Glenn Barden

www.daddydazed.co.uk

Even in summer my wife likes to switch on the heating. Often we have a battle as she turns the thermostat up and I then sneak into the hallway and turn it down. But this new piece of remote technology will take our heating battles to a whole new level – Hopefully this means I can override her selections even when I am still at work.

It seems counter intuitive for a business that makes its money by selling gas and electricity to introduce a device that will hopefully make me use less of it, but British Gas say the innovation is all part of a new campaign to bring control and convenience back to UK homes by introducing new technology to help their customers lead a more efficient life.

So I now have my Remote Heating Control up and running, and it’s a very cool piece of kit.

It means I can now completely control my central heating from my computer or iPhone. My old central heating timer is a thing of the past. Never again do I have to use those stupid pins on a turning clock dial. No longer do I have to cut down matches in the little pin holes because I have dropped the little plastic peg and I can’t be bothered to empty the whole cupboard to find them. Now all I have to do is click the application on my computer and I can program the required temperature of the house at any time of the day. And for any day of the week - so first instance, the heating can come on earlier during weekdays than at the weekend, when I will want to lie in (although who am I kidding? I have a 2-year-old child!).

Sadly, what with the weather being so warm in London, I haven’t actually had the heating on so I can’t play with it as much as I’d like.

Roll on the winter!

Remote Heating saves Ice Cream Money

We were lucky enough to take a pre Xmas holiday to India this year. The deal with wifey was that if I gave here two weeks of sun she would stomach 48 hours with my parents at Christmas. Heading off to Gatwick airport in the taxi I suddenly realised that I hadn't changed the heating thermostat. For the next two weeks from 6 to 10 every weekday and 8-10 at the weekends our empty flat was going to be heated to 20 degrees Celsius. I hate wasting money and this would be like burning it. Then I remembered that I could control the heating from my mobile phone. I simply texted HEAT OFF to the number and the problem was solved. I sat back in the taxi and started thinking of all the ice creams we could buy with the cash I had just saved.

Mobile phone keeps house warm

I really saw the benefit of the Remote Heating Control yesterday when my daughter fell ill and I had to pick her up from nursery and bring her home early. Normally during the day, when no one is at home I have the heating set to 10C. Pre RHC, when I arrived home early I would have had to manually adjust the heating and then wait 30 minutes or so before the flat warmed up. Now though I logged in before I went to pick up M, turned the heating up remotely and by the time we got home the flat was nice and toasty.