Review: Tado Room thermostat-The range of smart devices that are compatible with Apple’s HomeKit is slowly but surely starting to expand. If you want to control the temperature in your home using the Home app and Siri, then you can consider purchasing the Tado thermostat.
Tado is a minimalist thermostat that is suitable for most central heating boilers and has a number of useful functions. For some time now, we have installed the Tado thermostat v3 + ourselves and tested it extensively in practice.
OpenTherm
Tado can use OpenTherm, this is a communication protocol that is used in heating installations for communication between a central heating boiler and thermostat. This allows the temperature of the heating water to be automatically adjusted, which can save a lot of energy.
In short, if the house is cold and you want to heat, the boiler at a higher power heats the house quickly, and this power goes down as soon as the house is warm. After the heating-up period, the boiler regulates its power back (modulation) itself so that the desired, lower radiator temperature is reached. The big advantage of this is that with a lower radiator temperature, considerably less heat goes out of the chimney and the boiler therefore uses up to 25 percent less gas for the same heat production.
The installation of the Tado
The Tado does not use a special ‘boiler interface’ (such as the Nest and ThermoSmart ), you connect the Tado thermostat directly to the central heating boiler via the existing 2-wire cabling. An internet bridge (a kind of dongle) is used for wireless WiFi communication, which you must connect to your network with a UTP cable. This bridge communicates with the Tado thermostat and ensures that the Tado thermostat can be accessed via your network.
The installation is quite simple and is well explained on the Tado website. After creating an account you can immediately start installing the smart Thermostat , you will be guided through the process step by step. The installation consists of the following main steps:
1. Create an account
2. Connect the dongle to the network
3. Connect the Tado Thermostat to the Dongle
4. Connect Tado to the existing wiring
5. Set the thermostat for the central heating boiler (OpenTherm / On-Off, etc)
If you are a bit technical, installing the Tado is not super difficult. When in doubt, it is always advisable to have the installation carried out by a qualified professional or to call in the installation service from tado yourself. When purchasing the thermostat via the tado website itself, you can add the installation service to the shopping cart.tado °
Service:Tado Room thermostat
After the Tado has been connected and connected to the network, you can get started. The Tado can be physically operated, via the Tado.com website and of course the special Tado app, Siri and the standard iOS Home app.
Operation via the Tado app is super simple, select the desired temperature and tap start, the temperature is now set.
As with almost all smart thermostats, you can also use a schedule. In this schedule you indicate the desired temperature in time blocks, this schedule will be followed automatically. You can overrule the schedule at any time by manually adjusting the temperature. This adjustment is active until the next time slot in the schedule arrives.
Using Tado through HomeKit
If you want to use the Tado via HomeKit and the home application, you can link it. You can add a HomeKit device to the home application, then you can use the tado in the Home app or using Siri:
“What’s the temperature in the living room?”
“Adjust the temperature to 22º”
“What is the humidity in the living room?”
You can have the commands executed via your iPhone, iPad or HomePod. It works super via the HomePod, just ask Siri from the couch to adjust the temperature.
The advantage of HomeKit is also that you can link the thermostat to other actions, for example, if you switch off the HUE lighting via a HUE tap switch, you can also immediately place the Tado thermostat in the night mode. You can also use IFTTT in this way.
Self-learning:Tado Room thermostat
The first days that you use it, Tado automatically learns the properties of your house and the central heating installation. For example, if you plan that it should be 21º degrees in your home at 08:00 when you get up, then it will actually be 21º at that time. Tado learns how long it takes to heat up the home in different situations and also uses weather conditions outdoors. For example, the outside temperature is determined based on your location and the number of hours of sunshine, wind force and humidity in the room are also taken into account. The humidity is measured by an internal sensor in the Tado.
The first few days that you use the Tado, you will notice the temperature fluctuates when heating. After this learning period, the Tado has collected the most important information about your home and central heating installation. After this, the temperature will remain much more constant at the set temperature. The duration of the learning period depends on the number of temperature adjustments.
The Tado actively monitors the room where it is installed. If you leave the door or a window open for too long, so that a lot of heat is lost, Tado automatically switches off the heating temporarily.
Auto-Assist, tado does everything
For even more comfort, Auto-Assist automatically adjusts the temperature when you leave or come home, or when a window is opened. And, your heating system is protected against malfunctions . The Auto Assist function is an additional function for Tado owners that you can purchase via an in-app subscription.
As a ‘free’ user you will receive a notification when you leave the house or when a window / door is open. You can then manually adjust the thermostat. Thanks to Auto-Assist, Tado automatically adjusts the temperature. When a window or door is open and it immediately causes a falling temperature, the temperature is automatically adjusted downwards temporarily to limit the loss of energy.
Using Tado with location tracking
It is also possible to adjust the temperature based on presence using location determination (geo-fencing). Via the Tado app it can be determined whether the residents are present in the home. If this is not the case, the temperature can be adjusted downwards. With this option you can indicate a radius in kilometers. If the residents are outside this radius, the temperature will be adjusted downwards, if the residents come within the radius, the heating will take place automatically.
This option only makes sense if you set a fairly large radius, for example 50KM or more, and are absent for a long time. If the radius is shorter, there is often not enough time to get the house to the right temperature upon arrival. In case of a short absence, the savings will also be minimal.
All the above functions of the Tado can be set via the Tado app as well as the Tado website. Everything is very logical and works fine. If you want to adjust the temperature yourself via the thermostat, press the round button and use the arrow symbols to set the desired temperature
Conclusion Tado Room thermostat
Pros and cons:
- Easy installation, suitable for many thermostats
- User-friendly app with useful functions
- Schedules easy to set up
- Auto-Assist makes the Tado complete thanks to automatic location determination
- HomeKit integration and controllable via Siri
- Expandable with smart radio buttons
- constant display of the temperature on the thermostat
- Taking out a subscription is actually necessary for smart use
The smart Tadoº thermostat is easy to use and super smart thanks to the Auto-Assist functions. Installation is very simple, clear app and since commissioning (more than a year and a half ago) the Tado works without problems during the cold winter period.
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