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Post by overthehill on Oct 26, 2023 15:58:40 GMT
My Google Nest thermostat stopped working. It was completely dead, no lights and no response. It controls my heating and hot water, so neither would work and there was no way to override. I checked my nest app and it indicated that there was a problem. As the device was about 5 years out of guarantee I started googling likely causes and possible replacement costs (£188 to replace)... I was busy looking for recommendations for a local engineer to take a look when... I received an email that appeared to be from googlenest. It invited me to visit a website, enter a special code, and my personal details, and someone would be sent to fix the issue at no cost to me, even if it was long out of its guarantee. Being an ex-softie, and not completely unaware of the world of scamming, I realised that this was an obvious scam that was triggered by me searching for ways to fix my problem. To cut a long story short, I was completely wrong!!!! Google had detected the fault from my app, realised there was a common fault with the Heat Link and arranged for an engineer to fix it at absolutely no cost to me. The weblink was required for me to book a time to get it fixed. The engineer has just left and is all working again. Amazing service, especially considering how long ago the guarantee expired. We'll done Google.
I assume you can only use this device if your central heating uses a room thermostat ? How does it control the hot water ?
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Post by overthehill on Oct 26, 2023 16:04:43 GMT
Smart Meters.
Saw another reason in the news for not switching to a smart meter, a caring employee of your energy company sitting in a nice warm office can switch it from a credit meter to a prepayment meter.
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Post by Ace on Oct 26, 2023 16:14:27 GMT
My Google Nest thermostat stopped working. It was completely dead, no lights and no response. It controls my heating and hot water, so neither would work and there was no way to override. I checked my nest app and it indicated that there was a problem. As the device was about 5 years out of guarantee I started googling likely causes and possible replacement costs (£188 to replace)... I was busy looking for recommendations for a local engineer to take a look when... I received an email that appeared to be from googlenest. It invited me to visit a website, enter a special code, and my personal details, and someone would be sent to fix the issue at no cost to me, even if it was long out of its guarantee. Being an ex-softie, and not completely unaware of the world of scamming, I realised that this was an obvious scam that was triggered by me searching for ways to fix my problem. To cut a long story short, I was completely wrong!!!! Google had detected the fault from my app, realised there was a common fault with the Heat Link and arranged for an engineer to fix it at absolutely no cost to me. The weblink was required for me to book a time to get it fixed. The engineer has just left and is all working again. Amazing service, especially considering how long ago the guarantee expired. We'll done Google.
I assume you can only use this device if your central heating uses a room thermostat ? How does it control the hot water ?
The Google Nest is a room thermostat. It's wired to a companion Heat Link device next to the hot water tank, pump and valve in the airing cupboard. The Heat Link controls the pup and valve to determine whether heating, hot water or both is required. The Nest is programed with a timing schedule to determine when to switch the heating and/or hot water on/off. The Nest is also WiFi enabled so it can be controlled by an app on my phone, so I can switch it on when I'm away to ensure that the house is heated and/or hot water is available on my return. It also switches the heating off whenever my phone leaves the house and back on whenever it returns if within my heating schedule.
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keitha
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Post by keitha on Oct 26, 2023 16:52:35 GMT
Smart Meters.
Saw another reason in the news for not switching to a smart meter, a caring employee of your energy company sitting in a nice warm office can switch it from a credit meter to a prepayment meter.
personally I like the idea, I saw a case recently where the occupant of a house hadn't paid a penny for 3 plus years, and had refused permission for meter people to enter the house threatening violence and using dogs to intimidate. I think with an appropriate court order it should be allowed. I saw on another forum recently a comment along the lines of "I have a big electric bill I don't want to pay, I've has a lot of letters but when a man came round I told him I hadn't had any letters, now I'm getting more letters, is it right that if I don't open them they can't touch me, because I don't know about the bill" the advice ranged from sensible "speak to them and agree a payment plan even if it is over several years" to "buy and fit your own meter off eBay, only the meter owner can charge you" or "keep a length of lead pipe behind the door and use it to defend your property against any so-called Bailiff who tries to enter"
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benaj
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Post by benaj on Oct 26, 2023 19:14:43 GMT
I also learned the some customers of heat network don’t have meters at all. They just get billed for whatever the billing agent asked.
Apparently, all “legal” under current policy
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Post by overthehill on Oct 26, 2023 19:22:03 GMT
I assume you can only use this device if your central heating uses a room thermostat ? How does it control the hot water ?
The Google Nest is a room thermostat. It's wired to a companion Heat Link device next to the hot water tank, pump and valve in the airing cupboard. The Heat Link controls the pup and valve to determine whether heating, hot water or both is required. The Nest is programed with a timing schedule to determine when to switch the heating and/or hot water on/off. The Nest is also WiFi enabled so it can be controlled by an app on my phone, so I can switch it on when I'm away to ensure that the house is heated and/or hot water is available on my return. It also switches the heating off whenever my phone leaves the house and back on whenever it returns if within my heating schedule.
I think the heat link device will be controlling the on/off boiler state with the boiler controlling the pump - or can you control the boiler by turning the pump on and off, never heard of that. The valve diverts central heating through the hot water tank if required. Even simpler setup with combi boilers and no water tank. I'm guessing you could use it without the room thermostat function given that thermostatic radiator valves have replaced the room thermostat.
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Post by Ace on Oct 26, 2023 21:21:15 GMT
The Google Nest is a room thermostat. It's wired to a companion Heat Link device next to the hot water tank, pump and valve in the airing cupboard. The Heat Link controls the pup and valve to determine whether heating, hot water or both is required. The Nest is programed with a timing schedule to determine when to switch the heating and/or hot water on/off. The Nest is also WiFi enabled so it can be controlled by an app on my phone, so I can switch it on when I'm away to ensure that the house is heated and/or hot water is available on my return. It also switches the heating off whenever my phone leaves the house and back on whenever it returns if within my heating schedule.
I think the heat link device will be controlling the on/off boiler state with the boiler controlling the pump - or can you control the boiler by turning the pump on and off, never heard of that. The valve diverts central heating through the hot water tank if required. Even simpler setup with combi boilers and no water tank. I'm guessing you could use it without the room thermostat function given that thermostatic radiator valves have replaced the room thermostat. You may well be right. I was just relaying what I understood from a very quick conversation with the engineer without any prior knowledge. So, I may well have got the wrong end of the stick. He did say that there was no way for me to activate the system in my faulty heat link situation.
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michaelc
Member of DD Central
Say No To T.D.S.
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Post by michaelc on Oct 26, 2023 22:07:47 GMT
I have a nest - the first release of it. It only controls the heating not the hot water.
It has lots of fancy AI options which I tried at the start until I found the heating coming on at strange times like 3am etc. Now I've switched all the AI stuff off, I find it useful.
There is a physical button on the heat link to override but I've never needed to use it.
Its a bit annoying if there are ever issues in logging in to Nest in order to set the heating as there are from time to time. Darn frustrating the concept of logging in just to adjust the thermostat. Thankfully it doesn't happen often.
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keitha
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Post by keitha on Oct 27, 2023 10:15:15 GMT
I also learned the some customers of heat network don’t have meters at all. They just get billed for whatever the billing agent asked. Apparently, all “legal” under current policy there's a Council owned block near me with communal heating, all they ( the council ) do is divide the bill by 24 or however many flats and charge that, another has included the heating in the rent and also installed solar on the roof. In this case the rent is £500 a month including heating and electric funnily enough the second block is quite popular. in neither of those cases do people actually have an incentive to save energy, what's he point of having your heating at 18 when everyone else is at 23, as you still pay the same.
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jonno
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nil satis nisi optimum
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Post by jonno on Oct 27, 2023 10:43:16 GMT
I also learned the some customers of heat network don’t have meters at all. They just get billed for whatever the billing agent asked. Apparently, all “legal” under current policy there's a Council owned block near me with communal heating, all they ( the council ) do is divide the bill by 24 or however many flats and charge that, another has included the heating in the rent and also installed solar on the roof. In this case the rent is £500 a month including heating and electric funnily enough the second block is quite popular. in neither of those cases do people actually have an incentive to save energy, what's he point of having your heating at 18 when everyone else is at 23, as you still pay the same. Maybe 'cos it's too bleedin' hot? 
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benaj
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Post by benaj on Oct 27, 2023 11:52:49 GMT
I also learned the some customers of heat network don’t have meters at all. They just get billed for whatever the billing agent asked. Apparently, all “legal” under current policy there's a Council owned block near me with communal heating, all they ( the council ) do is divide the bill by 24 or however many flats and charge that, another has included the heating in the rent and also installed solar on the roof. In this case the rent is £500 a month including heating and electric funnily enough the second block is quite popular. in neither of those cases do people actually have an incentive to save energy, what's he point of having your heating at 18 when everyone else is at 23, as you still pay the same. That makes perfect sense. Some customers of these heat networks without meters are private renters / leaseholders. Probably paying for those help to buy and social renters as well at higher rate.
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Post by overthehill on Oct 31, 2023 19:45:40 GMT
One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
This could finally bury twitter for good, most of the adverts/advertisers left are either junk or fraudsters.
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Post by overthehill on Nov 18, 2023 15:26:00 GMT
QR codes this time.
Woman targeted in £13k train station QR code scam
The UK had the highest number of cyber crime victims per million internet users at 4783 in 2022 – up 40% over 2020 figures.
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Post by moonraker on Nov 21, 2023 13:34:51 GMT
Yesterday I had an email from someone I'd been briefly in touch with two years ago via the Nextdoor Neighbourhood forum, saying he wanted a favour and did I buy from Amazon? "Hardly ever," I replied. This morning I had a similar email from an author I'd corresponded with several years ago: "Hi, Can you do me a favour? Kindly reply when you get this! Thanks. Peter". I replied, with a brief summary of my recent activities of mutual interest. The response was " I hope you are good. I can't call for now, that's the reason why i emailed you. Actually, I need a favour from you. Do you have an Amazon account?"
Peter doesn't have my phone number, and by now a penny had dropped to the accompaniment of ringing alarm bells, "No," I replied. Googling " Amazon do me a favour scams" confirmed my belated suspicions.
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Post by overthehill on Nov 21, 2023 14:21:20 GMT
Yesterday I had an email from someone I'd been briefly in touch with two years ago via the Nextdoor Neighbourhood forum, saying he wanted a favour and did I buy from Amazon? "Hardly ever," I replied. This morning I had a similar email from an author I'd corresponded with several years ago: "Hi, Can you do me a favour? Kindly reply when you get this! Thanks. Peter". I replied, with a brief summary of my recent activities of mutual interest. The response was " I hope you are good. I can't call for now, that's the reason why i emailed you. Actually, I need a favour from you. Do you have an Amazon account?"
Peter doesn't have my phone number, and by now a penny had dropped to the accompaniment of ringing alarm bells, "No," I replied. Googling " Amazon do me a favour scams" confirmed my belated suspicions.
Always check the email address not the From: line as it will almost always be a garbage address. Phone apps like yahoo actually make this difficult aiding criminal behaviour. If unsure just click reply and cancel to see where it would be sent. Even a real email address can be spoofed but at least any reply will be sent to the real owner. In this case they will try to trick you with a link or a phone call.
Sometimes criminals can also hijack real email accounts especially if they are dormant. Like credit cards some people have opened so many they easily lose track of them allowing illegal use by hackers. So always make sure the email address is the same as your most recent email from that person. I keep all genuine personal emails received or sent.
I change my email password every time something suspicious happens. Someone with unrevealed access to your email can do untold damage.
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