Spending more time at home over the Christmas period has been lovely, not having to rush about in the mornings shovelling in breakfast, making sure that uniforms are ironed and packed lunches are made. They had been swapped by lazy pyjama days, playing with toys, watching films and munching through the Christmas chocolate supply.
During the day my heating doesn’t come on, there is no need for it to as we are usually out at school and work, however spending more time indoors over the festive season means that we have felt the cold snap that runs through our home when we are not there. So I slipped the heating dial to ‘on’ instead of ‘auto’ one chilly morning. We snuggled on the sofa watching yet another festive film and enjoyed the warmth rising from the radiators.
The thing is, I forgot to switch it back to ‘auto’!
I briefly did think to myself ‘oh the heating is on‘ as I walked passed the boiler on the way to the bathroom but a quick look at the clock and I thought it must have come on at one of it’s pre-set times and thought nothing more of it.
Laying in bed that night I thought I could hear the radiators still on, but quite frankly it was warm and snugly under my duvet and I didn’t fancy a trip downstairs to look at the boiler, so I turned over and thought nothing more of it.
Waking the next morning it was warm and toasty like any other morning so once again I never thought to look at the boiler settings. A blur of Tigger playing with trains and Roo dressing up followed for the day and as it was nice and warm in the house I didn’t think to pop the heating on to take the chill out of the air.
Another night’s sleep and I woke to realise that I was due to go to work today (boo hiss), I looked in the boiler cupboard for my lunch bag and as I was grabbing it I looked at the boiler and suddenly realised…
I left the heating on for two days!
When we moved into our house and installed central heating the boiler was placed in the old pantry between the kitchen and the bathroom, with the door shut it is quite easy to forget it is even hidden in there alongside the mix of pots, pans and lunch bags. Unfortunately we never had a thermostat monitor included in the package that we chose so when we are in the living room or upstairs it is difficult to monitor if the heating is on and at what temperature.
Having taken a look at the Hive Active Heating system I’m thinking that this may be the answer to my forgetfulness. With four elements to the system; a thermostat that can be placed in any room to control the heating wherever you are in your home. A hub which is connected to your broadband router and a hub which is placed by your boiler, both of these are fitted by a qualified engineer. The final element is the Hive Active Heating app, which personally I think would be the key to my success at managing our heating. The ability to switch the heating on or off, schedule the heating to come one when needed all from my smartphone is genius.
Lord know what my energy bill be for this quarter, I best start saving!
Boo xxx
Disclosure Policy: This post is brought to in collaboration with Hive Active Heating, although I really did leave my heating on for two days.
No Comments