Yves Béhar’s latest smart thermostat looks like a small steel box

By Monika Thakur

July 18, 2015

3 min read

So far, we’ve seen various hi-end smart thermostats that are good for tech savvy people, but there’s no thermostat for ordinary people who are not very tech proficient. However, renowned designer Yves Béhar, founder of San Francisco industrial design studio fuseproject, wants to change that with latest Hive Active Heating 2.

It is a simple wall-mounted steel box created for UK energy supplier British Gas, providing easy temperature regulation at home. Keeping ordinary people in mind rather than technology lovers. The tiny device is upgraded version of previous Hive thermostat. The latest one is aimed at early adopters, who are new to smart technology. The best thing is obviously its central dial that needs to be turned for accurate temperature settings.

Behar said in an interview,

Users of these products are going to be everyone from your grandma to your auntie. So the way this was built is that we didn’t want to add another screen in the home. I’m a designer in technology but I don’t prescribe putting screens on everything.

The new device allows homeowners to program their heating and hot water devices, just like any traditional thermostat. However, the latest version of Hive can also be controlled wirelessly via smartphone or tablet.
Additional features included in the device are holiday-mode setting, flexible scheduling options and multi-zone heating support. Holiday mode setting is to alert homeowners if any unwanted activities occur in their absence.

Overall, it’s an intelligent device to offer full control over your room’s temperature. This tiny smart device is available in various colors to match up with your home decor. So you don’t have to worry about its robust steel design, as you can choose from different color options. As for now, it’s only available in UK for British as subscribers. We’re not sure about its availability in other countries.