Best Wifi enabled thermostat

[Siscar]

FuzzyLogic said:

I had the British Gas Hive controller installed just after it came out a couple of months ago. £200 including installation and allows you to control the hot water and central heating independently. It has a free app available to allow control from the phone whilst on the move.

I have been very pleased with it so far and it works well. I can definitely recommend.

Yes, I guess that's what we have. I'm struggling to understand what it is that would be useful that it doesn't do, although all it does really is allow us to schedule when the heating comes on and goes off and then to override that remotely using an app on my phone.

Obviously no problem in people wanting more, I just don't really understand what is more that is useful.

[anonymous-user]

I asked this earlier but will try again ...

I've got underfloor heating where you have separate zones with their own thermostat.

Would you need a Nest for each zone or do they have some clever alternative? (I'm guessing its one per zone).

[Tiggsy]

Bit late to this party....

I have an OLD system consisting of a 30 year old wall stat in the dining room, rads with normal off/on valves and a pretty basic programmer by the boiler for water/heating.

Having just got a revised bill for £400+ pm on gas/lecy....I want to save some costs!

Is TADO the way and then just turn off/down rads in rooms I dont use.....or should I still fit TRv's???

And does TADO work alongside my current water/heat programmer? or replace it?

[Tiggsy]

oh, and while we're at it - anything that will tie in the electricity useage too?

[Siscar]

garyhun said:

I asked this earlier but will try again ...

I've got underfloor heating where you have separate zones with their own thermostat.

Would you need a Nest for each zone or do they have some clever alternative? (I'm guessing its one per zone).

From what I can see its one per zone, but you can probably tell I don't really know. You seem to potentially need a few of thme, it talks about detecting whether you are there, well does that mean one in each room? It would be a shame if it thought you weren't in the house because you were in a room without one, but it's not an enormous house for there to be ten or more rooms.

[anonymous-user]

I think you are probably right Siscar. I think I could get away with 6 of the little critters - not too bad.

[Siscar]

To my amateur eye TADO seems a lot more innovative than Nest, Nest looks pretty but I'm really not seeing how it helps trying to learn when to come on and off, much easier to tell it. But TADO linking in with your phone so it knows where you are and switches on when you are getting near to home makes a lot more sense (so long as your heating can get your house up to temperature reasonably quickly).

[scottri]

Siscar said:

To my amateur eye TADO seems a lot more innovative than Nest, Nest looks pretty but I'm really not seeing how it helps trying to learn when to come on and off, much easier to tell it. But TADO linking in with your phone so it knows where you are and switches on when you are getting near to home makes a lot more sense (so long as your heating can get your house up to temperature reasonably quickly).

That's the conclusion I have reached. Placed my order yesterday. Decided to choose the rent option - if it works as well as they claim then I will buy it. If not, i'll try a different one at the end of the years rental.

[bogie]

Yeah tado seems to take it to the next level and actually understand where you are i.e. you dont have to tell it

...With the salus I do still press a button on the phone/website when im away from home ....of course for Tado to work you have to be happy with that company tracking your location and have a compatible smartphone

Thats going to be the issue with a lot of new convenience technology that can be implemented now; some people dont care about their privacy, but others do, and finding the right balance is the challenge

e.g. do you want some unknown company watching your every move at home, storing the data, then getting bought by another company who has different ideas on what they can do with the data? imagine the power you have if you know exactly where people are at all times...imagine if they get hacked? etc etc

[anonymous-user]

Looking at the website for Tado, it would appear that for a zoned UFH system you still have only one Tado thermostat in the primary room. You then let the other rooms use their existing room.zone thermostats.

How is that any better than just using normal thermostats because I'm not sure how Tado controlling just one room will make much difference. Am I missing something?

Thanks
Gary

[Siscar]

garyhun said:

Looking at the website for Tado, it would appear that for a zoned UFH system you still have only one Tado thermostat in the primary room. You then let the other rooms use their existing room.zone thermostats.

How is that any better than just using normal thermostats because I'm not sure how Tado controlling just one room will make much difference. Am I missing something?

Thanks
Gary

It seems to me that there are two different issues going on. TADO is focused on the one of being innovative about controlling when your heating comes on and only doing it when you need it. That seems pretty good to me, OK there is the question of the data of where you are but whilst there is no evidence that they are recording that personally I don't have the concern about data anyway. If somebody somewhere is recording where I am it doesn't particularly bother me, it's neither interesting nor damaging to me anyway.

Meanwhile there is then the second issue to controlling different parts of the house, different zones. I'm not seeing TADO doing anything there but I've been doing that with different controls on the radiators in various rooms. Maybe there is something more sophisticated that could happen there but for most people I guess there are the bits of your house you live in, the bits you sleep in and maybe some you rarely go in. For most (including me) I'm not sure that needs to be very sophisticated.

[fargo747]

This has made an interesting read as right now I'm trying to decide whether to go Tado or wait for Nest.

I have one concern about Nest. The wiring for the thermostat in the house is 'no longer available', having gone to a wireless stat some time back along with a new control system. This means there is nothing to wire the Nest into. Does anyone know if they will have a wireless option when it comes to the UK, or am I going to have to go to the bother of reinstalling thermostat wiring? Accepted that it will need power run to it.

Tado seems like the obvious choice given the above, but I'm drawn to the ability to see the temp and adjust it on the wall, plus the Nest is shiny and I'm weak.

[anonymous-user]

fargo747 said:

This has made an interesting read as right now I'm trying to decide whether to go Tado or wait for Nest.

I have one concern about Nest. The wiring for the thermostat in the house is 'no longer available', having gone to a wireless stat some time back along with a new control system. This means there is nothing to wire the Nest into. Does anyone know if they will have a wireless option when it comes to the UK, or am I going to have to go to the bother of reinstalling thermostat wiring? Accepted that it will need power run to it.

Tado seems like the obvious choice given the above, but I'm drawn to the ability to see the temp and adjust it on the wall, plus the Nest is shiny and I'm weak.

The US version has no wireless offering so cannot think why that would be different to the UK. It is shiny though

[paulrockliffe]

I remembered why I held off on Tado now; if you aren't using a phone to control it, the manual control doesn't look very good. Not much more than an on-off switch. My girlfriend is using an unsupported phone, so would end up buying a tablet too just for the heating.

[page3]

I'm getting lost in their FAQ. Can Tado replace a wireless (between control box in airing cupboard) to thermostat in hallway?

[paulrockliffe]

Think you wire it at the boiler and it only detects temperature there.

[scottri]

paulrockliffe said:

Think you wire it at the boiler and it only detects temperature there.

Wired into boiler but separate wireless thermostat to put where you like (solar powered)

[page3]

scottri said:

Wired into boiler but separate wireless thermostat to put where you like (solar powered)

Sounds good thanks.

[bogie]

paulrockliffe said:

I remembered why I held off on Tado now; if you aren't using a phone to control it, the manual control doesn't look very good. Not much more than an on-off switch. My girlfriend is using an unsupported phone, so would end up buying a tablet too just for the heating.

thats a plus point on the Salus IT500 ...the tabletop wireless stat/controller is nice enough to leave lying around and usable....and then use phone when you are in another room or away

theres a few distinct options on this thread and the Nest, Tado , Salus, etc are not like for like comparisons. they all have some unique selling point for their intended use which is a good choice for us consumers

[page3]

Interesting stuff.

We have a Honeywell cm927 thermostat which is quite cleaver. You set time periods and temperatures and additionally it learns how long it took to get up to temperature and adjusts when it turns on the heating accordingly. It has away (and party) modes to set other temperatures, but no one ever remembers to use them. The Tado sounds great because it would automatically do that for us but it is a real shame it doesn't have a few more override controls and temperature display on the thermostat.

Hmm. Only got a few days to decide if I want the free installation offer...