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Welcome to the Hive Connected Home

Hive is a British Gas innovation that creates connected products designed to give people the control they want for their homes anytime, anywhere. Their first product,

Hive Active HeatingTM launched in September 2013 enabling people to control their heating and hot water from their

mobile, tablet and laptop. Today over 200,000 people use the award-winning product which comes with installation by one of British Gas’ 10,000 engineers included – though you

don’t need to be a British Gas customer to buy it.

Hive is now taking the next step on their journey to make the connected home a reality for everyone, creating

a little magic in the everyday along the way…

About Hive

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Welcome

July 2015 sees the launch of Hive Active HeatingTM 2, the introduction of a range of new Hive app features and the unveiling of our plans for a family of connected home products.

Since we launched Hive Active Heating TM in 2013 we’ve been working to keep improving our product. Our customers told us they loved our Hive app (92% of them say they’ve recommended Hive to their friends) and what they’d like to see from a next generation product. Hive has helped 98% of our customers feel more in control of their heating – with easy to set schedules and the ability to control their heating and hot water from our award-winning app from wherever they are.

But there was more for us to do. We needed a thermostat that matched our digital user interface – that was as easy to use as our app and online dashboard. That’s why we’ve partnered with design entrepreneur Yves Béhar to redesign our thermostat from scratch. We wanted a thermostat that was as intuitive to use as it was beautiful. A thermostat that no longer needed to be hidden from sight.

Working with Yves and grounded in customer insight we’ve created a thermostat that is both beautiful and clever.

Complementing the simplicity and design of our Hive app, it includes new features and improved usability. We’ve added the features our customers told us they’d find most useful, like heating boost and a handy holiday mode setting – they’ll be available on the new thermostat and automatically added to our app for existing Hive users.

We haven’t stopped there. We’ve created a family of complementary connected home products that go beyond heating to meet real everyday needs, from controlling lighting remotely to checking you’ve switched the iron off after you’ve left home – all through the Hive app. They’ll launch this Autumn. As the only UK provider to deliver the end-to-end experience – from product development to delivery, installation and ongoing support, we’re excited to be making the connected home at last a reality.

This is only the beginning. At Hive we’re going to keep listening to our customers and giving them new and improved ways to have the control they want and deserve in their homes. We’ll keep innovating just as British Gas has over the last 200 years – expect much more to come from Hive, stay tuned, we’re just getting started.

Kassir Hussain, Director, British Gas Connected Homes

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The connected home is here, present in many houses and discussed non-stop in the press. But there are a few chasms still to cross to make the connected home a reality for many: installation challenges, simplicity of use, discretion in the residential environment, cultural adaptations and fit.

When we have the ability to control our environment easily while present in home, or from our phones remotely, we are able to go about our days with significant peace of mind. British Gas created the Hive brand for this reason: to make the connected home something accessible for everyone. The fuseproject team worked with Hive to develop a thermostat that achieves this mission, converging digital and industrial design to connect millions of British homes with a smart, beautiful, and approachable device.

The goal for the new Hive thermostat was to make a product that is familiar and intuitive in its use, as well as reflects the future of the British home. Customers of Hive receive unique offerings such as a professional installation, the combination of heat as well as, for some, the unique controls of the water heater, and now the addition of heating boost functionality. After meeting with homeowners and Hive customers around the UK, we knew that the challenge was much more than making something beautiful or different, but making something usable, truly functional for everyone in the household.

Hive Active HeatingTM 2 Design Inspiration

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The industrial design team was aware of the ubiquity of the white box with a dial found in every home. Drawing from new forms and materials inspiration, we took the familiar further into something new: the key aesthetic feature for the new thermostat is the surface material – a NCVM front treatment that makes the device resemble a small mirror and hides the display unless someone is operating it. This was our way to make the thermostat blend into the home as it reflects its environment. The device will also have a series of colored frames that customers can choose to fit any room and any style.

Once the British Gas engineer installs the device onto the wall, we wanted the experience to be as seamless as possible. The fuseproject digital team rethought the experience architecture and the user interface. When the dial is pushed, a seemingly invisible LED display appears through the mirrored surface, lighting up only the necessary buttons to clearly direct the user. The initial guide walks users through a step-by-step process, asking questions to help curate the experience for each person. In a process that takes as little as a few minutes, the user can set up to six timed temperature and hot water settings per day. Once these are confirmed, the user never ‘needs’ to touch the thermostat again – any updates can happen from a phone. If the user decides to override the system manually, they can simply turn the dial to change the temperature, or press either of the buttons hidden on the top of the thermostat to quickly boost heat or hot water. Even with the override, the system will automatically go back to its typical schedule after that time block.

Thermostat

Designing a product and its user interface simultaneously is no easy feat; in many ways each design discipline from product design to digital guided the other to make the ideal product experience. The dial, which draws from the familiarity of historic thermostats, ended up playing a pivotal role in the function of the system architecture. And the dial is already a key to the system’s positive reception – in user testing, the Hive thermostat had an impeccable success rate for initial set up.

Most importantly, our design of Hive is something accessible to the people of Britain. This is both in its use and in its production – by utilizing both plastic and aluminum in the design, we were able to keep manufacturing as efficient as possible while still enhancing the look and quality of the product. This translated into the product’s packaging as well – a clean box of natural cardboard to keep environmental impact to a minimum.

Ultimately, Hive is meant to usher us to the connected home as something tangible and accessible for everyone. Through its form factor, aesthetics, and usability, Hive transcends today’s technology to become something new and familiar at the same time.

Yves Béhar, Founder and Principal Designer

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Adding further consideration to its design, Hive have worked with Dulux to create optional coloured frames that wrap around the mirrored thermostat. The frames are available in a selection of bold shades selected from the popular Dulux Feature Wall range. On-trend colours such as the vibrant orange Moroccan Flame, luxurious Teal Tension and sophisticated smoky grey, Urban Obsession have been chosen to complement existing décor and colour schemes – or for making a statement in your home with a pop of colour. Other options, such as a natural wood finish will also be available.

Customisable

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With its innovative design and intelligent new features Hive Active HeatingTM 2 takes heating and hot water control to the next level. Control at home from the thermostat or remotely from your mobile, tablet or laptop. Hive Active HeatingTM 2 can help people save up to £150 a year on their heating bills as they won’t need to heat an empty home again.

The intuitive new thermostat features an iconic dial and a seemingly invisible LED display screen that guides you through using it. Along with the new thermostat, Hive Active HeatingTM 2 includes the features that existing Hive customers have said they’d like to see next, such as heating boost and plumbed multi-zone capability, to allow future control over multiple heating zones. The new features will be available automatically to existing Hive customers in an updated version of the Hive app and online dashboard.

The Hive Active HeatingTM 2 kit is made up of three parts; the sleek wireless thermostat, the hub that plugs into your broadband router and the receiver which is fitted next to your boiler. Only Hive comes with installation included by a British Gas engineer, who will set everything up in around 90 minutes.

Features include:

Heating ControlSwitch your heating on and off, up or down. If you want to extend your heating just use the boost button.

Hot Water ControlTurn your hot water on and off. For those times when you need it, you can boost your hot water for up to six hours.

GeolocationBased on your phone’s location, Hive will send you reminders to turn your heating on before you get home, or off if you’ve left it on when you go out.

Heating and Hot Water SchedulesSet heating and hot water schedules to fit in with your life. You can set between one and six time slots a day.

Frost ProtectionAutomatically activates when your heating’s off and the temperature inside your home dips below 7°C. This helps to protect pipes from freezing.

Temperature GraphsSee how the temperature inside your home has changed over time – a day, week, month or even a whole year.

Holiday ModeTell Hive your holiday dates and your heating will sleep until you return – so you’ll always come back to a warm welcome and won’t heat an empty home when you’re away.

Multi-zonal controlControl up to three existing plumbed heated zones in your home, so you can keep it cosy upstairs and cooler downstairs if you want to. Multi-zonal control will be available from Autumn 2015, with each zone needing its own Hive thermostat and receiver.

Features

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UX

The next generation Hive Active HeatingTM app has landed. We’ve seamlessly integrated the new features so they’re as intuitive and familiar for users digitally as they are from the thermostat. With user centricity at the core of our UX design process, we continually test, refine and evolve with the help of our customers. Behind every single one of our Hive app and online dashboard features we have three objectives in mind: Intuitive, Customisable and Simple.

Of course the Hive app will evolve further with our new complementary family of products – they’ll be controlled via one easy to use interface with structurally simple navigation. The user will always be one click away from the app homescreen and with a customisable framework they can personalise with the Hive products they use and how they use them. Each Hive product will have its own ecosystem in the app with contextual content, curated with information relevant to the user.

As a UX designer I’m inspired and excited by combining design principles with the seemingly endless possibilities connected technology provides. It’s a little like having free rein to play John Underkoffler (the guy who designed Minority Reports futuristic User Interface) combined with those quirky product designers back in the 20s/60s who created products that not only provided a service but also embellished an environment. At Hive we’re quite literally putting your home in the palm of your hand, with control via one easy to use and intuitive app.

Vanessa Mateus, Senior UI/UX Designer, Hive

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Yves Béhar biog

Yves is a design entrepreneur who believes that holistic product, digital, and brand design are cornerstones of any business. He is the founder and CEO of fuseproject, a design and branding agency in San Francisco and New York. Béhar is also Chief Creative Officer at Jawbone, where for the last 11 years his products, brand and communications work has helped the company become a leader in wearable and audio consumer electronics. Jawbone won a 2010 IDSA Design of the Decade Award. He is also the Creative Co-Founder of OUYA, an open sourced gaming platform, and is Co-founder of start-up August, a next generation home entry system. Béhar believes that design should be a force for positive social and environmental change. He is well known for his humanitarian work on projects such as One Laptop Per Child, which has given 3 million laptops to children in developing countries, and See Better to Learn Better which

distributes free corrective eyewear to schoolchildren in Mexico and California. For each of these he was honored with the INDEX award, making him the only designer to have received the award twice. Béhar’s other collaborations with renowned partners such as Herman Miller, GE, Puma, PayPal, SodaStream, Samsung, Issey Miyake, Prada, Nivea and many others have received international acclaim. Béhar’s works are included in the permanent collections of museums worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Centre Pompidou and the Art Institute of Chicago. Béhar is a frequent speaker on design, sustainability and business topics; he has given talks at TED, the World Economic Forum in Davos, and the Clinton Global Initiative. He is currently the artist trustee of the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, has garnered over 200 awards, and was named a Top 25 Visionary by TIME Magazine.

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The Hive family is growing with a range of complementary products designed to give people new ways to control their home, anytime, anywhere. Available from Autumn 2015, they’re powered by the Hive Honeycomb platform and integrate seamlessly into the Hive app. Designed to blend into the home, the products aim to give people control and peace of mind when they want it.

Hive Active Plugs™ let you control appliances remotely via the Hive app, allowing you to switch devices on and off from wherever you are, and set schedules. So when you’ve left home in a hurry, you can check you remembered to switch your hair straighteners off or iron off.

Hive Motion Sensors™ enable you to detect motion in your home when you’re not there, so if you’re away on holiday you’ll know if motion has been picked up in your empty home.

Hive Window and Door Sensors™ are wireless contact sensors which can be fitted to windows and doors and will notify you if they are open or closed. They mean you can check you’ve shut everything after leaving home, like when you’re in a cab headed for the airport.

Hive Active Lights™ are lightbulbs that you can turn on and off from wherever you are, ideal for giving the impression of an occupied home when you’re not there.

The Hive family is growing

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Discover more

Hive Active HeatingTM 2 is available to buy online from 15th July with installation taking place from August.

The family of new Hive products will be available this Autumn. Register for further details at hivehome.com

Pricing

New Hive customers: £249 including installation Existing Hive customers: £99 upgrade to the new

thermostat (for a limited time)

Hive Active HeatingTM 2 stockists at

hivehome.com | britishgas.co.uk

For product photography visit hivehome.com/press-room

For further information and product loans please contact: Camron PR: 0207 420 1700 /

elena.phillipson@camronpr.com

Contact

Amazon.co.uk | Apple Retail Stores | Argos Currys/PC World | John Lewis | Maplin | Very.co.uk

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