Support more than 10 rooms and 25 devices

@Ben_UK You're right that firmware can be updated, but actually that may not help if the device running the firmware does not have the hardware resources (perhaps RAM) to accommodate the outcome of that change.

Simplistically, from a technical perspective, each room is going to require a certain amount of RAM, NVRAM or other re-writable storage to hold the information required for a room. Let's imagine for a moment that the requirement per room is 1KB per room. The difference between being able to operate 10 rooms and 16 rooms is therefore 6KB more storage. If the device running the firmware doesn't have that extra storage space, then changing the firmware to operate for more than 10 rooms is not going to help, in fact more likely to introduce a bug.

Before anyone tells me that 1KB is tiny, and that modern computers think in MB or GB for storage like this, then I would agree (and I am illustrating the principal, not stating Tado facts). But in the world of micro power consumption (and some of these devices are running for extended periods, operating relays and motors to open mechanical valves and connecting to wireless hubs on a 24x7 basis using just 2xAA batteries) you quickly find that CPU clock speeds, storage devices and other components are working in very different capacities and speeds in order to be viable. The obvious way to solve the problem is to update the hardware platform that is the limitation as a V4 hardware release and allow people such as ourselves to purchase the higher capacity if we require it.

The underlying design question is why some of these things are now not being stored and manipulated in the cloud platform, and then the control devices (receiver) can simply be sent the command signals from the cloud platform for open/close and can transfer data points from the local measuring devices to the cloud platform. In that situation, then some of these constraints start to become much less of an issue or even disappear completely.

@Jurian I assume that the receiver is the device with the real hardware limitations, do Tado plan to increase the capacity of the system in a future hardware update ? I appreciate that the forum is the voice for a comparatively small number of fringe use case "power users", but that doesn't mean that some longer term planning couldn't accommodate these needs, even if there is no simpler answer today.

I would also refer back to some of my earlier comments about PAYG licensing based on features enabled and numbers of thermostats, TRVs and zones being used as a way to fund these kind of use cases.

@GrilledCheese2 - thanks! I was hoping that was the case but couldn't find anything to reassure me, so good to confirm, many thanks!

that would be a wise choice. I am currently holding off from buying more tado devices just because of this.

that is something that the guys in suits with excel spreadsheets cannot measure: "how many sales are we losing by keeping this limit artificially down?", and I can even mention a second effect which is that I CANNOT recommend this product to friends with large houses, just because of this software limitation alone. how would I look when they tell me "hey remember that tado thing you recommended? it actually works for half the rooms"

@manesh_tailor Yes you can have more than 10 devices. The limit is 10 ROOMS.

For example I have 14 TRV split across 11 rooms. We have a couple of rooms with 2 x Rad.

One room in our house is unable to call for heat - it's the least used room. However if the TRV is on and another rooms calls it'll consume heat.

The advice I got from Tado was to either run with the above, or tie the TRV(s) in Room 11 to an existing room. This could be confusing IMO.

I personally think that the tado° limits are due to their server configuration.......so unless tado° invest in a "MASSIVE MAJOR" server upgrade......then we/you are stuck with the current constraints......imho

I've got a solution.

I bought a wired smart thermostat, set it up, pretended that I was replacing a Drayton thermostat. There is no "actual" second zone, so nothing physical to control.

Although the instructions say it would be automatically assigned to be a zone controller, it wasn't and I had to recruit Tado help, who said "I have now created a second heating zone in your account."

So now I have two zone controllers, with a limit of 10 valves on each, and that works perfectly for me.

I didn't bother wiring the new "wired" thermostat to anything / anywhere since I don't have an actual valve to control. It may turn out that I have to parallel it across the other wired stat (if it's only those valves in the second zone calling for heat).

I don't imagine this solution would work for digital control systems. Mine is analogue.

I might have a solution to overcome the 10-room limitation. I noticed that the limitation was on the "zone controller". A zone controller can also be a wireless receiver, hence the confusion.

So, willing to take the risk of failure, I bought an extra Wireless Receiver to test a setup in which I divide the rooms over them. Both receivers will be wired in paralel to the same port on my heating system. I think it does add a device in the device count, I am afraid.

There is another benefit of this setup. Per floor my floor heating zones concentrate to a Therminon manifold that also has a water pump. At the moment I have a Honeywell controller in between that receives wired signals from Tado Thermostats and controls Honeywell valves and the waterpump om the manifold. If I replace the Honeywell valves with TRV's and also connect the Tado wireless receiver to the water pump, I may be able to get rid of the Honeywell controller. After my upcoming renovation I anticipate to have 3 extra manifolds and this way I could add wireless thermostats rather than the more expensive wired thermostats. Also, I could get rid of the Honeywell valves that can only go open or closed and don't function the way I would like.

I'm going to play around with this setup and gradually increase it's scope to see if it works. The next step would be to add 5 TRV's to my setup and replace all Honeywell valves and the controller of my current manifold setup.

A second setup idea was to also add another bridge. This bridge would get a separate account, which is a pain because you'll need to logout and login to different accounts all the time. If, however, I can use a third party app or system to integrate both accounts, I. would be able to control them both through this third party app. I'm investigating the possibility through Homey Pro. But can I buy a bridge separately? hmmm, only in kits...

Meanwhile I must say it is extremely lame of Tado that they do not come up with a solution that clearly so many users have been asking for so many years.

Current manifold setup could do with a little cable management... Note that I replaced a Honeywell valve (left dangling) with a TRV as a test. 4 wired Tado Thermostats are connected to the Honeywell controller. This controller controls 6 floor heating valves and the water pump. If any room needs heating, the valves for that room open and the waterpump starts. The thermostats are connected to the Tado Wireless Receiver, together wit all the TRV's in the rest of the house. If any of them require heating, the receiver kicks my heater into action. Apart from 3 rooms, as I currently have a 13 room setup, 3 more than the max allowed.

OK, the second receiver works. I now have two receivers controlling the same heater. This allowed me to overcome the 10-room limitation. All 12 rooms (I repurposed the garage TRV) are controlled independently and all rooms can fire up the heater if needed.

I now have two limitations remaining:

1) 25 heating devices

2) internet bridge range

I just don't know how to overcome these limitations without a second account. But that would mean I always miss oversight of half my house. In principle this is only a front-end issue. I have two Philips Hue accounts, but an app like iConnect enables me to integrate both in 1 app seamlessly. All I need is something like that for Tado!