w.Intercom = i;Temperature Offset - Any Tips? — tado° Community

Temperature Offset - Any Tips?

New to Tado (from Hive)

Have Tado TRVs on all but rad with stat in that room. Currently my lowest temp is set to 15, highest is set to 19. As its new, and I'm still playing. This is the same for all rooms. Basically 15 over night, 18 during day, 19 for evening.

Went round with a digital thermometer to check room temps near to middle as I was aware the TRVs aren't true because they are sat on the hot pipe.

I then adjusted the temp offset, so the TRVs read the same as the thermometer.
This kind of works, as in, the room will keep heating now, until the middle is the actual desired temp (19).
However, the rooms now massively under read when cold. The worst room, I had to set to - 2.2 offset, fine when the rads hot.
But overnight, the room temp is really about 16, however, because it now has a - 2.2 offset, Tado sees it as 13.8 and fires the boiler all night

Is there anyway to better implement this? Wondering how others use this setting?

After spending £500+, I don't fancy buying a bloody temp sensor for every room @£80 a pop.

It's almost as if it needs a setting where the offset is only active when the heating is on or something. No idea if that's feasible.
Just seems when the system is cold, the TRVs are reasonably accurate, and would turn the heating on close to the right temp. However as soon as the system heats, the TRVs start over reading because they are sat right on the hot pipe!

Comments

  • Yes. It's a bit annoying. I have a -2 on one radiator but that's independent so it can't fire the boiler anyway. If it's just the one that's doing it will be easier to set it to be independent. Also when the heating does come on the radiator will be turned up higher so it grabs more heat while it can as thwarting a heat request seems to make them far more likely to come on and get hot.

    If it's showing 2c too low the other option is to set the overnight schedule temperature in that room to about 12.5 as then it should only come on when it's properly cold.

  • That is an option I guess yeah, thanks.
    It hopefully is a temporary issue.

    Currently downstairs is cold and poorly set out.
    Kitchen has no rad or door, dining room and hallway are old single panel rads (Front room I've already redone, so is insulated for and ceiling, proper sized rad). Dining room has suspended timber floor, with original floorboards with gaps in them!

    Next year we're ripping it all out and making a kitchen diner etc. So then, rads will be better sized, no draughts etc.

    I think ill probably end up with a temp sensor in a couple of rooms, maybe 3. Upstairs heating barely comes on, all those rooms are redone, insulated etc. So likely front room, kitchen diner, and hallway I guess.

    Currently redoing them all, using the Tado temp sensor. Not sure which is more accurate, that, or my digital one, which is very old, and nothing fancy. Vs the new, expensive, Tado.
    Sat literally on top of each, digital one reads 1.3 lower than Tado does.

    Sorry for rambling!
  • wateroakley
    wateroakley Volunteer Moderator

    @Rom That's kinda how offset works for us. Our lounge has a big radiator. A digital thermometer reported lower temperatures than the TRV reported. With trial and error, we got to a -2 deg C offset when at 20 deg C. Now, when the room is cooler, at (say) 15 deg C, the TRV consistently reports 13 deg C. We ignore this and simply adjust the daytime temperature settings a bit lower in the app. The alternative is to put in a room stat.

    The dining room rad behaves similarly with an offset. The TRVs are probably being heated locally, due to it's nearness to the radiator fins (without a cover panel), and sitting above the flow pipe. All the other rads have outside clip-on side-panels, or LST, these behave without any offset.

  • I’m having similar issues with offset, especially with TRVs. Maybe the system could be a bit smarter and understand that the offset will vary depending on whether the rad is on/off, the outside temp and the room. It needs to “learn” how the room in question behaves.

    One other option would be to have a lower priced variation of the wireless temp sensor which can be set as the measuring device for the room. It does not need to have the display or buttons. It could simply be a small discreet device that wirelessly measures temp at a much lower price point. (I may add this as a suggestion)