[Released] Launch an external temperature sensor for the Smart Radiator Thermostats

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Comments

  • Not sure if this workaround has been mentioned but I have one large room with an SRV on each of the 2 radiators. Cutting off the flow to the radiator that controls the temperature works (on days when one radiator is enough).

  • Jacopo2
    Jacopo2 ✭✭✭
    @Chimmy
    That’s the same as putting an extra TRV in the middle of the room and set it as the measurement device; some have done that, it’s cheaper than the wall thermostat
  • I’d like to see a cheaper “lite” version of the existing Tado room thermostats, one that’s smaller (like the size of a single light switch) and without the boiler/underfloor heating connectors and related internal components to bring down the cost.
  • That's what I suggested some time ago. I'd really like a radiator valve split into a simpler and cheaper valve with no sensors, no display and no controls. I'd move those into a a trimmed down room thermostat. The pair of separate devices will probably be a tad more expensive than a current radiator valve, but provide more accurate measurements, more convenient access and will be usable with underfloor systems.

    https://community.tado.com/en-gb/discussion/4079/split-radiator-valve-into-2-devices-for-convenience-and-for-underfloor-heating-systems#latest

  • HGB
    HGB ✭✭✭

    An external sensor is one of the most asked for improvements of the system, yet Tado hardly ever comments on this request in this community or other fora. They even go as far as saying you could use a Tado smart wall thermostat (far too expensive for this purpose). I remember they also accepted the idea of using a Tado RTV that's not mounted on a radiator (ugly and still too expensive)!

  • @HGB

    Indeed Tado's failure to address legitimate user requests is becoming frustrating. Tado need to pay attention to the fact that Nest, Ecobee and Heatmiser all provide dedicated temperature sensors to address this issue. Hive and Netatmo were the only ones a quick search showed that also lacked this option.

    Tado may be relying on the fact that their competitors all currently have their own flaws.

    Nest - Do not do TRVs, do not do the separate room sensor in Europe and of course do not support (officially) HomeKit

    Ecobee - Do not do anything in Europe

    Heatmiser - Do not do TRVs

    Hive - Do not do a separate room sensor, they also do not support HomeKit

    Netatmo - Do not do a separate room sensor


    I have some hope Netatmo may improve their product range and at that point it might be possible to consider switching from Tado to Netatmo.

    Whilst there are numerous areas Tado could make quick improvements via software to address user issues and the fact that far too often users have to ask Tado to make configuration changes behind the scenes because the App does not give direct user access to these settings - all of which do not generate revenue for Tado, this issue is one that requires hardware but would generate revenue from users. I and others have indicated we would likely buy such a sensor for each room meaning overall a large number of potential sales for such a sensor.

  • Chimmy
    Chimmy
    edited April 2020

    @Jacopo2 Agreed... I'd seen the "putting an extra TRV in the middle  of the room" suggestion. It's just a less than obvious variation I thought was worth mentioning to save the cost of an extra TRV

  • I've recently purchased Smart Thermostat to sit in my Living Room and control floor heating - this works okay.

    I wanted to use few Radiator Thermostats to control floor heating loops on the 2nd floor, but I realized it's not that simple... If TRVs are mounted in the "divider" they are only measuring temp in that box, not in the actual room because there's no external temp. sensors in those rooms...


    I don't know how I missed this fact, but I'm really regretting buying Tado now, because the only solution I've found so far is by buying super expensives TRVs and put them disconnected in each of the rooms... Jesus, please add some external sensors for temp...


    Did anyone tried hooking Tado to Home Assistant and using some Aqara temp sensors in each of the rooms, so that the HA can request heat from boiler via Tado?

  • Jacopo2
    Jacopo2 ✭✭✭
    edited July 2020
    Yes, I’ve used home assistant and external sensors to CORRECT the temperature measured by the valves; there is a topic I’ve opened about this...

    There is also a user who has created a script to flash into a development board that works as a standalone device (no need for home assistant)

    The only drawback is a higher battery consumption because Tado recalibrates the valves every time an offset change is requested plus the noise but I guess it won’t be a problem in your case

    Please vote this improvement and maybe add a comment so it bumps up
    https://community.tado.com/en-gb/discussion/4325/disable-trv-calibration-when-offset-is-changed-required-for-using-external-sensor#latest
  • Thanks for fast reply @Jacopo2!

    Interesting take on the corrections for TRVs - much appreciated! So with this script you can capture temperature from an external sensor and it will replace value read by TRV and either shutdown or request heat? This sounds like a pretty good workaround.

    I don't mind HA, since I'm planning to control and automate multiple things at my home.

    As for the thread: upvoted and commented 👍️

  • +1

    I'd love also the possibility to use the Smart AC thermostat to control one Smart Radiator Thermostat.

  • I have a radiator housed within a cover and used a TRV extension to mount the TRV outside of the cover. With the tado connected through the extension, it works perfectly. The temperature in the room is spot on.  

    https://www.draytoncontrols.co.uk/products/radiator-valves/TRV%20Spares%20&%20Accessories/drayton-etf2-trv-remote-setting-kit

    However, on another radiator where the tado connects to the actual radiator, it seems that the heat from the radiator is passing directly through the pin in the valve or the fitting into the tado device hence the silly readings that everyone is commenting on. My tado went from 17C to 22C in less than 30 minutes. I have tried the suggestions to mount horizontally and it makes no difference. The temperature beside the tado is nowhere near the temperate read within the tado hence thermal conduction must be occurring to skew the numbers.

    An external sensor is required as this would address the radiator cover scenario too. The TRV extension frig would look messy on non-covered radiators.

    Come on tado...a response would be nice.

  • Jacopo2
    Jacopo2 ✭✭✭
    The TRV extension kit is what I had thought about as well, but I couldn’t find any so I thought it didn’t exist
    It’s a bit expensive, though
  • Jakosaur
    Jakosaur ✭✭✭
    edited August 2020
  • Jakosaur
    Jakosaur ✭✭✭
    edited September 2020

    Wireless Temperature Sensor now announced... £70!? 😳

  • is this a joke? ahahah
  • pykpyk
    pykpyk
    edited September 2020

    80 euro?! So instead of getting some cheap way of retrieving temperature (i.e. Xiaomi sensor costs 6 euro) we are suppose to pay extra 80 euro for every room to get better room temperature read outs? I've got floor heating at the whole house, all of my Tado radiator thermostats are sitting in one box.

    This is basically the same as buying original Tado thermostat per room...

    I've really hoped this would solve my problems with Tado and stop myself from using workarounds that include Home Assistant and 3rd party sensors. Boy I was wrong.

  • I'm so glad a wireless temperature thermostat has been releasedbas this would help in 1 of my bedrooms that the radiator thermostat is covered, but I have 2 issues 1 the price, wow, should have been closer to £40 second the size, would have been better a litter smaller than 10 ish cm square.
  • Jacopo2
    Jacopo2 ✭✭✭
    edited September 2020

    they just reused existing thermostats; maybe they removed the relay or maybe they just disabled it in the firmware (whichever was cheaper); I can't believe it's that expensive; it's more expensive than the TRVs themselves

    hopefully they'll change the price or it will be available cheaper somewhere else in the future

  • The price is sadly unrealistic. As Tado should be aware the Nest Temperature Sensor which is admittedly only for the US and only for their ecosystem costs $39.

    What is more relevant is that if €79.99/£69.99 is going to be the price then it is actually more expensive than a single Tado Smart TRV which people have already been using as an alternative ugly solution.

    Since a Temperature Sensor should have less components than a complete Tado TRV this just does not make sense.

    Tado, hopefully you are reading this, please review the pricing especially for existing customers. Also consider multi-packs offerings for the sensor.

  • or just enable us to use our own sensors (i.e.disable the calibration on dynamic offset update https://community.tado.com/en-gb/discussion/comment/10970#Comment_10970)

  • jmjlewis
    jmjlewis
    edited September 2020

    So glad to hear they've announced this as well.

    I agree with both issues, and it mirrors what I had previously commented.

    Whilst we haven't got a smaller version (this new product has the exact same dimensions as the existing Wired Smart Thermostat), I am hopeful that the price will drop in a sale. I got my TRVs in the sales for £32 and since the TRV has the same RRP as this new Wireless Temperature Sensor (£69.99), it's possible that this new sensor could be in a sale for a similar price🤞. At least the RRP is significantly cheaper than the existing Wired Smart Thermostat which is RRP £119.99.

  • The price is really disappointing:(

    I would order 2 immediately if they would cost half the price. Now I will skip them for now. Hopefully there would be a big discount one day, but it's not exactly listening to customers. Everyone wanted a CHEAP temperature sensor.

  • jcwacky
    jcwacky ✭✭✭
    edited September 2020

    £70 !?? HAHAHAHAHA!! Still the same bulky size as the full thermostats?? Whaaaa?

    Why on earth does this still have the display, touch buttons and mechanical button on it? No need at all. They should have got rid of these so they could have dropped price to a sensible pricepoint. If a user needs them, they could still by the full thermostat.

    Tado really have dropped the ball here. I was so excited for this product, but this release seems pointless. Hope it's just a stopgap.

  • @jcwacky a new product costs money because of tooling and production of new components; it’s certainly cheaper to reuse something they already have by not fitting the relay in the production line (or just make a different firmware); that’s what I would do as well, but the price needs to go down
  • @Jacopo2 Yeh, sorry, that's what I meant to imply. If it was a new (smaller) design I could have understood the higher price. Surely they could have dropped the internals for the screen and touch buttons and still used the same tooling for the case though.

  • At least Tado have released something new and have listened to requests. Real real shame about the high price. Would of jumped at buying these for half the price but I suppose I'll have to keep an eye out for discounts!

  • Yes, it is a real shame about the execution of this. We're still left with the very noisy TRV with its flawed temperature sensors, and then we have to buy this additional expensive sensor at a significant cost. And it really is too big, isn't it, a shame they have just re-used the existing thermostat design, a very cheap way to make this component.

    Perhaps now they can re-engineer the TRV and make a cheaper one that doesn't have its own temperature sensor.

    When I think back to when I had manual TRV's in my bedrooms (controlled with a single Tado thermostat) I didn't have any of this fuss, and the rooms usually achieved the correct temperature, certainly much more often than with the Tado valves. Makes me think about rolling back, rather than investing another 4 x £69.99.

  • How did you use a trv as a room stat?
    They go into calibration mode if they are disconnected from the radiator and then show an error condition. Which automatically gives other rads in that zone priority.
  • @Chapstar37 They show a "Device Is Not Mounted" message in the Devices screen of the app, but they still act fine as the zone's measuring device.