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With the nights starting to draw in and energy prices poised to increase by some 10% next week, the latest announcement from Samsung couldn't have come at a better time. The South Korean company has expanded on its partnership with British Gas, first introduced at the beginning of this year, to help households across the UK reduce their energy consumption — and save on monthly bills.
According to some estimates, Hive owners can save as much as £172 on heating bills.
Hive — the Wi-Fi-connected thermostat brand owned by British Gas — has been fully integrated into Samsung's SmartThing platform, which enables you to control smart home gadgets from a smartphone, tablet, or Smart TV. Light bulbs, washing machines, video doorbells, fridge-freezers, and thermostats can all be controlled remotely or put on a schedule when you're away from home.
Samsung has already coded a number of energy-saving and monitoring features into its SmartThings platform, but these become much more powerful with the integration of British Gas and up-to-date pricing alerts direct from the energy supplier
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The integration of Hive thermostats into the SmartThings app offers users more granular control over their home's temperature. From mid-October, smartphone owners will be able to check current temperatures, set new targets, and adjust settings from anywhere — so you can ensure your home is always the right temperature before you walk through the door, and avoid any unnecessary (and costly) heating when it's not needed.
Hive can also alert you when you're poised to overspend on the budget you've set for this month's heating bills.
Samsung has also integrated British Gas PeakSave, so that SmartThings can turn-on appliances and other connected products at the cheapest time of day — reducing your energy bills.
For those who don't know, PeakSave rewards British Gas customers for reducing their electricity usage during peak hours — switching to times when there is more renewable energy readily available. For those without smart home gadgets dotted throughout their home, taking advantage of these more affordable PeakSave bills that could mean setting a very early morning alarm to set-off the dishwasher.
But household appliances compatible with Samsung's SmartThings software can be automated to start during these cheaper times — letting you take advantage of periods when electricity is half-price, typically between 11am and 4pm on Sundays.
You'll be able to set appliances running to cut costs no matter whether you're at-home, in the office, or travelling. Samsung has a useful support page to help you determine whether your existing appliances and smart home gadgets are compatible with Samsung SmartThings.
So far, British Gas has paid over £13 million to 650,000 customers taking part in the scheme.
Those with a smart Hive thermostat or SmartThings-compatible appliances will be able to schedule heating, dishwasher and washing machine loads when PeakSave will dramatically cut your British Gas bills. If you’ve got the SmartThings app installed on your iPhone or Android, or a Samsung Smart TV, you can choose to be alerted about the cheapest energy prices from British Gas during the day.
Dan Rosenfield, Managing Director of Hive, said: “We are delighted to be extending our partnership with Samsung to energise a greener, fairer future for our customers. As we head into Winter, we are making it easier for our customers to save money on their energy bills and cut carbon through integrating our market-leading propositions into the SmartThings app.”
Speaking about the deeper partnership between British Gas and Samsung, Deborah Honig, Chief Customer Officer at Samsung UK and Ireland, told GB News: "We know that controlling energy consumption is a top priority for our customers, and as we head into winter this becomes an even bigger priority.
"We are continually evolving our SmartThings energy management features and extending our partnerships with British Gas and Tesla, to make it even easier and more intuitive for customers to manage their home energy usage. By providing new automated tech solutions that help our customers save time, money and energy, we are seeing even more people do that ‘little bit extra’ every day to take of their home and the planet."
Earlier this year at CES Samsung announced its collaboration with Tesla for SmartThings Energy and now UK users can benefit from this increased connectivity, allowing users to easily access information relating to users’ energy production, storage and usage via SmartThings Energy.
No matter where you are, the SmartThings app on iPhone and Android lets you schedule appliances and heating to take advantage of cheaper energy prices, thanks to the British Gas PeakSave scheme
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Made possible through Tesla’s open APIs, the expansion of SmartThings Energy allows users to connect with their Tesla Powerwall, and Solar Inverter for a more streamlined smart home experience.
In addition to making it easier to manage energy consumption, this integration allows for better preparations for power disruptions and outages.
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SmartThings syncs up with the Tesla app’s Storm Watch function – meaning in the case of extreme weather events users can be alerted through SmartThings on their connected Samsung TVs and mobile.
Following the latest updates, Samsung SmartThings is now the only place where Tesla Powerwalls, British Gas PeakSave, Samsung Smart Home appliances, Hive thermostats, and Smart Meters can be managed in one place to optimise the use of energy throughout your home.
