The Big Idea Archive

StephenTrooper

The absence of this is a source of ongoing frustration with what is otherwise an excellent system. I would like to register people who are regularly in our home when my wife and I are not: children, who have left home but stop-over frequently; cleaners and so forth.

The only functionality I’m interested in for guests is geofencing: I’d like the system to recognise they are within the geofence.

For example, my wife and I left the house this morning, forgetting Tado would switch the hot water off, which wasn’t fun for my daughter (visiting) who subsequently found her only option was to have a cold shower!!

THK

6 months - and counting...

I thinks this is a very delicate and unpleasant issue, which needs attention from Tado!

[Deleted User]

Hi Dunkelmann,

Thank you for the feedback - I will discuss this with my colleagues to see if we can have an alternative view which has more contrast to increase legibility.

Best regards,

Frank

c12ble

I want to use a tablet to show the app, and temps of rooms etc, but want to turn it on its side but current app keeps it in upright position.

Can this be done?

usr_tg

Do you plan to introduce humidity tiles in Apple Home App in Homekit?

Jurian

Double post: https://community.tado.com/en-gb/discussion/439/allow-changing-the-order-of-tiles#latest

jelockwood

@Frank

I presume you are referring to SMETS1 and SMETS2 style electricity and gas smart meters? The UK is starting to roll out SMETS2 meters (we have had SMETS1 for sometime) but these are by no means yet universal although the UK Government is pushing energy suppliers to get to that point.

My problem is that whilst if you have a smart meter of this type it will report back to the energy supplier and typically they also provide an IHD - In Home Display a matching device to display energy use statistics these are not yet accessible via a smart home platform.

There is nothing in theory to prevent this doing so but this requires a matching type of device called a CAD - Consumer Access Device.

Note: Smart meters, IHDs and CADs all communicate on a 'HAN' which a 'home area network' using the Zigbee protocol.

A CAD device can then take the meter reading statistics and either make them available on your LAN or send them to a cloud service. See this as an example -

https://rainforestautomation.com/rfa-z114-eagle-200-2/

and

https://rainforestautomation.com/rfa-z114-eagle-200/

Unfortunately the above example is only for SMETS1 and has some UK compatibility issues even then.

Sadly the (UK) energy suppliers - even the small supposedly smarter players are doing nothing to facilitate this sort of use and to presume a politician has a clue is sheer madness!

My own current energy provider is rolling out SMETS meters with an IHD that in theory also acts as a CAD but they in order to save costs are not including the WiFi module that would be needed. As the making of this IHD/CAD device almost completely is focused on energy suppliers as their customers getting the module as a mere home owner is going to be very hard.

My provider is using an IHD/CAD made by the following -

https://www.geotogether.com/products-services/tempo-smarter-energy/

Even if you get a suitable CAD and WiFi module these have their own proprietary APIs although here at least there is generally the possibility to get documentation.

What would be interesting to know is if Tado have any plans to make this sort of thing easier?

thouky

When an Extension Kit is used to control both heating and hot water then currently any Smart Thermostat (or Smart Radiator Thermostat) can call for heat, but only one Smart Thermostat can control the hot water. It would be better if any Smart Thermostat could be used to control the hot water.

Dunkelmann

Please can we have a fixed Y scale. That is, one that remains with the same max value and min value when the X (time) scale is moved.

Please can this scale be user selectable for both humidity and temperature.

The reason I ask is that sliding the Time scale shows discontinuities on the X scale. This looks strange and especially so when the humidity scale changes but the temperature scale doesn't.

Dunkelmann

Please do not show 24 hour sections but a sliding window of a length selected by the user.

For example I would like to see, say a Time duration of16 hours on the graph Y scale. I also wish to slide this window back say 2 hours, so I see a Time range of 18 hours ago to 2 hours ago.

This would work in conjunction with my other suggestion of a fixed Y scale range.

Dunkelmann

I meant to say "a Time duration of 16 hours on the graph X scale".

Jensenx

Hi,

I’m using the smart thermostat for my floor heating, and it would be nice if it was possible to set a minimum % output, so the floor doesn’t get cold.

Tucker

Show which people are in the home, also when they arrived and left.

tadeDm

Tado should implement a way in which every action taken via the app is logged. There are times where users who have access (mainly kids) have changed something and then no one takes responsibility. By having an audit trail of some sort, it would be easy to identify the user (and would then perhaps be able to see historic adjustments)

Steven

I can see who is in the home when I click on the geofencing bit of the app.

Why do you need to log when people arrive/leave your house?

Steven

There is a 'until next time block' option when manually setting in the app, is this what you mean?

AlexHeylin

If you want that to be the default, you can change in settings. However agree, it doesn't seem hard to add this button to app.

AlexHeylin

That's nontrivial. Suggest taking kids access away and see if it "magically" stops being a problem.

AlexHeylin

I belive the request was to be able to enter this info manually. In fact to use data from smart meter you're going to have to write virtually all the code required for manual input and then write all the code to talk to smart metering (good luck with that!). So why not just write the manual input now - which everyone can use regardless of fuel and meter type?
Smart meter rollout won't complete for another ~ 20 years (not enough installer engineers for a start) - why wait for that?

AlexHeylin

I think that rather defeats the purpose of multi-zoning. Can you explain your use case?

AlexHeylin

My understanding is that Tado should learn the lag and recalculate to allow for lag and avoid overshoot on a zone by zone basis. If this is still happening 12 months after installation, I'd raise this with support as a fault.

AlexHeylin

They certainly should NOT be charging for features which were advertised without any mention that they cost £36 a year. While I recognise ongoing income funds ongoing development etc, to fail to mention anything about subscription in advertising then lock off features that were advertised seems wrong. If it was saving me £100 a year, I might pay £36 - as it is I actually use more fuel with Tado.

AlexHeylin

Groups is a good idea. I can think of at least two places I would use this - for example, big house used by two people, each have rooms they use separately but tend to group together such as bedroom and bathroom, or for guests guest bedroom and guest bathroom.

AlexHeylin

They're all compatible, but the question of interface type could be answered.

Unfortunately Tado take two completely contradictory views:

1. Installation should be via trained Tado specialist

2. "We HAVE to provide idiot instructions for self install and that's why we can't give you access to set up the control logic etc yourself"

Unfortunately even the Tado training does not address either interfacing issues, or ability of installer to actually program the control logic required. Even a trained installer is at the mercy of Tado to set up the control logic etc if the app decides its anything other very simple predefined control solution.

I will give credit to Tado for supporting so many interface types - best I could find in market for this. However there is some lack of clarity - see thread on eBus support.

jelockwood

Hmm, in terms of using in standard 'call for heat' mode I suppose one could argue they are all compatible. However at least currently they are not all compatible for eBus mode.

Apparently the Vaillant VR66 controller - a new model has a different implementation of eBus which Tado have not yet been able to reverse engineer. Tado would however still work with this boiler and controller in old fashioned call for heat mode.

I would certainly like to see a way to check the 'capabilities' of specific makes and models. This would then let people see the above example problem and let them have the opportunity to choose a different make/model.

ArnayS

I think it would be a good option to automatically switch mode when the schedule is active and the temperature exceeds a user defined limit

The idea is that I would set a threshold in degrees at which if the temperature exceeded my desired temperature in the schedule by more than the threshold then the mode would switch automatically i.e. if the smart schedule was in active status and :

1. if the desired temperature in the schedule was 23 degrees and the threshold was 2 degrees then if the current mode was cooling and the temperature dropped to 21 degrees then the ac would automatically switch mode to heating
2. if the desired temperature in the schedule was 23 degrees and the threshold was 2 degrees then if the current mode was heating and the temperature rose to 25 degrees then the smart ac would automatically switch mode to cooling

Jakosaur

At the moment we have all rooms turned off. Say someone wants a room to be heated but forgets to turn the room off again after. Maybe a toggle to return to the previous manual control?

If a room is already in Manual Control, when changing the Manual Control - have a toggle, near the length selector, to allow Tado to return to the previous Manual Control after the new one ends. Don't show the toggle if the new Manual Control is set to "Until you Cancel".

Our issue currently -

1. Room is Off - "Until you Cancel"
2. Manual Control to 20 Degrees
3. Returns to Smart Schedule if user forgets to switch room off again

Solution -

1. Room is Off - "Until you Cancel"
2. Manual Control to 20 Degrees, Toggle ticked to return to previous manual control
3. Returns to Off - "Until you Cancel"

Tucker

Sometines the heating isn't turning off.
Would be nice to know which phone isn't being recognised as away.

Des

Unless I've missed it, there is no IFTTT alert for 'demand for heat'. Such a feature would allow me to slave an electric radiator that I have at the end of my Kitchen where the gas heating is poor.

The IFTTT event(s) would be configured to switch the electric radiator on and off, tracking the gas boiler.

necy_sm

Hi all,

i recently bought 5 smart radiator thermostats and one extension kit. It was basically a misunderstanding with the salesman. i was told that it is possible the following use case: you buy smart radiator thermostats and the extension kit and you could switch your boiler off whenever all smart radiator thermostats reach their set value, or on if only one of them needs hot water. Today I was told by tado support that I would still need the smart thermostat for this because it is the only thing that can communicate with the extension kit. In my case I do not need that smart thermostat. Simply, there would be no space where it can control any temperature because every room is already covered with smart radiators.

I suggest that you consider making this connection possible, because I believe it is like it is now only due to the history because you probably developed the smart thermostat first.

I would like what the others have to say.

Cheers