Hive is working but no HW boost function

Configuration
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Hi all. I have the latest version of HAOS and have successfully added the Hive devices, I have a thermostat and a hub. My system is S-Plan with separate HW and CH. The issue comes when I want to boost the water, it has no “schedule” only ECO, ON, OFF and there is no Boost function - whereas the heating widget on the dashboard has ON, OFF, SCHEDULE, BOOST etc. already.

I did try adding a custom button and called the service “hive.boost_hot_water” as per the Hive documentation on HA but it does nothing. Does HA need to be restarted if I add buttons to a dashboard? Also noticed when checking the Hive app, the heating had gone to OFF this morning after the first schedule, and hadn’t stayed with the actual schedule set in the Hive app. Maybe I hit the little icon in HA for the schedule “off” by mistake but don’t remember doing so. Good job I noticed or the house would have been freezing when we got home from work.

If Hive integration is not working as expected then it dulls the main reason for getting HA, which was to put my Hue, Hive and ESP32 stuff in one place. So far the Hue and Hive apps are way easier to use and more reliable. I used the standard integration from the found devices menus in HA.

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There should be a boost service, have a look in dev tools>services.

This works for me:

service: hive.boost_hot_water
data:
  entity_id: water_heater.hot_water
  time_period: "01:00:00"
  on_off: "on"

you’ll need to change the entity_id to match yours

2 Likes
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You can easily create your own boost script which you can then call from a button. This is the power of HA. I am happy to help you do that if you like?

I have Hive (and Hue and…) and have been able to create a much more sophisticated heating/water functionality with HA than I could ever have done with the app alone. For example, it also takes into account my presence, the state of windows/doors, the schedule, whether I am asleep or not etc etc. The power of HA is being able to create functionality that combines all the devices connected to it.

edit: after reading @Holdestmade’s reply, I checked and my boost service is called hive.boost_hot_water - yours may well be the same, but if you search for boost I am sure you will find it.

1 Like
4

we edited both our replies at the same time :smiley:

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Thanks guys, I used the default add-service to a button as per the HA guide, selected the same service mentioned and it seemed to create ok but on using the buttons, nothing happens. I’ll try the custom route,

I did also add the correct entity_id, the time, the function of ON or OFF for each button, and it did not boost the water.

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Did you try it in dev tools to see if it works ?

Assume you are refreshing lovelace when you’ve edited a button ?

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I have only the default dash loaded at the moment, using HAOS out of the box so to speak, and I did the button from the edit on a custom dashboard as in not the “overview” one. I made a copy blank dash called “control panel” to mess with, this is where I created the buttons - does the HA instance need to be restarted to use a new button?

Ok I have the service in Dev tools > services > Hive:Boost HotWater and can call it from there, about to try that and see if it shows in my app that the HW has boosted (I am at work) - to set this to a button I expect I call the same service and set the same parameters, which is what I had done in the dashboard when I added a button.

Edit: It works. Doh - the Hive app is not showing the updated HW status unless I refresh, I guess because the action was not triggered from the app itself, I don’t know what the polling time of their app is, I expected it to use a device-notify model rather than polling but it seems to use the latter, so I had already done what was suggested the first time, but having used the app to check if the action worked (messing with it while at work during a break) it seemed to have done nothing, when in fact it did work.

Can I show the status on the button i.e. change colour on successful command execute or other status indication? So I know when a service call worked etc. Thanks for all of the extremely useful replies.

8

Absolutely, you can. I personally use the custom: button for this. If you are new to HA, you’ll need to maybe get a little used to it first. Read about HACS, have a play and come back if you need any assistance.

1 Like
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Would there be a way for if I boost the hot water directly on the HIVE thermostat or boiler controller to reflect this in home assistant somewhere to show that the water is currently on.

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If you boost using the thermostat’s button, HA will know it’s on, yes.

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