Homelyenergy Avis 

The inclusion of a heat pump monitored and managed by an Homely controller has provided me with a warm house throughout the winter.
It is fairly simple to get to know (and change) is easy with many help prompts from Homely to improve performance.

Got told about Homely by a friend who said I should make sure whatever heat pump I choose works with it as it would make it run well.

I went with a Worcester Bosch in the end as was a good price and was compatible. Had it all installed at the same time almost 12 months ago now and it’s been working well.

Getting used to a heat pump after a gas boiler took a little while to understand but I soon realised it just works differently - and in a good way. The house is always warm, the waters hot and my heating costs have been pretty good - so feels like it’s doing its job.

Had Homely installed with our heat pump in October and have been pretty pleased with how it’s worked over winter with our cosy tariff. It just does what it says and I can see from my energy bill that it’s doing a nice job using the cheapest periods.

I've had Homely since having my heat pump installed, so 4 years plus.
The Homely device itself is not great but when it's working, does a good job with a simple interface (quite limited).
However, when you have a problem - as I have had repeatedly over the years, specifically the temperature node losing it's connection to the hub, then you are pretty stuck.
Any instruction on the website fails to fix this issue and support from the team via email is within a couple of days however doesn't help to fix the problem.
I've also been offered an upgraded node and hub to replace my current one at my expense - not sure why I would trust a supplier who is unable to fix such a basic fundamental problem with another product which might end up the same after a couple of years.
So at the moment, my heat pump is either on or off, which isn't good either way.
If I had the knowledge I have now, I would not choose Homely and look at alternatives.

Homely has been running our system for almost two years now with zero problems and roughly 30% savings using Nordpool and Smart+ (even over the summer when only hot water is needed).

Looking forward to new updates, and best of luck!

You have to agree to Homely sharing all your critical heating data with your installers but hiding it from you.

No really.

Totally unacceptable and shows contempt for the owners of the system. Zero transparency. Zero accountability.

Once it was set up with the relevant tariffs it has performed brilliantly especially when the holiday mode is used. The energy bills that l was expecting never appeared, making it a very economical way of using ASHP. A very worthwhile addition to the system.

Works well with my Octopus tariff, will likely pay itself off by the end of the year at this rate!

Although the newly installed heat pump, controlled by Homely, hasn’t had a full winter season yet and isn’t running on a “heat pump tariff” yet (smart meter issues). I have been extremely happy with the setup and service I have received from Homely. From initial installation communications to regular updates and good advice from them. I have been very pleased and impressed. Thank you. Well done Homely, keep up the good work.

I’m still finding it rather confusing because the heating seems to come on and off bearing no relationship to the timings that I’ve set. I understand it comes on at night even though you’ve not set it to in order to keep the Home from getting too cold and to utilise cheap electricity. I now have complete electricity no gas. I have a Tesla powerwall battery and solar panels and I’m finding that the bill for my electricity is 3 to £400 in month during these winter months which seems excessive to me. The house is mostly warm, although I have had to light wood wood burner in the evenings for an hour or two. The other issue was while I was away from home using the holiday mode when I got back all the upstairs radiators had to be bled extensively and I wonder if that is something to do with shutting down the system although it seemed from my phone that it was still operating, even though it was in holiday mode to keep the house getting too cold

I share the frustration of the other users who commented here. The system has gone rouge after a few months. It does not do what it says it will do. Smart+ is a mode that heats all the time to high temps, ignoring the time of use tarriff but pretending it is so smart that I don’t understand it. The customer says as much. Rude as well as deceptive. Their conclusion was that I am better off using the Smart mode (no plus) since I want the tariff to be respected. But they sold me smart+ on the insight that Time of Use tarrif is respected. The Smart (no plus) mode heats 2-3 degrees above target. Hot water is not under my control at all. The holiday mode stopped working 2 days after I left on hols, and the regular schedule kicked in, wasting dozens of kWh and £££. Customer service is not responding, impossible to reach on the phone, calling back only sometimes, they are in no rush to resolve this at all. This is an expensive product that does not deliver. Anyone wants to join me in a formal complaint?

I appreciate the response to my query here and via email. I am testing the suggestions you made with the plus mode. I appreciate this is a complicated set up, but please review your customer service approach. I have been given contradictory explanations of how plus mode works and told general things about it that did not match my experience. Latest comms were more helpful and more careful, which I appreciate. I will see how energy consumption goes.

In short the customer does not have control over the system via the app. Basically in the Smart mode the homely system decides who to do about heating your home. It ignores the schedule schedule and the tariff information provided. Homely say that 'typically Homely will maintain the highest temperature on the schedule.' Smart model does not use the tariff information, so although you have entered it, it is ignored. But again the app does not tell you that it is ignored. You the customer who has paid once has to pay again £25 per year for the Smart+ mode for that.

In manual mode the heating tries to follow the schedule but if the set point increase by just 0.5C expect the heat pump to tun on full power and cook your radiators.

Not only does the app not let you control the system, it provides NO feedback on CoP, consumption or any other heat pump performance,

The point is the Homely system is designed for installers - who have a different app - and they can control see all the details of heat pump and alter settings. You the customer aren't allowed it.

A truly awful system and best not used.

Terrible experience from start.
Homely app is serviceable (read: basic) when everything is working. The problem is that the node is a cheap puck that disconnects every few weeks and the reconnection instructions are not comprehensive and often lead to a loop of connection issues. When the node is disconnected, the app is useless.
Homely answer the phone rarely. Customer service is very poor.
We had our heat pump installed using Evergreen and Homely was a requirement. I would strongly encourage anyone to look elsewhere. If you cannot interact with your heating system, it is useless.

I had a Homely Smart Controller installed yesterday. Our heat pump installers found it difficult to install and it took about two days for this to be completed. It is now set on 'Standard' setting which does not seem to be running the heat pump efficiently with high a high flow rate. I need to speak to Homely to answer questions about which of the other two settings would actally be best as their web site does not provid the answers. Unfortunately you can only leave a message. The controller and associated items have cost over £500.00 plus installation. I expected much better than this. Think very carefully before buying one of these.

The equipment is fine, but can only run a single zone.
However the customer app has very limited control, apparently the "installer app" has more.
the control does not include settings for Temp of water flow and the set point timers are consistently overridden by either Homely or the installer app, for a fee they will allow "smart" system which again takes direct control of your system.
having listened in on a call from my installer to Homely it is clear that the customer is very very low priority which has reduced my trust to zero.
having turned off the Homely I have found my heating system is now working much more efficiently.