Adding Hive

[anidiot]

Hi guys,

I'm looking at adding a Hive thermostat to our Alpha Etec 33 boiler, as I am redecorating the hallway and it currently has a very old, yellowed and cracked Honeywell dial thermostat. Which kind of looks a mess.

I'm a bit confused as to whether or not I need to run any extra cable. Basically it looks like there is a black and brown from the boiler (with a cut off blue) the thermostat has blue, black, brown and green/yellow.


I can add a picture or two if needs be.

Can anyone shed any light?
Thanks.

 

[CountryFan]

Sounds like a combi boiler. To make Hive work, you need a permanent live, permanent neutral and switched live, with cpc to be terminated in the earth. If you want, and those wires are correct voltages, you could put the receiver for HIve there. If not, you need to take some 4 or 5 core flex and wire it in at the boiler.

 

[anidiot]

Yes it's a combi.

The blue is actually cut short at the boiler connection end and only black and brown are connected from a triple core cable.
Despite there being a blue and yellow/green at the thermostat end.

Would it be as simple as connecting that blue to the boiler at the correct terminal and then being able to re-use the existing thermostat wire?

Thanks for the reply.

 

[CountryFan]

Would it be as simple as connecting that blue to the boiler at the correct terminal and then being able to re-use the existing thermostat wire?

It might work, yes. Would be better with a crimp joint if possible.

 

[flameport]

as I am redecorating the hallway and it currently has a very old, yellowed and cracked Honeywell dial thermostat.

The location of the old thermostat and it's wiring is irrelevant.

The Hive and most others are in 2 parts.
A receiver box which is wired to the boiler and generally located right next to the boiler. You just need about 1 metre of cable from the boiler to the receiver.
The actual thermostat which is battery powered and linked to the receiver wirelessly, so it can be located anywhere without any wires.

Old thermostat and whatever wiring it has would be disconnected, removed and disposed of.

 

[ericmark]

Hive is not a single thermostat, it is a series of devices, the birth of the series was in the main due to the change to the condensing boiler, the first thermostat I saw of the new system was the Honeywell EvoHome,

the main thing was the use of electronic TRV heads, and there was no longer a need for a wall thermostat as such, but it was, well still is, expensive, so the Hive and Wiser allowed one to fit just a wall thermostat to start with, then slowly expand on the control.

So we have as @flameport has said, in the main moved to a hub, these can be stand alone, or integral with the thermostat and programmer.

So step one is look at the boiler manual and do a hunt for OpenTherm, having done this, I did get a hit, but when I came to look further, there seemed to be a lack of information.

Early Hive did not have OpenTherm, later Hive did, also early Hive would only accept a demand for heat if the main thermostat was cooler than 22 degrees C, and I have never used any Hive, I looked into Hive, and decided to go for Wiser instead.

Having read the instructions, personally I would not want to DIY anything on that boiler, I would be calling an expert, as there are a lot of options, and I have not got a clue how they should be set.