display, max valve opening, subscription

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Thanks to tado, my 25yr old house is keeping the target temperature for the first time and the overall heating cost are down. I love it!

A few suggestions:

1) The valve opening (%) should be visible at the home screen (right next to room name and room temperature). Important to instantly see the level of heating per room when opening the app.

2) Please allow to set maximum valve opening. I have underfloor heating and tado tends to turn on the heat with maximum power in the mornings or when windows were opened. That’s neither energy efficient nor good for the floor materials (wooden planks and tiles). Also, the high watet pressure when calves are fully opened makes a noise. It would be much better if I could set the maximum valve opening to, say, 60%.

3) Auto-shutdown when windows are open should be included in the base package. Without, every open window causes tado to fully open the room valves. The subscription package doesn’t offer much except for this function. Feels like a cheap and annoyijg money grab.
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  • Pythagoras
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    The valve opening % is an attribute of the valve device and not of the room.

    There may be several radiators in the room and they may have different % open.

  • eezytiger
    eezytiger ✭✭✭
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    I don't think it is possible and certainly not meaningful to have a % valve open value. Different valves have different flow characteristics which Tado cannot possibly determine. Tado could, I guess, show the % of travel of the plunger/pin, but that would be no indicator of the flow rate. You could have the valve "open" by, say, 10%, but have no flow at all. By 30% "open" it might be gushing at full flow.

    See this video by Heat Geek. It's about lockshield valves, but I'm sure the uncertainties of flow rate vs pin movement would be just as relevant to TRVs.

    This is why, for some installations, including my own, Tado may assume a valve has been opened (partially) while in fact there is still no flow at all. I believe that, based on such feedback, they had to modify the behaviour of the SRT motors to make sure that "open" really does mean "open". As for trying to assign a precise % value to the degree of "open", in my opinion there is not a chance of success. Tado cannot know exactly what the valve is doing, only that they have (probably) opened it or closed it.

    Also, there is the three wavy lines indicator, as a guide to the heating level for each radiator. You might just as well take the wavy lines as % indicators. i.e. no wavy line = off, one wavy line = 33% etc.. However I know that in my home the boiler remains off when a radiator is showing one wavy line and does not fire until it shows two wavy lines. So there is a significant disconnect between the implied heating contribution of a radiator and any actual heat being produced. Trying to ask for % precision when even the three wavy lines are near meaningless seems a bit ambitious.

  • robbietobbie
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    Thanks for the replies. They missed my point. Currently, the valves frequently open 100% = noise and too much energy use (6l/h). I want to limit the valve opening to 60-70%. It doesn’t have to be an exact %, just less than 100%. Surely this should be possible given the auto configuration?
  • GrayDav4276
    GrayDav4276 ✭✭✭
    edited February 7
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    I don't think that tado is that refined tbh
    Tado is only a "slightly smart" system.....it would have to be a much more powerfully "smart" system.....which I don't think that it is.
  • robbietobbie
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    Of course tado would be capable of this. How else does it regulate the temperature? Just allow for a setting to limit flow to 2 flames max.
  • GrayDav4276
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    After using tado for 3.5 years, my knowledge of their capability/willingness to achieve this type of request is obviously incorrect.
    So I will remove myself from this thread.