Hive feels the heat after smart thermostat glitch
App bug heated some customer homes to 32 degrees.
The Internet of Things can be a wondrous thing -- it allows you to operate your lights using an app, remotely monitor your house and, when it works, intelligently warm it. This last weekend, some owners of the Hive smart thermostat experienced what it's like when the Internet of Things goes bad when an app glitch resulted in their homes being heated to as high as 32℃.
British Gas-owned Hive confirmed the issue in a statement to The Memo: "We are aware of a temporary glitch affecting a very small number of customers, where a certain sequence of commands in the Hive iOS app can cause the thermostat temperature to rise to 32°C." It also noted that the problem could be easily fixed by manually turning the temperature down using "the app, web dashboard or the thermostat itself."
That didn't stop some customers from taking to Twitter to voice their surprise and frustration:
@BritishGas it's getting hot in here, #hive app was set to 32 degrees without me touching it.
— Steve Willson (@willsonix) February 27, 2016
Hey @hivehome @HiveHelper when are you going to stop letting skynet try to boil me alive? (2nd time now) pic.twitter.com/iQDVvJxLaX
— Laura Adams (@AdamsLaura) February 27, 2016
Although the glitch appears pretty simple to rectify, Hive's support team says the company is already working on an update that will patch the issue and ensure that customers will no longer be baked beyond their preset limit.
