The Big Idea Archive

MarkA

In your product information you state that the:

Radio communication (between devices):

868 MHz, Mesh (6LoWPAN)

I purchased my system based on the fact that the devices would have mesh communication to allow them to relay messages and avoid the inevitable constraints in my house where a single hub cannot reliably communicate directly to all devices. I've now been told that the Mesh Radio between devices is not part of your system and am having issues with connectivity of my devices.

Please can you update your technical literature so that other customers do not get confused and make the same expensive mistake that I have.

davidlyall

Totally agree. The technical documents implies that the devices communicate with each other using 6LoWPAN but the reality is that it's a star/hub set up where everything must communicate directly with the bridge. OK in my small modern house but a nightmare in large, old houses with stone walls

This is another example of poor information on Tado's website. I'm not saying this is deliberate but this and the fact that the TRVs do not learn should be made much clearer as many sales are made on that basis

AdyR

But they already have the Smart Thermostat which does this, or do I not understand the request?
I use a Smart Thermostat to control the under floor heating in my kitchen. It is on the wall in the kitchen and the contacts connect to the valve/ pump for it that is in the cupboard upstairs. The wireless signal controls the boiler extension to switch that on at the same time.

AdyR

This could also be where the boiler information is displayed when using a digital connector. E.g. heating water temperature (not hot water), water pressure, pump running, error messages and which devices are calling for heat.

GreenBoy

Yes having just moved to V3+ with the automatic valves, that would be a good idea

GreenBoy

That’s a great idea.

GreenBoy

Yes that’s a good idea.

Also consider making OWD customisable i.e. be able to set sensitivity between high, medium and low to suit different settings.

MatleyMan

I'm sure I'm not the only one to suggest this, but just in case...

I have radiator covers all over the house, which affects the accuracy of smart radiator thermostats because it creates a warmer environment within the cover than it is inside the room. Therefore the room is much colder than the smart radiator thermostat thinks it is. The manual adjustment offset helps but it isn't correct.

Instead it would be better if Tado could produce a cheaper thermostat which you can place on any wall or shelf and link it to that room. Thoughts?

Thanks
Dan

HGB

See external temperature sensor.

Tomek

There are several issues. The first is price - smart thermostat is simply too expensive. The second is technical - you can't have multiple smart thermostats as far as I can tell. Third is controlling multiple valves for multiple rooms - the valves have to open and close independently while the pump and the boiler is on.

One possible option would be using 2 radiator thermostats, one attached to the manifold in the boiler room, another just sitting in the heated room, not attached to anything. But that's expensive and wasteful because it requires 2 devices and uses a half of each.

samd

@Tomek - you said:

 you can't have multiple smart thermostats as far as I can tell

I have 2 smart thermostats - one for boiler-control and it also is measuring device for two rads in the kitchen and the second is purely measuring device for two rads in Lounge.

Third is controlling multiple valves for multiple rooms - the valves have to open and close independently while the pump and the boiler is on.

Are ALL your tado devices able to call heat regardless of the boiler-controller?

Tomek

> you can't have multiple smart thermostats as far as I can tell

I have 2 smart thermostats

I didn't know that works, thanks!

Are ALL your tado devices able to call heat regardless of the boiler-controller?

You lost me. Assuming I have a radiator valve attached to underfloor heating manifold in the (warm) bolier room and the smart thermostat in the cold target room, how do I set up the system so that it reads temperature of the smart thermostat, not the radiator valve, but opens the radiator valve and turns on the heating?

Tomek

Oh, never mind that, I made a quick check and there's a hidden device selection. It becomes visible only when there are multiple devices in the same room.

PaulDeen

Since the extension kit is plugged into power (and not on batteries) it should function as a signal repeater for the network.

davidlyall

Completely agree. I own a rental property that has electric heating. The panels are currently controlled by wireless room thermostats linked to a switching box between the panel and power supply. The current system has no connectivity

It would be great if Tado could release a product to enable smart control of electric heating. Especially as electric is probably the future with the desire to move away from gas and reduce household emissions

bulldog

I agree, please see my post under Bulldog.

MarkA

Thanks for the support on this thread @davidlyall

Tado folk out there, any acknowledgement and response would be most welcome.

PS I've now found that the smart thermostats on the edge of communication range are churning through batteries using a complete set in three months :-(

Adrian (tado°)

@RobB There is already a thread about this here: https://community.tado.com/en-gb/discussion/549/released-ver-5-10-manual-control-of-home-and-away-mode#latest

Additionally this has now been implemented and released as part of ver. 5.10, since a couple of days. Please note that the update is still rolling out and it might take couple of days until it is available to everybody.

jonm80

Offset doesn’t quite work right.

If you use offset to balance the heating in the room when the heating is off the real temperature is effected by your offset.

A better way to apply this would be to use the offset when the TRV is open.

jazzy_jay

Other programmable thermostats have a ‘free day’, where if you are home for a day you would normally be working, an alternate schedule is followed. At the moment, I’m home every day and need to manually turn the thermostats back up after they turn off for the workday. So create a ‘Free Day’ option to switch to alternate smart schedule as needed, thanks!

samd

@jazzy_jay Good suggestion but in the interim, have you used up all 3 of your schedule days options?

jazzy_jay

Hello, I’m not sure what you mean. Are you talking about the fact that you can change smart schedule between different day blocks or choose to program each day individually? I’m not sure how that would help.

samd

@jazzy_jay Hi - that's why I said 'in the interim'. In this current situation you could put all your devices on a different setting (schedule days - select smart schedule and half way down select mon-sun etc) to suit your 'new' arrangements.

jazzy_jay

I suppose, but I have a detailed daily schedule which I don’t want to lose or change. My old non-smart programmable thermostat had this feature so I hope Tado can implement.

jazzy_jay

If I change my schedule days from individual days to Mon-Sun, do my individual day schedules remain saved?

samd

@jazzy_jay Indeed they do - you can have 3 sets but, of course, you have to select 1 of the 3 for each tado device which makes your suggestion a good one. But for holidays at home etc the 3 sets are useful.

jazzy_jay

Thanks, seems to work ok. Would be nice to have one button rather than changing 6 devices though

Gabor

Hi
Home screen widget can be useful with the basic information, quick boost for rooms,away, home,open window,switch. This is a base idea...

Timm

I control a small heater in the cloakroom and also an electric towel rail in my en-suite, using TG WiFi’ enable fused spurs. Whilst these are Wi-fi enabled there is no way to integrate to 3rd party apps. It would be great if Tado could develop a fused spur which integrates with Tado.

JonW

It is possible (with planning) to use the existing Tado range to control electric heating. Taking a towel rail as an example if you just want it to turn on and off (not using a roomstat) then you could use an extension box (as long as you aren’t already using one). If you do want roomstat control ie turn the towel rail off if the bathroom reaches x degrees, then you could use a smart thermostat. You need to be careful as the relay contacts are only rated to 6A but this would be more than enough for a towel rail. Also great care is needed when it comes to positioning the device in a bathroom taking in to account any national wiring standards etc.
If the load will exceed 6A then it could still be done but via a contactor but this does further complicate things.
With regards electric heating, the most awkward thing is that very few new electric heaters are designed to be turned on and off by external thermostats and generally have thermostats and programmers integrated within each unit, many with Wi-Fi control using the manufacturers own app.