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Installing Remote Heating Control

1 Reply Christopher Roberts

This is the second in a series of articles in which I am exploring Remote Heating Control – a technology of the future. Learn more about this series by reading the introductory article, called stepping into the future of smarter living.

In this article, I will be reviewing the installation of the technology I have had fitted in my home: Remote Heating Control.

The Parts

The install involved three main parts: the wireless hub; the wireless receiver; and a new thermostat.

Installation

The wireless receiver was installed first. This was installed near to my boiler, and receives the wireless signal from my new thermostat controller. The wireless receiver is connected to the boiler using a cable.

British Gas Remote Heating Control

My British Gas wireless receiver

After the wireless receiver was connected, Nick (the British Gas engineer who installed my technology) installed my new smart linked thermostat. This looked much more advanced than my previous thermostat controller, and wasn’t just a dial. My new thermostat controller has an LED display and four buttons for programming. Programming can be done via two main methods, on the device itself, or via the online portal. The online portal can be accessed either by smartphone or computer. The easiest way to manage my heating will be online.

British Gas Remote Heating Control

My British Gas smart linked thermostat

British Gas Remote Heating Control

My British Gas wireless hub

Finally, the wireless hub was installed. This is a small device, which plugged into my internet router and the mains – AC power supply. I needed one spare Ethernet port in my internet hub, and a free mains plug socket nearby, which I did. I imagine for most people the mains plug socket shouldn’t be an issue, as the likelyhood is that your router is near a plug socket, so an adapter plug or extension lead can be used. I would also imagine that you will have a spare Ethernet port in your internet hub, however if you are using all the available ports, you may need to buy an extension hub to ensure that you can still have all your devices connected.

How It Works

Here is a brief synopsis of what is now installed in my home, i.e. the technology that makes up Remote Heating Control. My boiler is now connected to a wireless receiver. This wireless receiver ‘talks’ (communicates wirelessly) with my smart linked thermostat, which communicates with my wireless hub. The wireless hub it plugged into my router and sends and receives information to and from the online portal.

To control my heating I can either login to the British Gas portal, online or via a smartphone app, text commands to my heating via SMS, or programme it manually. My new smart linked thermostat which can be used to control the system is wirelessly connected to my boiler. When I change settings on my smart linked thermostat, this affects the behaviour of my boiler, and the information is transmitted to British Gas, which updates the online system.

Opinions

I have a few opinions and thoughts on the installation that I would like to share with you.

The first is that Nick (the engineer) was very friendly, curious and acted professionally. He phoned me before his arrival to check it was okay with me still and let me know his estimated time of arrival.

When installing my wireless hub, Nick asked me to plug it in at the wall, and into my internet router. This is because he didn’t know exactly how my technology worked, and therefore didn’t want to damage it. I have a standard router, however I think it is good that he asked me to do it, yes it removes his liability, but it does mean that I know nothing was broken.

My impression of what British Gas staff (specifically engineers) are like is very good, Nick seem to be no trouble to deal with.

Regarding my smart linked thermostat, it is a little inconvenient that it runs on batteries. My old thermostat was directly wired into my boiler, however this one is wireless and takes two AA batteries. The batteries are no big deal really, I imagine it will get as routine as checking/changing a smoke alarm, however it is a task I had not anticipated I would need to do. That said, it will be easy to know when to change the batteries, as there is battery indicator online!

Online Control

In order to set up my online control I need to log in and get the devices to find each other. It was really easy, and the web based interface gives you a really well explained walk through. Once my devices had been discovered by the system, I was asked to create a four digit pin, which I would have to use when texting heating commands. If you get Remote Heating Control, it would be a good idea to write this down – which I did needless to say!

Next Time

In the next article in the series I will give you my first impressions of using Remote Heating Control for the first time. I will be exploring any issues I encounter, how it helps me, and the potential I believe it has.

Win 1 of 10 Monitive accounts with Technology Bloggers!

10 Replies Christopher Roberts

Technology Bloggers has been growing for over a year now, and today marks the announcement and launch of its first ever competition!

We have been approached by a few firms in the past offering to give us prizes for giveaways, and have never really got round to launching  a competition. However now thanks to a new widget/bit of software I have discovered called Rafflecopter, we are able to run competitions with relative ease!

If this competition is a success, then I hope that we can run more in the near future! 🙂

The Prizes

So, to the prizes! We are very lucky to be able to give away 3 Monitive Premium Accounts and 7 Monitive Basic Accounts. Check out their pricing plan page for more info on the accounts.

Monitive

The kind sponsor of this contest is Monitive, who provide site monitoring services, so you know if your website goes offline. Many people have written on Technology Bloggers how site uptime is a vital part of a hosting package, as customers could be lost, and your site could lose rankings, if it goes down.

With a Monitive account you get weekly emails, which let you know if your site has gone down. With basic, pro and premium level accounts (all but the free) you can have it check your site as frequently as up to once every minute, and if it ever finds your site is down, it can email you, text (SMS) you, and it even offers Twitter DM alerts.

Does your site go down on a regular basis, maybe at a time you are not ever online? Well without a Monitive account, you probably don’t know! If your host regularly takes your site down at night, and you don’t know, it could seriously affect your overseas traffic – especially traffic from the other side of the world.

If your website, blog, forum, search engine etc. goes down, it isn’t good. That is why Monitive offer to check it is up, by sending regular (as regular as you choose) requests from servers all around the world.

International servers checking Technology Bloggers uptimeWith a free account you can monitor one website, and get 4 free introductory texts. With a basic account, you can monitor five websites, and get 10 free introductory texts. Pro accounts get to monitor 10 services, and get 10 free text messages every month. If you have a premium account you can monitor up to 30 websites, DNS’s, FTP servers, MySQL databases, POP3’s etc. and you get 30 text messages every month, so if a single site, server, FTP etc. goes down, you know – fast.

Technology Bloggers server status - MonitiveI have been using the service for around a week now, and it works really well. It is easy to use and has all the data you want to see.

How to Win!

I want to make it as easy as possible for you to enter, and I want to make it so that everyone can enter, as we are a community blog, which means everyone should be able to benefit.

To enter is really easy, you only need to do a few things, but the more you choose to do, the more entries you will get.

The first thing you must do is sign up for a ‘Free’ Monitive account. Once you have done this, you can start entering.

Sign in to the Rafflecopter widget below, however you like, Facebook or email. The first thing you must do is tell us the email address you used to set up the account, as we will need this to upgrade your account if you win. After that, do as many or few of the options which become available to you, the more you do, the more entries you get!

Rafflecopter

The Rafflecopter widget loads below this text, it seems to be taking its time (at least when this article went live it was) so be patient, it should load in after a few seconds – and it doesn’t load on some pages, so make sure you go to the giveaway page to get it to work.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Winners

This competition will end at 12.00 am on Saturday the 19th of May. Winners will be announced within the following week, and then their accounts upgraded accordingly.

Best of luck to everyone!

I hereby declare Technology Bloggers first ever competition, live!

PingPing – a revolutionary new way to manage your money

6 Replies Christopher Roberts

In Belgium, a revolutionary new technology is now in use. This technology is known as PingPing, and I believe that it is going to change the way we all pay for things.

ping.pingSmartphones are becoming evermore popular by the day, and the Belgian telecom operator Belgacom, is now providing a service which is capitalising on this change. They are providing users with a way to connect their wallet to their phone.

Okay we have seen this sort of thing happen before right? Google Wallet and others have tried to bring your wallet and your phone closer. PingPing is something completely different though, as it turns your phone, into a portable bank account – quite literally!

What is PingPing?

PingPing is a system whereby you create a PingPing account, credit this with money from your bank account, and then wherever you go, you can access this at the push of a button, or swipe of your phone, and pay for almost anything.

If you are out and about, you can pay for your car parking simply by sending an SMS. You can buy your sandwich with a swipe of the PingPing electronic tag on your phone. You can pay for your online shopping by texting a code to a given number. You can even text money to friends, which is credited instantly. Owe someone a tenner? They can have the money in their PingPing account in five seconds (quite literally) and all you need do is text it to them.

How does the PingPing service work?

With PingPing, you are able to make payments from your smartphone, by texting, or even easier, simply by swiping your phone on a PingPing reader.

Say for example you want to buy a drink from a vending machine. Usually you would have to fumble around and find some coins, only to discover the machine doesn’t give change, right? Well with PingPing, all you would need to do is swipe your phone on the machines PingPing tag detector, and it will link straight to your PingPing account – which you can easily top up with a bank transfer. This means that you can buy your drink within seconds, and the money is removed directly from your account. No loose change, no hassle. Confused? Watch the video below to see my example in action.

In the past, we have had to wait to get paid, checks can take days to clear, as can bank transfers. With PingPing, you are able to transfer money in (quite literally) 5 seconds, and all you need is your phone.

This technology is not just limited to vending machines though! With PingPing you can pay for anything – which is PingPing compatible. As I mentioned earlier, your sandwich, car parking, online shopping, in-store shopping, your bus fair, even charging your electric car, quite literally anything!

Can I use it?

There are many similar services to PingPing, which are live. I have heard that in the UK, Barclays bank are trialling such systems, and in Africa, there are many similar systems which have really taken off.

PingPing is currently only available in Belgium though. The software and technology is still relatively new, but I think it will spread fast.

Your Turn

What do you think about the PingPing service, will it take off elsewhere? Will it be a revolution, or is there too much competition already? Your thoughts, comments, opinions and facts are welcome as always 🙂