Elgato's Eve Thermo lets you control your radiators with Siri
But otherwise, it's not the smartest of smart heating products.
Elgato is best known, in some circles at least, for its niche video products. In recent history, however, it's somewhat reinvented itself as a maker of smart home devices. The company's Eve range already includes smart plugs, door/window sensors and home/weather monitors, and today it's being joined by the Eve Thermo. This new device is easily installed on standard radiator valves, retrofitting them for remote, smartphone control. Like the rest of the Eve line-up, Thermo is compatible with Apple's HomeKit smart home platform, meaning you can politely ask Siri to kick the temperature up a notch when you're feeling a bit chilly.
There are plenty of smart heating solutions available in the UK already, but Elgato's is slightly different. While thermostats rely on a direct link to your boiler, Eve Thermo adjusts temperature at the radiator end. There's one advantage to this: no complicated installations or specialist engineers required. Otherwise, though, it's not exactly an elegant way of controlling your home heating.
Through the Eve app, you can manually tweak radiator temperature, set up groups of multiple Thermos and create heating schedules. But all of these features, including Siri integration, are useless if your heating isn't actually on, which you still have to manage manually. Also, by omitting WiFi in favour of Bluetooth 4.0, your iOS device has to be in range of the Thermo valve to talk to it. This also means you can't control anything when you're out of the house, unless you have an Apple TV that'll pass on your orders.
Now, we can't suggest a practical way you'd make something like this rechargeable, but nevertheless, being powered by a pair of AA batteries doesn't seem very... hi-tech. Elgato's Eve Thermo is a curious product, and we're not sure whether it makes life easier, or that bit more complicated. Anyway, if you see an obvious place for it in your home heating situation, the Thermo is available now through Elgato or Apple for £59.95 a piece.
