How does Tado x room thermostat connect to boiler control
I have a grant combi boiler currently controlled by a hive boiler control with a wireless thermostat.
Unfortunately, the thermostat has to be too far from the boiler control, and the signal between the two keeps dropping out.
Does anyone know how the tado x room thermostat talks to the boiler control unit. Is it by direct radio signal, or via my wifi network? (I hope the latter as that would solve the problem)
For a bonus point, anyone know whether it will work with a grant combi oil fired boiler.
Oh, and I presume no issues running it alongside radiator valves from another company.
Thanks in advance for any help
Best Answer
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No, the Tado X doesn't use your home wifi to connect back. It uses a wireless transport called Thread, which operates in the 2.4Ghz range.
You need a Thread border router, this provides a gateway for the devices to talk to the wider network (and the wider network to talk to the devices). The Tado X starter kit you get will have a thread border router (either the wireless link with hot water control, or wired thermostat).
Thread is an industry standard, and Apple HomePods and Google Nest Hubs have thread radios. If you have multiple of these they create what is in effect a mesh (in reality, your devices will connect to the closest one, and then traffic is routed from there).
I have multiple Apple HomePods through the house, and my Tado X TRV's and wireless thermostat are connected to Apple Home first, then I added them to Tado.
Tado also sell the Bridge X which is sort of like a wireless repeater (but is actually just another thread border router, that then connects to the network).
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Answers
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All Tado devices use 6LOWPAN address logic. The older V2, V3 series used 868mhz radio frequences to communicate, but as you've probably worked out, thick Kent brick, or stone is impervious to that frequency. So buildings with thick old walls dont handle V2, V3 well. The X series uses Thread. modulated over the 2.4Ghz wireless band, with Matter the addressing layer, over Thread, which technically means a lot of devices which use Thread and Matter (Zigbee, Nest, Yale, Samsung) protocol can now interact.
The X series, is low powered, but was surprised that the change in frequency and change in protocol enabled it to handle much larger buildings than the V3 series. It can also serve Grant oil fired boilers with ease, because those boiler use a very simple, on-off switches to drive the boiler. The fact that you have an oil fired boiler suggests that the building is in a rural area, with thick walls, so it makes sense to use X. If you have worries when wiring, come back here and will help. We have Riello burners in our boilers too.
When we first started using mechanical TRVs (not smart ones) they worked fine alongside Tado kit- and that was our primary investment before we added Tado. It made the whole house feel sane again in winter. However the paradigym shift happened when we replaced two TRV heads ever 3 months, with Tado smart heads - starting with the bedrooms, kitchen and lounge. The cost benefit within a year is significant and it pays for itself within 2 years.
- Dont fit smart TRV heads in bathrooms, the humidity causes all kinds of crazy things to happen.
- Dont have Smart Honeywell, Hive TRV heads operating in the building at the same time. These only benefit you because they wirelessly instruct the main interface to produce heat. If you have a Tado main interface and another company's smart radiator head, they wont be collaborating - not for a few years anyway!
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Thanks so much @policywonk … but I'm still not sure of the answer to my OP, which is whether the X thermostat connects directly to the x boiler control unit, or whether it connects via my home network (ie via my wifi access points, or via the matter network (I have homepods, smart plugs etc around the house).
If it connects directly, then it may have the same problem as my existing Hive thermostat / boiler control which communicates directly, but is on the edge of the range and drops out from time to time. If it connects via the network, then it should be fine.
I already have matter smart TRVs from another manufacturer, which I am happy at this stage not to collaborate. I use them just to shut down unused radiators, rather than needing them to trigger the boiler to fire.
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The X thermostat should mate, through the boiler control box, I presume the wireless control centre. Dont have the home network get involved with that link, there is a risk that bugs appear, having seen many posts complaining of misbehaviour in the last four months they are mostly linked to interference at Matter level.
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the problem is the thermostat will be too far from the boiler control. So it has to be the network, if it can work that way.
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@philjohn . Nicely described.
@arloguthrie - somehow am not seeing the precise problem. Are the X devices having difficulty communicating directly to each other, without any other system intervening?0 -
Hi, the problem is that in my house I have to place the thermostat out of direct wireless range of the boiler control unit, therefore I need them to connect via the network … either my WAN or thread/matter, because the thermostat and the boiler unit would both be in range of a full thread device. So @philjohn answered the question (thanks) - they connect via thread.
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Let us know how you got on.
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