Best Wifi enabled thermostat

Best Wifi enabled thermostat

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dickymint

24,097 posts

257 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
Tado installed along with a new combi (WB 36cdi Compact) last week. Other than a pain to set up to their servers it's behaved better than my expectations. Does everything bar make me a cup of tea!

It even says I'm in the house when in fact I'm in the pub which is great as Wifey is on the system too rofl

maniac886

1,213 posts

169 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
dickymint said:
Tado installed along with a new combi (WB 36cdi Compact) last week. Other than a pain to set up to their servers it's behaved better than my expectations. Does everything bar make me a cup of tea!

It even says I'm in the house when in fact I'm in the pub which is great as Wifey is on the system too rofl
How easy was it to install? I will be getting a WB 36cdi compact installed in a few weeks also along with the Tado. Was the wiring fairly easy to do?

Cheers

dickymint

24,097 posts

257 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
maniac886 said:
dickymint said:
Tado installed along with a new combi (WB 36cdi Compact) last week. Other than a pain to set up to their servers it's behaved better than my expectations. Does everything bar make me a cup of tea!

It even says I'm in the house when in fact I'm in the pub which is great as Wifey is on the system too rofl
How easy was it to install? I will be getting a WB 36cdi compact installed in a few weeks also along with the Tado. Was the wiring fairly easy to do?

Cheers
I did it with the Gas fitter (a mate). There is no paper instructions and you have to install the software and/or app then follow the online instructions to the letter. However it would not let us complete the install (even though he had already connected the extension kit in accordance with the small diagram inside the extension box). If the 'wizzard' is not completed it will not talk to their servers. Turns out that part of the wizzard shows you the wiring diagrams etc.

Quick call to Tado and they talked us through it and also emailed the diagrams. What we missed is that there is a 'jumper' inside the box that had to be turned around. It then sprang to life and all happy.

This may not be the case if you are not having the extension kit which is only needed (i think)if you do not already have a hard wired room stat.

PS I chose not to have a programmer fitted to the boiler and did not have an existing room stat.

PPS I can forward you the PDF they sent me if that helps.

maniac886

1,213 posts

169 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
dickymint said:
I did it with the Gas fitter (a mate). There is no paper instructions and you have to install the software and/or app then follow the online instructions to the letter. However it would not let us complete the install (even though he had already connected the extension kit in accordance with the small diagram inside the extension box). If the 'wizzard' is not completed it will not talk to their servers. Turns out that part of the wizzard shows you the wiring diagrams etc.

Quick call to Tado and they talked us through it and also emailed the diagrams. What we missed is that there is a 'jumper' inside the box that had to be turned around. It then sprang to life and all happy.

This may not be the case if you are not having the extension kit which is only needed (i think)if you do not already have a hard wired room stat.

PS I chose not to have a programmer fitted to the boiler and did not have an existing room stat.

PPS I can forward you the PDF they sent me if that helps.
Thanks for the info, I will be having the extension box fitted as currently I have no thermostat in the property. If you could forward on the PDF I would be very grateful!

PM Sent.

Edited by maniac886 on Monday 2nd March 17:37

dickymint

24,097 posts

257 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
maniac886 said:
Thanks for the info, I will be having the extension box fitted as currently I have no thermostat in the property. If you could forward on the PDF I would be very grateful!

PM Sent.

Edited by maniac886 on Monday 2nd March 17:37
No problem I'll sort it tomorrow as I'm in the pub as you can see wink


maniac886

1,213 posts

169 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
dickymint said:
No problem I'll sort it tomorrow as I'm in the pub as you can see wink

thumbup

Otispunkmeyer

12,557 posts

154 months

Tuesday 3rd March 2015
quotequote all
ShortShift811 said:
Otispunkmeyer said:
So Installed my Nest about a week ago now. Very easy to do, though I did think I'd broken my boiler some 5 minutes after switching it all on again. Turns out it just needed a reset to clear a fault with the pump.

Tried volt free switching method first, but I think the headers on the boiler PCB were for OpenTherm rather than just volt-free, which the Nest doesn't support. So ended up using the switched live method. Straight forward on mine as there was already a rudimentary RF module controlling the boiler in the same way.

Its been learning for a week now and Auto-away has started working. At the moment its still not going away untill about 2 hours, but I assume this will come down.

As for Scheduling, well lets just say I have deleted a fair share of its schedule. After yesterday it had decided that it wants to put the heating on at midday, every week day, when no one is home. Great.

What is more, it still reckons on a 5 degree change in temp requires 2+ hours of heating, when in reality its almost always there within the hour. The time to heat is getting better though.
Our Nest went in on Weds 28th Feb and I found the same as you; the initial learning phase seems to jump about and affect the scheduling but lots of people seem to find as you get more data points over time it improves. We have a fairly regular in / out pattern at home so I'm hoping it will only get better over the next couple of months.
One thing I am now perplexed by is Auto-Away

Great that it knows you are away, but the schedule doesn't seem to override? I know you probably don't want it to, but does it not learn when you are likely to come home? i.e if I want the house to be warm when I get in, I have to manually set it to home via the app. It doesn't just do it.

There must be a way to sort this (apart from buying a Tado!)


stuart313

740 posts

112 months

Tuesday 3rd March 2015
quotequote all
maniac886 said:
dickymint said:
No problem I'll sort it tomorrow as I'm in the pub as you can see wink

thumbup
So its heating the house to 20 deg when no one is in, doesn't sound too smart if you ask me.

smn159

12,448 posts

216 months

Tuesday 3rd March 2015
quotequote all
stuart313 said:
So its heating the house to 20 deg when no one is in, doesn't sound too smart if you ask me.
Can you see that circle around the little person in the house?

wink

mouseymousey

2,641 posts

236 months

Tuesday 3rd March 2015
quotequote all
HenryJM said:
Some also overlook timing. Having my heating come on 10 minutes before I get there is pointless, OK in a small flat (perhaps), but heading takes time. If I want it to be warm at 7.00pm them it needs to be starting at 6.00pm to stand a chance, makes the whole prediction around where I am to be a bit hopeless.

What is much better is to be able to use an app on my iPhone that allows me to control it from wherever I am, and that works on the British Gas MyHome app, which just came with the new boiler a year or more ago. Has worked perfectly doing all the bits I need.
Not sure if you're missing the point or I'm misunderstanding you. An example... I want my temperature to be set at 20 degrees but I'm prepared to sacrifice some warming up time when I get home in return for cost savings, note *some* warming up time. I therefore set my Tado to 20 degrees. When I'm out at the shops around the corner it knows I've left home but am still close so it lowers the temperature to 18 degrees. When I start to walk home it detects I'm getting close and bumps the heating back up to 20.

If I go to work it detects that I'm further away, so therefore will take longer to get back home, so it sets the heating to 16 degrees. As I get closer it goes up to 18 degrees and closer still it goes up to 20.

It knows how far away you are and it knows how long it takes to heat the house, it therefore knows which temperature to keep the house in order to get it back close to 20 by the time I'm home.

It's not perfect but it means I don't have a normal thermostat heating the home when I'm not there and I don't have to remember to adjust the temperature with an app before I leave work or after I've left home, but if the weather is miserable and I'm cycling home from work I can go onto the app and set the temperature to be 23 degrees when I get home.

It really is the best of both worlds I think. Just being able to leave the house without having to remember to adjust the temperature makes the Tado system worthwhile for me.

stuart313 said:
So its heating the house to 20 deg when no one is in, doesn't sound too smart if you ask me.
Someone is home - and someone else is out. There are 2 icons on the screen shot.

SMar

201 posts

139 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
quotequote all
HenryJM said:
Some also overlook timing. Having my heating come on 10 minutes before I get there is pointless, OK in a small flat (perhaps), but heading takes time. If I want it to be warm at 7.00pm them it needs to be starting at 6.00pm to stand a chance, makes the whole prediction around where I am to be a bit hopeless.

What is much better is to be able to use an app on my iPhone that allows me to control it from wherever I am, and that works on the British Gas MyHome app, which just came with the new boiler a year or more ago. Has worked perfectly doing all the bits I need.
As I said before some people dont understand how these systems work!

dickymint

24,097 posts

257 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
quotequote all
SMar said:
HenryJM said:
Some also overlook timing. Having my heating come on 10 minutes before I get there is pointless, OK in a small flat (perhaps), but heading takes time. If I want it to be warm at 7.00pm them it needs to be starting at 6.00pm to stand a chance, makes the whole prediction around where I am to be a bit hopeless.

What is much better is to be able to use an app on my iPhone that allows me to control it from wherever I am, and that works on the British Gas MyHome app, which just came with the new boiler a year or more ago. Has worked perfectly doing all the bits I need.
As I said before some people dont understand how these systems work!
Exactly.

Tado learns how long it takes the home to warm up, it knows how far you are from home. This and many other factors are fed into the algorithm to calculate when to turn on the heating. Coupled with the 'economy/comfort' slider it really is quite smart.

Edited to add: With Tado (don't know about Nest etc) the data and algorithms are held on their servers and can be adjusted to suit your individual needs by phoning them up.


Edited by dickymint on Wednesday 4th March 08:54

HenryJM

6,315 posts

128 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
quotequote all
SMar said:
HenryJM said:
Some also overlook timing. Having my heating come on 10 minutes before I get there is pointless, OK in a small flat (perhaps), but heading takes time. If I want it to be warm at 7.00pm them it needs to be starting at 6.00pm to stand a chance, makes the whole prediction around where I am to be a bit hopeless.

What is much better is to be able to use an app on my iPhone that allows me to control it from wherever I am, and that works on the British Gas MyHome app, which just came with the new boiler a year or more ago. Has worked perfectly doing all the bits I need.
As I said before some people dont understand how these systems work!
Oh I understand how they work, and what my MyHome app does is great, but what others fail to realise is the time needed for a change to come into effect in a lot of properties. If you are in a flat or a small semi somewhere that's modern, on your own or maybe with one other etc. etc. it may be fine. But in a lot of properties it's not so easy and having the heating come on ten minutes before I come home is pretty useless simply because of the length of time it takes to heat.

But each to our own, just don't think that one system fits all problems, it's not that simple.

SMar

201 posts

139 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
quotequote all
HenryJM said:
SMar said:
HenryJM said:
Some also overlook timing. Having my heating come on 10 minutes before I get there is pointless, OK in a small flat (perhaps), but heading takes time. If I want it to be warm at 7.00pm them it needs to be starting at 6.00pm to stand a chance, makes the whole prediction around where I am to be a bit hopeless.

What is much better is to be able to use an app on my iPhone that allows me to control it from wherever I am, and that works on the British Gas MyHome app, which just came with the new boiler a year or more ago. Has worked perfectly doing all the bits I need.
As I said before some people dont understand how these systems work!
Oh I understand how they work, and what my MyHome app does is great, but what others fail to realise is the time needed for a change to come into effect in a lot of properties. If you are in a flat or a small semi somewhere that's modern, on your own or maybe with one other etc. etc. it may be fine. But in a lot of properties it's not so easy and having the heating come on ten minutes before I come home is pretty useless simply because of the length of time it takes to heat.

But each to our own, just don't think that one system fits all problems, it's not that simple.
With respect, I don't think you do, where does this 10 minutes keep coming from, its dynamic, it changes based on a number of parameters (weather, heating characteristices of your home, etc) and data built up over time. The point is Tado and Nest (to a lesser extent) has all the functionality you talk about, but with added "intelligence" than "learns" with time. I’ve got more important things to do then to fiddle with things all the time, but I can if I want to smile

Edited by SMar on Wednesday 4th March 09:47

ATG

20,485 posts

271 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
quotequote all
if you work 10 mins from home it's going to struggle using that algorithm ;-)

I.e. heating based on proximity alone only works if your journey times are longer than the time required to reheat your house.

Edited by ATG on Wednesday 4th March 10:29

teabelly

164 posts

230 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
quotequote all
ATG said:
if you work 10 mins from home it's going to struggle using that algorithm ;-)

I.e. heating based on proximity alone only works if your journey times are longer than the time required to reheat your house.

Edited by ATG on Wednesday 4th March 10:29
This is where it falls down for me. It takes longer to heat the house up to the right temperature than it does to return home. The tado persistently sets a set back temperature which is too low so it will never be warm unless I set a higher home temperature (forcing a higher away temperature) when I'm out.

I think the temperature needs to be achievable in travel time + 20 minutes or so. At the moment the tado is picking travel time + 60 minutes roughly which means returning to a cold house. The comfort setting is still only appearing to mean the Tado starts heating about 10 minutes before I get home. I have no idea whether it uses a fixed distance or a return time. I haven't been out that much so it could of course still be learning.

dickymint

24,097 posts

257 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
quotequote all
teabelly said:
ATG said:
if you work 10 mins from home it's going to struggle using that algorithm ;-)

I.e. heating based on proximity alone only works if your journey times are longer than the time required to reheat your house.

Edited by ATG on Wednesday 4th March 10:29
This is where it falls down for me. It takes longer to heat the house up to the right temperature than it does to return home. The tado persistently sets a set back temperature which is too low so it will never be warm unless I set a higher home temperature (forcing a higher away temperature) when I'm out.

I think the temperature needs to be achievable in travel time + 20 minutes or so. At the moment the tado is picking travel time + 60 minutes roughly which means returning to a cold house. The comfort setting is still only appearing to mean the Tado starts heating about 10 minutes before I get home. I have no idea whether it uses a fixed distance or a return time. I haven't been out that much so it could of course still be learning.
Try ringing them to alter your individual algorithm?

teabelly

164 posts

230 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
quotequote all
Once the new version of the app appears that allows you to choose the Away temperature it won't really matter as then I'll just sent a sensible away temperature. I'm only usually 30 minutes away from home anyway when I'm out so it has a narrow field of opportunity to start heating. I need to get out more wink

dickymint

24,097 posts

257 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
quotequote all
^^^ Just been reading through Tado's Facebook page - apparently there is an update due any time soon that addresses a number of issues raised in this post.

https://www.facebook.com/tado/photos/a.18442162166...

Including a 'boost feature' and the ability to set morning afternoon and evening temps. I would assume that this would be useful to use if you have a short home journey.

HenryJM

6,315 posts

128 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
quotequote all
SMar said:
With respect, I don't think you do, where does this 10 minutes keep coming from, its dynamic, it changes based on a number of parameters and data built up over time. The point is Tado and Nest (to a lesser extent) has all the functionality you talk about, but with added "intelligence" than "learns" with time. I’ve got more important things to do then to fiddle with things all the time, but I can if I want to smile
Well firstly we are only talking about the bit to do with it reacting to where you are and what you are doing. Otherwise there is a lot of good stuff going on.

But the 10 minutes bit comes from what others are posting, but also the practicality of where people go. If you set it for 10 minutes the point is that for many it makes little difference to the temperature when you get home - it's barely going to have heated radiators to anything much in that time. So maybe you make it 30 minutes or 45 minutes to give it a chance, but that's pretty pointless if you spend most of your life within 30 minutes of where you live, as an example. Being able to connect in remotely what to do is great, its just the real ability of it working out for itself when you are going to be there based on where you are now that's a bit optimistic.