Alexa

Emp_Fab

Fuck putting another spy in my house.  It's bad enough with the mobile phones and laptops.

They're listening you know.....

Or - they could if they really wanted to.

EricTheWeary

octatonic said:

EricTheWeary said:

octatonic said:

We can't use Hive because we have a mixture of high and low voltage thermostats in the house, but also I'm not sure the whole idea of it makes sense.
Would it not cost more to have the house heating and cooling all the time, rather than having it stay at a fairly constant temperature?

I don't really want the house at a constant temperature, it's different at different times of the day or even days of the week. Not radically so but for us it will stop the house getting very cold if no one is home so no need to blast the heating when you get in. I think it depends on the house and how you like it but for us it's a more natural feeling of warmth. Not a massive deal but I think it works well.
If people have hot water off a tank rather than on demand then Hive is good for that, you can use the app on your phone to heat up a tank of water before you leave work for example. 
It also means I can see what the temperature is my lounge from anywhere in the world. Why I need to be able to do that I've no idea but I can.    

You can do the highlighted with a regular Honeywell programmer, something like a CM907, which is what we have.
No app control but also no wifi so no dropouts or compatibility issues.

Ahh, we had a truly crappy old system and the Hive was about £50 so it was a major upgrade for us. Although maybe something like you've described would have been fine.
 

Flanging_Fred

fretmeister said:

All of these devices are a stepping stone to being able to say...

"Erin Grey, hot"

And having it appear.  I'd like that to happen in my lifetime.

FTFY

#BuckRogersFantasy

fretmeister

Flanging_Fred said:

fretmeister said:

All of these devices are a stepping stone to being able to say...

"Erin Grey, hot"

And having it appear.  I'd like that to happen in my lifetime.

FTFY

#BuckRogersFantasy

Still need a cuppa after!

darthed1981

Flanging_Fred said:

fretmeister said:

All of these devices are a stepping stone to being able to say...

"Erin Grey, hot"

And having it appear.  I'd like that to happen in my lifetime.

FTFY

#BuckRogersFantasy

Second season right?

Hootsmon

how does these things work...is there not a price ( monthly fee to someone) to be paid for the access to the music?

TimmyO

fretmeister said:

All of these devices are a stepping stone to being able to say...

"Earl Grey, hot"

And having it appear.  I'd like that to happen in my lifetime.

The line is "Tea, Earl Grey, hot"

You don't want some sweaty aristocrat to materialise at your bedside! 

strumjoughlamps

I was happy with Alexa until I tried Google now we are all Google which handles routines a lot better than Alexa IME. 

A great example being if Sunday to Thursday I say 'hey google goodnight' it sets my bedroom alarm for 0530, puts radio 4ex on for 1 hour, dims the light 50% and then switches it off 1/2 hr later. Something Alexa struggled with.

Also Google plays better with different users. If I say 'hey google what's on tomorrow' it will tell me my appointments etc.. if my wife says it it will say hers.

EricTheWeary

Hootsmon said:

how does these things work...is there not a price ( monthly fee to someone) to be paid for the access to the music?

IIRC you get access to the limited version of amazon music otherwise you’ll need to link it to  paid service ( Play music, Spotify,etc) when you set it up. 

guitargeek62

octatonic said:

axisus said:

I have an expensive device for constantly turning the heating up. It's called Wife 1. I may upgrade to Wife 2 but I hear that there are many long-term hidden costs and it will probably have the same problems.  

Yes, that is an expensive upgrade.

Worth it in my case, Wife 2’s a vast improvement in every sense of the word.