Hive Install (Help with wiring)

[Imlucas]

Hello all - question about transferring wiring over from old heating programmer to Hive.

We currently have a gravity fed system, with options for hot water only or HW and Central Heating.

We are changing to Hive because, apart from it being a bit more techy, the thermostat that was already installed when we got the house never appeared to work: you could change the temp and hear that click, but it would not actually turn the heating on or off - not sure why. Anyway, it’s worth saying now that we do not want to remove it because of the hassle in doing so. So, we’ll keep it in place because it doesn’t look offensive and we don’t want to complicate the process of installing Hive even more.

The current programmer is a Danfoss SET2E. I’ve included a picture of the wiring. We have E, L, N, 1 (DHW N/O), 2 (DHW Com completing circuit of N/C with 3), 4 (HTG N/O) and 5 (HTG Com completing circuit of N/C with 6) currently in use. I’ve also included a photo of the back of the front plate.

It looks like we have cables connecting L to 2, and 1 to 5.

My question is, on the Hive system for Heating + Hot Water, how would we move these cables to match the new NL1234 set up that the Hive has?

Any guidance would be really useful because getting an electrician at the moment is pretty impossible where I am.

 

[ericmark]

The instructions for old programmer found here has a number of options, I have not seen one marked HW/CH, Com, HW before and since no wire in terminal 6 does not seem to be wired that way.

So since you say problems with existing one has to ask if some one in the past has picked up a special programmer, so step one is work out what you have.

There thermo syphon or gravity system progressed over the years, I would say three stages.
1) Only control of domestic hot water is time, to get central heating the pump runs, and domestic hot water always heats up when central heating is running, in the summer pump is not run, and domestic hot water is simply timed.
2) By adding a thermostat to the cistern in the summer the central heating boiler is switched off once tank is hot, so can be set for domestic hot water 24/7.
3) Motorised valve added so you can control the temperature of the domestic hot water, depends on boiler, with some it can cause over heating as it turns off, I was advised can't do this with my boiler.

Hive can be set so the CH contacts run the pump and the DHW runs the boiler as required for 1) but because the programmer wiring changes according to which system is used, you can't have a simple wire 1 goes to terminal 4 as we have not idea which of the three versions is used.

 

[Imlucas]

Thanks for taking the time to reply - I thought I’d update for courtesy and to maybe help others who might have the same set up as me. I was able to get some guidance from a friend of my brother’s.

Our gravity fed system as you described does indeed always have hot water on when central heating is on, as this is what heats the radiators, but for summer months has an option to only heat water.

We haven’t installed any kind of thermostat for the water tank, as we find that based on our usage of hot water, for showers or washing hands in the sink, it suffices to heat water for two hours in the morning and same again in the evening.

So, it appeared that the old thermostat really was never actually wired in and just sat at the back of the programmer not actually connected to anything.

I was able to connect Hot Water On, and Central Heating on, like for like to Hive (so 3 and 4 on Hive). N and L of course transferred to the new programmer like-for-like.

I removed the connecting cables that ran from L to 2 and 1 to 5 on the old programmer and did not try and replicate this on the new Hive system first: my logic being that since we had two clear cables that controlled the switching on off hot water and central heating separately, likely this would be enough because, when either was on, it is on, and when hive has it off, it is off: it shouldn’t need prompting via any other cables.

The result was that I’m not sure why the connecting wires from L to 2 and 1 to 5 were ever there, perhaps the old programmer required it: it was not required in the new system.

So in sum, I was able to transfer L N HW-On and CTH-On like for like to the new system, and the system all works as expected!

 

[ericmark]

It does seem odd, hive has basic two switches, and with a fully pumped system one works the central heating and other works the domestic hot water, however when used with a gravity system this changes, and one (DHW) works boiler and other (CH) works pump, and there is an internal program that ensures when CH is called for both DHW and CH relays work together.

I personally like the idea of Hive, and the way it links with the TRV heads, however in this house I had a problem, there should be three and earth between the main house and garage, but there was only two cores connected, so I used Nest mainly because it would work with this missing wire. Nest is wired completely different to Hive, but I have found summer one hour five days a week is ample for domestic hot water, it actually does not really run for an hour, as the return water gets hot enough to switch off boiler after 20 minuets.

 

[s2Wood]

Hi, came across this post as I am searching for a similar solution. I am attempting to replace my Danfloss SET2E with a Tado smart heating system (Tado wireless receiver).

Most of the wires I can identify to the corresponding terminals in the smart wireless receiver. I can see that I have 2 bridges (L, 2 & 5) which Tadop account for. However, I am not sure what 1 and 4 terminals correspond to or are equivalent to the NC or NO terminals in the Tado wireless receiver.

Any ideas?

 

[stem]

All of the the wires, including the links. go from the terminals of the Danfloss SET2E to the terminals of the TADO which have exactly the same functionality.

As you have figured, most are straightforward to identify as they are the same [L, N, Earth, Water COM, Heating COM]

For the others:
ON = NO (Normally Open)
OFF = NC (Normally Closed)

For future reference, you should really start your own new thread, tagging your question onto someone else's is known as Hijacking and against the forum rules. You also get a better chance of it being spotted as a new thread, instead of being buried away at the bottom of a two year old one.

 

[s2Wood]

Thank you Stem (especially for the advice re Hijacking).