I posted a while ago about considering a smart heating solution. My concern with evohome has always been it seems "old" without much progress in updates.
We have 27 radiators in our new house - and I identified 18 zones (although if I took off bathrooms and left them with just a standard TRV then I'd be down to 12).
In the end I was attracted by the functionality and minimalist design of the tado, and ordered the kit from them with a 30-day money back guarantee. The kit was 27 trvs, the extension kit (which replaces the programmer), a smart thermostat, and the internet bridge.
Installation was extremely straight forward. I followed the instructions and replaced the honeywell basic thermostat with the smart thermostat (wiring was given step-by-step on the internet page), and the extension kit was a drop in onto the existing backplate. Pairing the TRVs was easy enough - the app allowed me to scan a QR code on each device to associate it as I went round each room. I had a single radiator with a 28mm fitting rather than 30mm - and tado support said they would send me an adapter FOC (there wasn't one in the box - there were adapters for 5 other systems in there).
After my initial success, things didn't continue quite so well. First of all there were quite a few problems with devices dropping off. I repositioned the internet bridge more centrally (using a powerline ethernet adapter); and support told me that I should wait for the firmware to update on all the devices as it improves range (this was to v47).
The next problem I found was that it was unreliably turning on the heating. It was quite difficult to work this out as there is nowhere you can see whether it expects the boiler to be firing. The app does show heat demand from each room though and this would be a general proxy for this. I had a couple of cold mornings before (with the aid of tado support) I discovered that it actually only supports 10 zones with heating control - the 20 zone limit is if you are just using the trvs without a call for heat.
But some of my zones are "less important" (like ensuite bathrooms etc - see above), and support were able to unbind these from calling for heat so they just work as smart trvs to moderate the temperature.
In the meantime I discovered some problems with the boiler pressure and had to call out the maintenance engineer for this. I removed the tado to allow easy diagnosis because I wasn't confident that my installer would "get it" - especially if I wasn't around.
Now I think all our heating problems are resolved, and tado is working. But I've decided I'm sending it back anyway.
Why? Well, the basic reason I don't like the fact that if the internet goes down then it will not turn on and off. I experimented with the bridge disconnected from the internet and found it very difficult to manually override the system. Second, there is no way to see if the heating should be on and override it with a switch (as someone diagnostic boiler problems would need). Finally, I am still getting some slight coverage issues (only shown as gaps in the heat graph to be fair).
I'm already missing it though, so thinking about trying something different. Wiser looks interesting with range extenders to solve any issues (and you can press on the programmer to turn heating/hot water on/off for diagnosis; ... and it works with the internet off).
I think I may go for a smaller number of zones (see above) and just run standard TRVs in the rooms I don't care much about. My motivation is mainly comfort rather than energy saving.
Any comments? Perhaps I should go evohome but it does feel a bit abandoned (I know it has had a minor firmware update) and due a refresh.
We have 27 radiators in our new house - and I identified 18 zones (although if I took off bathrooms and left them with just a standard TRV then I'd be down to 12).
In the end I was attracted by the functionality and minimalist design of the tado, and ordered the kit from them with a 30-day money back guarantee. The kit was 27 trvs, the extension kit (which replaces the programmer), a smart thermostat, and the internet bridge.
Installation was extremely straight forward. I followed the instructions and replaced the honeywell basic thermostat with the smart thermostat (wiring was given step-by-step on the internet page), and the extension kit was a drop in onto the existing backplate. Pairing the TRVs was easy enough - the app allowed me to scan a QR code on each device to associate it as I went round each room. I had a single radiator with a 28mm fitting rather than 30mm - and tado support said they would send me an adapter FOC (there wasn't one in the box - there were adapters for 5 other systems in there).
After my initial success, things didn't continue quite so well. First of all there were quite a few problems with devices dropping off. I repositioned the internet bridge more centrally (using a powerline ethernet adapter); and support told me that I should wait for the firmware to update on all the devices as it improves range (this was to v47).
The next problem I found was that it was unreliably turning on the heating. It was quite difficult to work this out as there is nowhere you can see whether it expects the boiler to be firing. The app does show heat demand from each room though and this would be a general proxy for this. I had a couple of cold mornings before (with the aid of tado support) I discovered that it actually only supports 10 zones with heating control - the 20 zone limit is if you are just using the trvs without a call for heat.
But some of my zones are "less important" (like ensuite bathrooms etc - see above), and support were able to unbind these from calling for heat so they just work as smart trvs to moderate the temperature.
In the meantime I discovered some problems with the boiler pressure and had to call out the maintenance engineer for this. I removed the tado to allow easy diagnosis because I wasn't confident that my installer would "get it" - especially if I wasn't around.
Now I think all our heating problems are resolved, and tado is working. But I've decided I'm sending it back anyway.
Why? Well, the basic reason I don't like the fact that if the internet goes down then it will not turn on and off. I experimented with the bridge disconnected from the internet and found it very difficult to manually override the system. Second, there is no way to see if the heating should be on and override it with a switch (as someone diagnostic boiler problems would need). Finally, I am still getting some slight coverage issues (only shown as gaps in the heat graph to be fair).
I'm already missing it though, so thinking about trying something different. Wiser looks interesting with range extenders to solve any issues (and you can press on the programmer to turn heating/hot water on/off for diagnosis; ... and it works with the internet off).
I think I may go for a smaller number of zones (see above) and just run standard TRVs in the rooms I don't care much about. My motivation is mainly comfort rather than energy saving.
Any comments? Perhaps I should go evohome but it does feel a bit abandoned (I know it has had a minor firmware update) and due a refresh.
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