Smart thermostats - any recommendations?

If you’re referring to the in-app analytics in the Octopus app, personally I think its quite limited. It surfaces data for current period but there are no comparisons with previous periods. Also, octopus doesn’t provide central heating-specific data. It provides overall gas consumption.

I am interested in setting up my own analytics dashboard using data exports or api. But it would probably take me a while to achieve this: I do know some programming basics but I’m not a trained programmer and not particularly familiar with the advanced analytics tools in Excel. At the moment its quite low down on my list of things to do.

If your gas smart meter actually works, and a good deal of them don’t, or haven’t been installed.

Curiously Tado do expose this data via an API that you don’t have to pay for. You could for example pull this into Home Assistant and graph it in there if you wanted to.

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Oh, fair enough, that’s interesting for sure

I’ve never used Home Assistant but will take a look into this. Thanks.

I seem to remember at some point using a tool that pulled Tado data into Google Sheets. I didn’t ever actually do anything with the data, but I imagine that would be easier than Home Assistant.

There’s a community forum for Tado too, I’d have a snoop around there for ideas.

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So something that’s incredibly obvious but not really considered is the fact that TRVs (well Tado’s ones anyway) are actually terrible at measuring the temperature of the room and therefore controlling heating systems. Who would have thought that putting a thermometer right next to a massive heat source isn’t a good idea!

Anyway, this is what it looks like on a graph. This room only has TRVs detecting the temperature and calling for heat. The heating fires for short bursts but the room never really maintains the target temperature.

Compare it to this room where we have the zone controller on the opposite side of the room to the radiator. The radiator is a bypass so there’s no TRV. The heating demand is a lot more consistent throughout the day.

The room running on short bursts of heat is also less efficient because the boiler doesn’t run long enough to enter condensing mode.

Anyway Tado’s add-on temperature sensors are silly expensive for no reason, so I’ve bought another wired kit as it was cheaper. I’ll mount it on the wall unwired and use it as a temperature sensor away from the radiators. I also realise I could just buy another TRV and put it on a shelf in the room, but that’s a lot less tidy.

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Oh yes absolutely, my smart thermostats were all controlled by thermometers in places I actually sit - by the couch, by the kitchen table and over the bed - when I had this set up in my old place. Thermometers next to the radiator made no sense to me

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Same issue. We had to buy the Tado Wireless Temperature Sensor to go on the wall in every room of the house with a Tado TRV (7 in total) to get around this problem.

Luckily, got them for about £50 each when Amazon had a sale on.

They are quite inoffensive to look:

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I use Aqara TRVs with Aqara Temp&Humidity sensors which work quite well.

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Nice, I do have one of these already for one room - the radiator is in the corner of the room with the TRV right in the 90° corner so it was never going to work from the get-go. I just had a look back and we paid £49 refurbished direct from Tado.

Looking now, they want £100+ for a new one and have no refurbs. I managed to find a black thermostat new on eBay for £64, so I’m happy with that. It’s already on its way to me too.

Hopefully once it’s up our boiler will stop chucking out smoke when the living room calls for heat like the Hogwarts Express and run longer and more efficiency.

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FYI If you are with Octopus, you can email them asking for a Tado Store discount code (50% off).

tado@octopus.energy

Just need to ask for a code and include your Octopus account number in the email. It’s a unique code they will generate for you and it can be used twice.

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That’s good to know. However, based on the following page unfortunately doesn’t seem to include Tado X products: Works with Octopus | Octopus Energy

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Yes - V3 only by the looks of it.

I didn’t actually know the X range existed until your post. Interesting. I wonder how it differs to V3 kit.

Future proofing the tech from what I can see. Matter / thread based so don’t need their hub. Can’t figure out lots of other differences to be honest (would be good to know)

This is interesting. HomePod do the temperature so if I could be bothered I could get it controlled by that on not the tado ecosystem (trigger Siri to control it based on HomePod temperature reporting or something similar) but not sure I can currently!

Yes main difference is change in networking, with Tado X being thread-based. Should overcome a couple of limitations inherent with V3 system:

  1. All devices in V3 system need to connect directly to a single bridge. Can be problematic in even slightly large homes. Mesh-based nature of Thread should overcome this.
  2. V3 system needs cloud connectivity. I think the thread-based X system has some degree of offline capability.

Here’s a small overview: https://mightygadget.co.uk/tado-x-review-vs-tado-v3/

Problem solved :white_check_mark:

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Looks good.

Are you one of those people who like to fill every empty space on their walls? :slightly_smiling_face:

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Only on this wall, we have a load of different shelves and prints up on that wall. All black shelves/black frames so the black Tado blends in quite nicely.

RIP to whoever buys this place off us though. The plasterboard is going to look like cheese.

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3M Claws are best for hanging, in my experience. You just press them into the plasterboard with your fingers (no hammering). Up to 7kg.

Upon removal (you just pull them out by hand), they leave behind the tiniest puncture holes (approx 2mm) that are very easily filled.

We use them everywhere around the house. They are a tad expensive but worth it.

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