Best Wifi enabled thermostat

Best Wifi enabled thermostat

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Discussion

jon-

16,496 posts

215 months

Friday 21st November 2014
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So, just replaced my programmer with a TADO extension kit. It all works well, as it should, but we noticed one issue when installing it.

The relays are sticky relays.

This means, should the internet go down while your heating and hot water are on, they will stay on and not default back to an off position.

Strange design choice...

spants

1,052 posts

226 months

Saturday 22nd November 2014
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There are a couple of tweeks that you can do with the Tado v1 and V2+extension kit. I have wireless temperature sensors on the hotwater tank, upstairs and downstairs.

There is a provision for Tado to control the temperature but this is not enabled by default as there is no supporting hardware. However, as I monitor the temperature independently and send this to Tado via their API. I got them to turn on the setting on my account.

By sliding across the setting screen, I can see the current hot water temperature.



I plot the temperatures using node-red and emoncms .... very beta at the moment. I am also looking at building rules to alert if a window is open upstairs and the heating is on (using temperature diffs_....



Node-Red:

Pheo

3,324 posts

201 months

Saturday 22nd November 2014
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What temp sensors ae you using?

technogogo

401 posts

183 months

Saturday 22nd November 2014
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technogogo said:
Just installed my new rented Tado. Pleased so far. It took around a week from phone call order to self installation - which was easy. All working as advertised. The only slight thing is my house is only losing 1.3c overnight. Less than I would have guessed. I did take my loft insulation from an adequate 100mm to a toasty 300mm a month ago. Clearly in really cold weather I will see more of a temperature drop. But I do wonder a little about the actual benefits of the geofencing feature. When away during the day I seem to only be avoiding a small number of brief 'boosts' to the heating. I suppose those would add up though eh?! Also overnight temp is set to 16c but I may only see that used in really arctic conditions?

I would be interested to know what temp drop others are seeing overnight. So mine is a 1980's traditional 4 bed detached. Double glazed. Bish-bash-bosh (meaning low) standard of cavity fill. Night time outside temp of 8-10c sees a 1.3c drop indoors.
Quick update 6 days into Tado v2 ownership. All going well. Presence detection for me, wife and daughter working well. Still seeing around a 1.4 to 1.7c drop overnight. Better than I'd have guessed. But seeing it take up to 2 hrs of heating to get temperature from its early morning low point, typically just above 19c back to 20.8, the current daytime setting. Longer than I'd have guessed. (Outside overnight south Eastern Dorset currently still a very mild 13c)

So a took before and after gas readings to see what this mornings 86mins of heating cost. Results are 0.695 units of gas, 1.96685 cubic metres. 21.93Kw/hrs.
On my current gas tariff.... 77.6 pence (Plus the 32p daily standing charge.)

No idea if that is useful to anyone or how it compares to a typical house? I guess this is how they work out the energy rating you see on houses for sale?

This morning was the first Saturday with the Tado.. The Daytime setting is set to start at 8:30am weekends. I noticed at 7:15 that the radiators were still cold. Actually that was reported by the wife :-) I was still tucked in so no worries. But I did wonder when the boiler would turn on. If was programmed to start at 6:30 pre-Tado. In the end the Tado fired up the boiler at 7:45 and 19.7c. Which worked out fine from a comfort standpoint and would have been less wasteful than a 6:30 start.


Paper Lawyer

247 posts

228 months

Saturday 22nd November 2014
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Paper Lawyer said:
Well, after reading this thread through last night and spending a few further hours of research, I've bitten the bullet and bought the Tado (including the extension kit to replace the Drayton programmer I have connected to my Worcester 30CDI system boiler). I hesitated as I use juicedefender to maximise my android phone's battery life and I guess I'll have to create an exception for the Tado app within Juice Defender to enable the geofencing to work properly. I'm hoping to clawback the cost of the system over a couple of winters....fingers crossed!

The geofencing appealed to me as my wife and my two young daughters are in and out the house at different times on a daily basis and the Nest's motion sensing didn't sound too quick to react in that situation. Plus I like the HW control that the Tado extension kit offers.
I received my Tado yesterday and so I attempted installation this evening. When I provided my current setup to the Tado installation wizard I received a message that Tado didn't have installation instructions for my particular set up (hardly unusual set up - simple Drayton relay thermostat, Drayton LP722 programmer and Worcester 30CDI system boiler) and that I should wait for instructions to be sent to me.

Undetered, I inputted the aerial numbers for the bridge, thermostat and extension unit (all accepted) and the bridge made a connection to the Tado servers.

I diconnected my existing wired thermostat and connected the live cable to the COM connection of the Tafo thermostat and the signal cable to the NC connection.

I was greeted with the "Hi!" message on the thermostat and I have all 3 lights on the bridge lit solid green. Yet when I log onto My Tado I@m told the bridge does not have a radio link to the thermostat.

I pressed on, quickly clipping the extension kit onto the standard UK programmer backplate. Now I have a flashing led on that unit too - nothing seems to be pairing up despite rebooting the bridge a few times and hodling down the button on the thermostat to trigger the pairing mode.

I don't have a clear picture of the installation process - can anyone tell me the step I'm overlooking?

Magic919

14,126 posts

200 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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Sounds fine to me. Tado needed to do something at their end, or so they told me. Support were quick to respond.

Paper Lawyer

247 posts

228 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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Thanks for the reply - I have just tried the sun port number but support is Monday to Friday 7am to 6pm which I no use if you are trying to install the setup outside your normal working week. I can see that I will have to reinstall the old thermostat for now. Frustrating.

Edited by Paper Lawyer on Sunday 23 November 08:48

Magic919

14,126 posts

200 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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It's annoying that you need to interact with them so much for a very simple set up. Mine was just two wires, swapping the stat and I had a few hoops to jump through with them.

I used the email support system and got speedy replies.

-Z-

5,980 posts

205 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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Paper Lawyer said:
Thanks for the rply - I have just tried the sun port number but support is Monday to Friday 7am to 6pm which I no use if you are trying to install the setup outside your normal working week. I can see that I will have to reinstall the old thermostat for now. Frustrating.
Agreed, it is a bit annoying about being closed on weekends but at least they allow self imstalls, unlike Hive.

Oh and they open till 7pm on weekdays, or they did last week anyway smile

Their phone/email support really is excellent though. If you ask them to call you back in 20 minutes they really do. And if you miss their call they send you an email saying they are waiting for your call.

Edited by -Z- on Sunday 23 November 08:48

mouseymousey

2,641 posts

236 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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Paper Lawyer said:
Thanks for the reply - I have just tried the sun port number but support is Monday to Friday 7am to 6pm which I no use if you are trying to install the setup outside your normal working week. I can see that I will have to reinstall the old thermostat for now. Frustrating.

Edited by Paper Lawyer on Sunday 23 November 08:48
I had a very similar issue to you when I did my install yesterday and I phoned 020 3769 5613 at about 4pm and spoke to someone, so have you actually tried calling?

The guy I spoke to had to put the bridge back into pairing mode then I re-paired the extension unit. Have you done that bit? There is a button on top of the extension unit that you hold in for 5 seconds until the LED flashes really quickly, it will then try and pair with the bridge. Also, I have a Worcester 28CDi boiler and have the instructions that Tado sent to me for that boiler, would they be any use to you? PM if you want the PDF.

I'm having a strange issue at the moment where my temperature is set to 20.2 degrees but the heating is still on and the actual temp has gone through 20.2 and is now 21. Seems odd.

paulrockliffe

15,639 posts

226 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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My suspicion is that they do something on your account when you work through their online instructions. As a way of stopping someone doing their own thing and getting it wrong.

I had the same issue, tried to work through the instructions for a different boiler, but couldn't find one that was compatible with my version of the box. Installed the kit anyway, but need a phone call to get it all activated. When I rang they confirmed every detail of my wiring.

Paper Lawyer

247 posts

228 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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mouseymousey said:
I had a very similar issue to you when I did my install yesterday and I phoned 020 3769 5613 at about 4pm and spoke to someone, so have you actually tried calling?
Yes, I tried early this morning and I tired again a few moments ago - there is a recorded message stating hours are 7am to 6pm, Monday to Friday frown

mouseymousey said:
The guy I spoke to had to put the bridge back into pairing mode then I re-paired the extension unit. Have you done that bit? There is a button on top of the extension unit that you hold in for 5 seconds until the LED flashes really quickly, it will then try and pair with the bridge.
I tried pairing by switching off and switching on again the bridge (as there do not appear to be any buttons whatsoever on the bridge to otherwise trigger the pairing process) whilst the thermostat and the extension kit were in pairing mode (as triggered by holding down the button on each device). No success frown

mouseymousey said:
Also, I have a Worcester 28CDi boiler and have the instructions that Tado sent to me for that boiler, would they be any use to you? PM if you want the PDF.
That's a kind offer but it seems pretty straightforward (he says!) - two wires on the thermostat (which would not prevent pariing even if I got it wrong) and the extension kit just snaps onto the rear plate of the existing programmer. Is there anything I've missed?



Edited by Paper Lawyer on Sunday 23 November 12:48

mouseymousey

2,641 posts

236 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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Paper Lawyer said:
That's a kind offer but it seems pretty straightforward (he says!) - two wires on the thermostat (which would not prevent pariing even if I got it wrong) and the extension kit just snaps onto the rear plate of the existing programmer. Is there anything I've missed?


Edited by Paper Lawyer on Sunday 23 November 12:48
No - don't think there is anything you've missed. I had the same problem and the support guy did something remotely to but the bridge back into pairing mode. After that it all worked as expected. Very frustrating for you!

spants

1,052 posts

226 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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The pairing now requires you to hold the button to put it in pairing mode whilst they change something their end. It was a real pain because I was away for a couple of days!. The tado v1 was easier to set up as it didnt require this step.

spants

1,052 posts

226 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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Pheo said:
What temp sensors ae you using?
I am using XRF radios from Ciseco plc with this board http://shop.ciseco.co.uk/temperature-xrf-developme...
It is certainly a hackers system rather than plug and play!. Each wireless temp sensor works out about £20 and then you need a radio to receive the data on a pc = http://shop.ciseco.co.uk/srf-stick-868-915-mhz-eas... or the raspberrypi version = http://shop.ciseco.co.uk/slice-of-radio-wireless-r...

....and a little bit of coding (use node-red)

Paper Lawyer

247 posts

228 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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spants said:
The pairing now requires you to hold the button to put it in pairing mode whilst they change something their end. It was a real pain because I was away for a couple of days!. The tado v1 was easier to set up as it didnt require this step.
Great, so that means I have to be at home during office hours to complete this step frown Well, I suppose I could do it at before I set off to work.

jon-

16,496 posts

215 months

Monday 24th November 2014
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My tado had the heating on today at 7.30am, despite "day mode" not due until 8.30 and the temperature being registered as 7c over the night mode setting.

I've emailed in.

recalluk

810 posts

235 months

Monday 24th November 2014
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jon- said:
My tado had the heating on today at 7.30am, despite "day mode" not due until 8.30 and the temperature being registered as 7c over the night mode setting.

I've emailed in.
Thats how its SUPPOSED to work. I.e when do you want the house to be at this temperature not what time do you want me to start.

It gets the temp set ready for the "Day mode" its not an on/off. As the system learns how fast your house heats/cools it will adjust what time it comes on.

For example on a VERY cold day mine comes on at about 6:30 ready for me to be out of bed for 7:30, however on a chillyish day it would kick in about 7:15 for the same target time.

jon-

16,496 posts

215 months

Monday 24th November 2014
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recalluk said:
jon- said:
My tado had the heating on today at 7.30am, despite "day mode" not due until 8.30 and the temperature being registered as 7c over the night mode setting.

I've emailed in.
Thats how its SUPPOSED to work. I.e when do you want the house to be at this temperature not what time do you want me to start.

It gets the temp set ready for the "Day mode" its not an on/off. As the system learns how fast your house heats/cools it will adjust what time it comes on.

For example on a VERY cold day mine comes on at about 6:30 ready for me to be out of bed for 7:30, however on a chillyish day it would kick in about 7:15 for the same target time.
In my defense I'm an idiot.

And it was 7.30am on a Monday morning hehe

moles

1,794 posts

243 months

Tuesday 25th November 2014
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Evohome users- Can you tell me if the system is 2 way in operation?, base station sends signal to the try's but if you adjust a trv via its head does this setting then get sent back to the base station or is it a 1 way communication?.