Owning your own home

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z_Qqnq8pI8

plastic grass it is, well received by foxes..

FTFY.

do you need to remove it?

Yeah, everything but the workshop roof really. Surveyor reckons anywhere between £10-20k :S. We knew it was there but didn't quite realise the cost of getting the LA to cart it off.

At least it's low risk asbestos. Marvellous.

Just roughly sand it and slap a coat of paint on, be fine.

Everyone else seems to just throw it in the back of a van and drop it in the middle of a lane in Kent. Filthy sods.

2nd Gen Nest pretty cheap on Amazon today

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00GD8NRYE?vs=1

a. what are the big differences between gen 2 and gen 3?

b. easy to install on your own?

I think if you read this thread about 4 pags back you'll find that everyone who has one talks about simplicity and yet cannot quantify any saving benefit.

Will read.

Summary
WiFi things are great, you might save your costs back over 2 years. These savings can then be used for Phillips hue or nest lighting.

#boogiebase

Fair, will purchase. Do I need to get it professionally installed?

I think if you read this thread about 4 pags back you'll find that everyone who has one talks about simplicity and yet cannot quantify any saving benefit.

I think it's because without a Nest most people come home to a cold house and then put the heating on. Or they get up and it's cool but since they're leaving the house in 30 minutes anyway they don't bother putting the heating on.

With a Nest you can put it on earlier, or schedule it to come on so that it's warm when you do get out of bed. So you end up having the heating on more = more expensive.

Sure you can turn the heating off when you've gone out and forgot to do that, but unless you're a forgetful fuckwit this doesn't happen often enough to offset the extra heating you end up using.

Depends what you're upgrading from I guess.

I had a standard programmable thermostat (this http://www.screwfix.com/p/horstmann-centaurstat-7-room-thermostat/12157 ) which allowed me to schedule the heating.

I have the same schedule with my Wi-fi thermostat but if I know I'm going to be home late/not at all I can turn off that day's schedule remotely so the heating doesn't come on.

Summary:

Controlling your heating over wifi is cool.

This, I have no idea if I am actually saving anything

hmm i just have the thermostat always set to 22. why would i ever want the house colder than that? my cat might get a cold foot

I don't have it but I'm pretty cool so I'll probably buy one.

Are you sure? The installer tests you when they come round.

Shit.

I'm sure you'll pass. The standards are clearly quite low from reading this thread.

Is that why you're considering it?

I'm a parent, I'm passing off my decision on a cost basis knowing its actually based on my low coolness quotient.

I plugged my Hue in this week, after all this IoT chat. Not bowled over. I have to leave the two lamps turned on at the wall (which feels iffy) and then find my phone every time I want to switch them on. As well as that, mine are only white bulbs, so that's no fun. And the app doesn't let me do anything cool like flash them when I get a text message. Just 'on', 'off' and a dimmer.

I just ordered one, lets see how much swearing is required. Major reason I ordered is so that I don't have to run a cable for the existing thermostat 8 metres down the hall, with accompanying chase.

It takes a bit of faffing to get the more interesting stuff. The interface is open so you can control them through all sorts of stuff.

The easiest way is to link them to IFTTT https://ifttt.com/hue and use some of the recipes there.

If you have a logitech universal remote and hub you can control them from your remote.

If you have an android phone you can use Tasker and Autohue to set up all sorts of notifications based on your phone.