Heat On Demand is a feature that lets your Hive Radiator Valves turn your home’s heating on independently from your Hive thermostat. This clever feature means you can have true room-by-room control by setting different temperatures and times for each of the rooms in your home.

How Does Heat On Demand Work?

Heat On Demand links your Hive Radiator Valve to your Hive Thermostat. Then, whenever that radiator requires heat, even outside your normal thermostat heating schedule, it tells your system to turn on and warm up.

Specifically, it triggers the boost function on your thermostat, which turns on your heating system for 30 minutes. If the radiator still needs more heat at the end of 30 minutes, it will trigger another boost.

Your boost function will set your thermostat to a fixed 25°C during boost periods. This boost command is simply the catalyst we use to switch on the home’s heating so the room can start to warm up. It is not the target temperature, so your home or room will not be trying to reach 25°C. Instead, the room/home will aim to reach the target temperatures of each of the individual TRVs. Once these are met, the boost call will end.

What Happens to Other Rooms When My Heating Switches On?

When Heat On Demand turns the heating on, every radiator will be provided with heat – that’s just the nature of central heating systems. As the boiler warms the water, it sends it out to be used for space heating using the central heating “flow” pipework.

• Rooms with thermostatic valves (including Hive Radiator Valves) will warm up until they reach their own individual target temperatures.
• Rooms with manual (on/off) radiator controls set to ‘on’ will continue to heat up until the boiler switches off again.

Heat On Demand works best when you have Hive Radiator Valves on most of your radiators. This enables you to adjust target temperatures on all your radiators from your Hive app – and make sure you’re only warming the room that needs heat.

We don’t recommend using Heat On Demand if you have lots of manual radiator valves, as you may end up warming more of your house than you intend to.

Many homes have at least one radiator with a manual valve on it, often in the same room as your thermostat. The purpose of this radiator is to make sure your boiler always has at least one radiator to heat - it should not be replaced with a TRV without first consulting a plumber.

How Do I Enable Heat On Demand?

Heat On Demand works if you have a compatible Hive Thermostat (it works with any Hive Thermostat except the original Smart Linked Thermostat). You also need a compatible hub (it works with all Hive Hubs except our very first version).

You can then set up Heat On Demand in the Hive app:

1. When you’re installing our Hive Radiator Valves, we recommend that you install one at a time.
2. Once you have finished installing and naming your radiator valves or radiator valve groups, we’ll help you to enable Heat On Demand through our in-app installation wizard by asking, “Would you like {radiator valve name} to turn the boiler on?”
3. Answering “yes” to this question enables Heat On Demand. Answering “no” disables it.

If you answer “no” but then change your mind later on, you’ll be able to turn on Heat On Demand by accessing the Hive Radiator Valves settings cog in the app. In here, you’ll find the Heat On Demand option, which you can toggle on/off using the switch. You’ll also be able to amend the Heat On Demand boost temperature in here (HOD temp amendments will be available in a future app update). By default, we’ll have set this as 25°C.

 TIP: As Heat On Demand is a simple boost, make sure if you do change the temperature from 25°C that your new temperature value is warmer than the home typically reaches so that the boost is always able to create a heating demand and switch your boiler on. 

When Does Heat On Demand Boost a Thermostat?

Heat On Demand will not run:

• If you haven’t enabled it (see above)
• When your thermostat is set to OFF (if you’ve set your heating to ‘off’, you won’t want your radiators to switch it on again)
• When your thermostat is set to holiday mode,
• When your thermostat is already heating
• When your thermostat already has a boost running (even if that boost is to a lower temperature – we assume you did that on purpose and don’t want your home too warm)
• When your thermostat’s target temperature is already above the Heat On Demand default of 25°C
• When your Radiator Valve doesn’t need heat (i.e., its target temperature is below room temperature),

What Happens if I Switch Off Heat On Demand?

After enabling HOD, if you’d like to switch it back off again, simply access each TRV’s settings and unlink the TRV from the Hive thermostat. If you don’t have a Hive thermostat, or if you disable Heat On Demand, then turning up a Hive Radiator Valve will only warm up the room if your heating is already on.

What if I Only Want Some of My Hive Radiator Valves to Use Heat On Demand?

Heat On Demand is enabled globally across all Hive Radiator Valves. If you’d like to limit some valves from being able to use Heat On Demand, simply access that valve’s settings by pressing the cog icon on the top right of the TRV control screen. In here, using the Heat On Demand menu option, you can link or unlink a Hive Radiator Valve from your Hive thermostat. If you choose to unlink your Hive radiator valve, then it will not be able to use Heat On Demand to call your boiler on, but the radiator will still heat up to its own target temperature whenever your boiler is on and providing heat.