open gap in the boiler panel.
That was my experience today. Please post if your experience is different. Thanks.
The Nest Thermostat plugin seems to work OK so far. Fan control is greyed out (as there isn’t one on UK model).
Got My UK Nest on Friday and installed it over the weekend. Being a qualified Electronic Engineer and having installed several RF thermostats before, the installation was simple. The only difficulty was RF interference stopping the Nest seeing the Heat_Link, this was solved by relocating the Netgear WiFi link connection the Envisalink to the network. Connection to the Nest Plugin was simple and I’m now in the process of setting up PLEG logic to determine Home and Away based on IViri geofencing and my DSC Alarm state.
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