Installing Tado Smart Heating in My New House - Everything You Need to Know

[@camerongray1515]

Buy on Amazon (Affiliate): - tado° Wired Smart Thermostat Starter Kit: geni.us/VqnmnIo - tado° Add-On Room Thermostat: geni.us/Bypx - tado° Radiator Valve 3 Pack: geni.us/rSPEbX

[@Treeburnify]

I have had Tado (V3/V3+) since 2017 and I have been very pleased with it. My boiler is oil fired with unvented hot water cylinder, I have annual oil usage records going all the way back to 2010 and from this I can see that since 2017 Tado smart controls save me a significant quantity of heating oil each year. For me payback of the initial purchase cost was very quick. 7+ years of Tado and no issues, so pleased I went with Tado.

[@jakeharvey05]

So many new videos from you, it’s amazing!

[@sizzle5]

This is such a great video, I'm also going through the process of getting a new build and a lot of your content has been super useful to watch and very relatable for planning ahead of moving in!

[@am2608]

I've had a similar situation with a thermostat located very inconveniently, like your downstairs hallway one. I then replaced it with a wireless option and moved the actual thermostat that measures the temperature to a better suited room, which totally solved the problem.

[@camerongray1515]

That's actually another Tado feature I forgot to include - you can buy their "Wireless Temperature Sensor" and use that to measure the temperature for a room from a location other than the thermostat or TRV.

[@rhfweb]

Looking forward to seeing you automate this with Home Assistant, the subscription limitations such as open window detection could possibly be resolved by using a combination of other sensors and HA running the show.

[@notwizardels]

Surprised they're still sending out the old kit when Tado X is supposed to be coming to the UK in November. I tried Tado originally but didn't like it's reliance on the cloud. Ended up with Drayton Wiser which has a great Home Assistant integration and can opperate fully without the internet

[@camerongray1515]

I actually discussed this with Tado, everything for this video was arranged before Tado X was announced - the plan is to continue selling the V3+ system as a more budget range and then sell Tado X as the more "premium" option.

[@notwizardels]

@@camerongray1515 Gotcha, that makes sense! Hope to see a review of Tado X too 😉Super excited Tado to have Matter and Thread. My biggest gripe with Tado was all the devices needed to be in range of the hub. Be nice to see this resolved with thread. Maybe they'll be able to entice me back!

[@jakeharvey05]

I use Wiser with home assistant for the last few years and absolutely love it too

[@321dodo123]

Tado x has been out in Europe for the last year so they may be pulling a fast one

[@edknight1982]

Thought you might have looked at sonoff trvs

[@u1f98a]

52:42 Looks like they didn't even tell the app developers about the limit given the uncaught error message

[@slorpslorp]

I've got Bosch Easycontrol smart TRVs and controller for my Worcester Bosch boiler and have found it to work well in the UK. The killer feature of the system is weather compensation, hidden behind the advanced settings in the app. It uses forecast info based on your house's location to determine the outside temperature and therefore set the internal flow temperature of the boiler. You can then program individual TRVs to use more or less of the weather compensation influence vs the actual room temperature depending on how much they are influenced by outside (ultimately, what is the heat loss via windows etc). This is explained in more detail on the Heatgeek channel mainly in the context of heat pumps but it applies just the same to condenser combi boilers. Worth saying that the Bosch system doesn't have features behind a premium subscription, so you get weather data, geofencing and energy usage logging included.

[@MrGraeme]

Parents have Tado With Rad valves and I have the Easy Control from Bosch(without smart rad valves) - The integration with Google home is the win for me Id much rather have Tado and have contemplated ripping the whole out. The Easy Control is Functional yes but Tado is More convenient I don't have to open an app or have weird convoluted work arounds. I genuinely regret getting the bosch system put in.

[@EsotericArctos]

Have to admit, I like TADO for smart heating. They seem to be really reliable and integrate well into third party hubs, like Home Assistant. I look forward to seeing how this works out. You had a good point about not shutting off too many radiators. You can shut off a certain number, depending on your system and the way the boiler is configured, but you always need a minimum flow. Your note about sleeping is good too. It actually is recommended from a health perspective to sleep at a slightly cooler temperature than the normal waking temperature.

[@FlashPan73]

@ 41:57 Top tip - I found this out a hard way. When I installed mine - on 1 rad the valve/push button thing that the tado thermostat pushes down on was stuck. Inside is like a waxy substance. Partially unscrewng the nut around the the push button thing freed it up so I could manually push it down to release it, then tighten the nut up again. Before I did this the tado thermostat kept on erroring as it could sense it could not push down on the button thing (but it did not say why erroring exactly). Don't use a persuader on the the push button thing as you can damage it and would need replacing. I did not have to replace myself just discovered the nut part after much googling. 2 hours later it was up and running :)

[@RichardBrunt]

Greate video! I've been very happy with my Tado install, and recently added more TRVs around the house. Worth noting that if you don't want to pay for the subscription and you have Home Assistant, you can replicate the home / away and open window detection really easily: there are two "preset modes" for home / away which are easy to switch in an automation, and every thermostat / TRV publishes an 'open window' sensor which you can trigger off.

[@heinzwaldpfad]

thx man I learning so much form you videos !

[@farhan-app]

As always, awesome video!!

[@atgw2009]

I had a similar situation to you, with an Ideal boiler and two zones presenting difficulties for opentherm. In the end, I opted for some Honeywell T6-R thermostats (mains powered using the old wiring to the zone valve from each of the old thermostats) that communicate wirelessly to the controller. Although there are two zones, it still uses opentherm and bases the flow temperature on the highest need, so it’s not perfect. In practice, it seemed to modulate well though.

[@TCA-TheCurrentAffair]

Awesome as always mate 👍🏼

[@leexgx]

That was pretty good I didn’t realise that there was other bus types of opentherm, and even better that tado can even use them I guess if you was installing the system in your house it would’ve been better if you had locked out the electronic zone valves and then put smart TRV’s on everything apart from 2 radiators set to full (1 per zone) Zone controller should use the name of the controller not the SN number (bit silly)

[@bowlnut17]

Important difference between the Tado V3+ and the Tado X, is that while V3+ supports all the different bus protocols shown in the video, the new X line only supports on/off and Opentherm.

[@dantaylor6320]

I have had Tado for couple years now, have the wired thermostat in hall controlling boiler via OpenTherm/EMS bus. 2 wireless thermostats one in living room & other in my bedroom, i used to have them linked with the TVR on the radiator but after much investigation i fould the boiler to running pretty much most of the & the room requiring heat raditor was cold not getting hot. I have home assistant so via the homekit integration have the TVR's separetly controlled & open the valve fully until room temp is +0.5 above above tartget then the valve is closed & will re-open once the temp decreases. This seems to work much better the boiler still modulating via termostat in the room & radiator stays hot when only needing small amounts of heat. What are your experiences in regards to the above? I think the TVR's are better modulating the amount of hot water flowing but when it stops the flow room goes cold even with the boiler till running hot water round the sytem.

[@labbiee]

How is the home assistant compatibility? I think I saw an integration for tado, but do you have any plans to use that? (It would be delightful if you could use automations to get around that window detecting paid thing) Also this might be a solution for me - my heating seems so overly comicated with 2 heating zones, a hot water tank, underfloor heating zones (part of one of the 2 heating zones) and then a combi boiler. The email support sounds brilliant, and I think I might just see what they would recommend!

[@camerongray1515]

I'll probably need to do a separate video to cover it in detail. It either works with the Tado integration which uses the cloud API or can use local control over HomeKit. The HomeKit integration is nice in that it gives much more frequent updates, however any change you make will be seen as a manual change to a thermostat and you'd need to use the app to switch back to using the schedule. So if you wanted to use HomeKit exclusively you'd need to do all the scheduling within Home Assistant and then not use the Tado app. For now I'm using the cloud integration then will probably move the scheduling over to HA and switch to the HomeKit integration when I have time.

[@EthanBB]

@@camerongray1515 Can't wait for the HA Video! I was surprised you went with cloud instead of local before I read this.

[@M0PAX]

HA is very easy just add the integration, then log in with your details you setup for the app then its just a small config for room location and job done

[@alanjrobertson]

Re markings on the TRVs - I guess many have them as horizontal rather than vertical - they should probably say 'front/top' rather than just top? What's the range like for the valves and the thermostat - for example in an old brick detached house, would it work OK? (just noted the 8m bit you mentioned for pairing) - do they do anything with mesh networking? Also what's the Home Assistant integration like? Any local options or does it depend on the cloud?

[@nightroameruk]

Another excellent video thaks is for putting it together, I'm loving the series. On thing to mention, you showed testing between perm live and switched live with a meter, this would not show a reading even with the circuit live, you must always test to an earth or a neutral for safety. Just one to watch out for!

[@camerongray1515]

Good point! I've update the video to cut out those few seconds (it may take a few hours for the edit to show up) - it wasn't really intended to show safe isolation, more me just randomy fiddling with the tester while it was in my hands but definitely safer not to show it in case someone is blindly following along with what is being shown in the video without understanding the theory behind it! In my case it did show a voltage between them while the circuit was live (I checked this before isolating it) - this would have likely been through the windings of the motor in the zone valve. I suppose it could definitely be different if the switched live was an input directly to a combi boiler so you're right - you definitely also want to check again neutral/CPC (which I'd also done off camera to a neighbouring socket). Suppose this is all the more reason to have the CPC accessible in one of the "parking" terminals on the Tado rather than stuffing it inside the wall!

[@pr1811]

We've had Tado for a good few years (we're grandfathered in to the subscription features for free), it's been very good and this year when we had our boiler replaced I got the last radiators setup with TRV valves so every radiator has a thermostat. Our house also needed the Extension Kit to control the hot water. It also nicely ties in with both Apple HomeKit and Home Assistant. We do notice that the radiator valves will see-saw as the temperature sensor in the valve picks up the sudden change when the radiator comes on and then close the valve, the room will not be warm though and as the radiator cools again the sensor triggers the heating again and it will slowly rise up, to get around this in more important rooms like bedrooms and the lounge we purchased the separate temperature sensors and put them elsewhere in the rooms to get a more accurate reading.

[@josephtayloruk]

I installed the Tado system in our old house, I found the TRV's aren't very accurate and even setting the offset it wasn't accurate. So I ended up buying extra wireless temp sensors for the important rooms and now it works great. Expensive yes, but way more controllable.

[@client3052]

I also have Tado, it's really good and easy to use!

[@Makey69]

I learnt a bit but unsure what to set the heating temperature on the combi boiler and I have an hallway radcwith no trv so I presume that’s where the wireless sensor goes as my old one was there, I’m hoping you could advise a little thanks for the video 👍

[@camerongray1515]

There isn't a hard and fast rule for boiler flow temperature since it depends on the temperature outside and how well insulated your home is. It's best to keep it as low as you can while still being able to reach the desired indoor temperature and where rooms still heat up quick enough for you, you really just need to play with it and see what works best. And yes, you'd put the temperature sensor in the room with no TRV.

[@iauk1122]

Been looking forward for this one, think we’ll be getting these too, instead of the X

[@camerongray1515]

I spoke to Tado after they announced X (since this video was already arranged and I had already received the V3+ kit). The plan is to continue selling V3+ for a while as a more budget option and then sell X as a premium option with things such as Matter support. Hopefully they'll put out a detailed feature comparison to help you decide.

[@CodeTechTalks]

The x does not look as good as the v3

[@impy1980]

Yaay for subscriptions, sigh! Other than that annoying model most companies follow these days, if you're going to be keeping these, will you be implementing the system into Home Assistant? Would love to see a video on that, even if it's brief. Might also be useful to see if you can add a delay to the thermostat in the hallway for better control when the door is opened. Very well explained about heating systems in general, especially about "not having all the radiators in an off state" when the boiler active, I mean it makes sense that the water needs to go somewhere when being "pumped", but it's not an obvious initial thought.

[@xurok]

Hello Cameron I have a question. Maybe you answered it in the video but I missed it Im sorry. I want to install a central heat.pump at my mother's place and i was wondering if there is like a standard that's allowing you to plug it into a smart home system. Pls let me know. Ty ❤

[@taytos-gingah]

Can you hear the radiator valves opening/closing? I have Hive ones right now in my kids rooms, they turn off before they go to bed so their rooms do not overheat whilst the rest of the house is heated for us adults. But once the heating shuts off a couple of hours later, I have them set to reopen so when the heating fires in the morning, or perhaps overnight if the house gets cold enough, they get the heat. They're quite loud, sometimes wakes them. Just looking to see how these ones are?

[@camerongray1515]

They're definitely audible, not something that's ever woken me up, best description I can give for the noise is a bit like the motor in a scanner starting up.

[@taytos-gingah]

@ yep, excellent description of the noise, just like what the Hive ones sound like, probably amplified through the radiator and pipes to a higher pitch :) thanks!

[@rogerevans425]

Have installed TADO wired room stat in unheated hall in bungalow. This seems to control heating ok, so was about to replace TRV heads om the radiators when found that the TADO heads don't fit the Drayton valves fitted to all my radiators, and they don't do adaptors for them. So it looks like I'll have to buy and fit 4 new TRVs, only to discard the heads ☹

[@rajilsaraswat9763]

Home assistant support?

[@camerongray1515]

I'll probably need to do a separate video to cover it in detail. It either works with the Tado integration which uses the cloud API or can use local control over HomeKit. The HomeKit integration is nice in that it gives much more frequent updates, however any change you make will be seen as a manual change to a thermostat and you'd need to use the app to switch back to using the schedule. So if you wanted to use HomeKit exclusively you'd need to do all the scheduling within Home Assistant and then not use the Tado app. For now I'm using the cloud integration then will probably move the scheduling over to HA and switch to the HomeKit integration when I have time.

[@norman7527]

I installed this same Thermostat on Viessman Combi, in OpenTherm mode, but I had to purchase the EU version (available on Tado) which differs from GB version

[@camerongray1515]

That's a good point! The wired thermostats all support OpenTherm but with the wireless ones you need the EU receiver for OpenTherm or alternatively the UK version if you want hot water control (but without OpenTherm)

[@MadSpacePig]

Why the aversion to Zigbee or Z-Wave?

[@camerongray1515]

Absolutely nothing wrong with them, my lighting setup will be largely ZigBee based. However for this setup I wanted a self contained, set and forget system that I can optionally control from Home Assistant rather than relying on a completely custom solution that would require a bunch of time to implement. There's some systems that I need to "just work" and my heating is one of them.

[@MadSpacePig]

@@camerongray1515 I would have thought the cloud-dependency would be a dealbreaker for you.

[@camerongray1515]

Unfortunately when it comes to heating controls, most good options have some sort of cloud dependancy as soon as you move beyond single on/off thermostats - Some may have a local API which is nice but they still require a cloud conneciton and app to perform the initial setup and a lot of the configuration. I always prefer a completely local option (no apps or accounts to even perform the initial setup) but sometimes if there's a much better product but it does require a cloud connection, I won't completley write it off as long as it can still reliably integrate into HA (which Tado can). Tado does support Apple HomeKit for local control, however this doesn't work nicely with the scheduling in the app so if I want to go down this route I'd need to build the scheduling side of things in Home Assistant - definitely something I want to do in the future but not something I have time for at the moment.

[@pstevenson]

@@camerongray1515 Note that tado are rolling out a fallback 'offline schedule' option - which will allow you to configure a fallback schedule should your internet connection go down. You can also always turn the heating on/off manually via the wireless thermostats when the internet is down. Not local control of course but still at least they are thinking of options when there are cloud/internet issues.

[@edc1569]

I thought on a new build you had to have demand OR weather compensation fitted?

[@camerongray1515]

Unfortunately the "Boiler Plus" regulations that require that only apply in England, not Scotland. And of course, if the builders aren't forced to install such measures, they'll save the tiny cost by leaving them out! In fact, when I had my boiler replaced in my last property, the installer hadn't even heard of OpenTherm, let alone knew how to connect it up!

[@mmaster23]

What about Home Assistant support, what about Matter, how does it work without the cloud, is there a local API? Answers.. we need answers!

[@camerongray1515]

I'll probably need to do a separate video to cover it in detail. It either works with the Tado integration which uses the cloud API or can use local control over HomeKit. The HomeKit integration is nice in that it gives much more frequent updates, however any change you make will be seen as a manual change to a thermostat and you'd need to use the app to switch back to using the schedule. So if you wanted to use HomeKit exclusively you'd need to do all the scheduling within Home Assistant and then not use the Tado app. For now I'm using the cloud integration then will probably move the scheduling over to HA and switch to the HomeKit integration when I have time. The new Tado X version that is coming out soon will also offer Matter support, it's due to be sold alongside this V3+ system as a premium version with the V3+ being pitched as more of a value option

[@M0PAX]

If you want matter the new Tado version X supports that out of the box, but it has no compatibility with version 3 you will have to buy all new. For my house if I changed with 7 x radiators you are looking at £800 ish

[@michaelthompson657]

Which protocol does the bridge use?

[@pstevenson]

868 MHz using the IPv6 enabled “6LoWPAN” protocol

[@michaelthompson657]

@ never heard of it!

[@PaulStenning]

Ideal brand boiler… house built by Taylor Wimpey?

[@andljoy]

Tado is the absolute dogs bollocks, i love mine. Its a bit dumb they pulled the openthem as standard from the kits in the UK. I know you can get it, but not in the kits.

[@camerongray1515]

They now sell the "EU" wireless receiver in the UK as an option so at least you don't need to import one. I think it's because the UK wireless receiver has additional relays for hot water control which is quite common over here. Of course the wired thermostats like the one I have here also support OpenTherm.

[@andljoy]

​@@camerongray1515 As i said its fine and i think Tado is by far the best, i just think it would save them a massive headache to have one product for everyone that has open therm and the hot water control no messing with different SKUs.

[@321dodo123]

You do know tado x is coming out next month with usb c, rechargeable batteries matter support. This version has been out for years? If you buy tado 3 you can’t integrate the new stuff. Yes this is cheap at the min due to getting rid of stock

[@camerongray1515]

I actually discussed this with Tado, everything for this video was arranged before Tado X was announced - the plan is to continue selling the V3+ system as a more budget range and then sell Tado X as the more "premium" option.

[@Neuer_Alias_erstellen]

Micro USB 😒

[@KeironCheesbrough]

I didn’t even bother watching the video after seeing ‘micro USB’ 😅

[@camerongray1515]

Of course USB-C would be nice, but it's a hub that you'll plug in once and probably never touch again, it's really not a big deal.

[@boydpander7904]

@@camerongray1515their newest product line (Tado X) has USB-C now

[@andljoy]

@@camerongray1515 Yeh i dont like it ether but as you say you plug it in once and you are done. Its the same with my octopus home mini , its annoying but as you will only plug it in once its not the end of the world.

[@DozIT]

Lutron is the same

[@andyb-com]

tado needs a few improvements, mainly customer service considering its primarily aimed at an install by the actual end user. the only way to get help from them is via an online chat, that isnt always online, unless you are a professional installer there is no way to actually to speak to someone.

[@justatiger6268]

Tado is very expensive and not local only. Massive No-Go from me!

[@SamHughes89]

Those are stats/heads not valves, but good video apart from that 😉

[@robintodd3901]

TRV “valve” - Thermostatic Radiator Valve 🤪 So he’s exactly right 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@BOOMEL12]

I had Tado for a number of years and overall very disappointed. Number of batteries that need changing. Three internet bridge failures. Lack of multi internet bridge capability

[@davergibson]

Paid for feature such as geo fencing can be automated for free in home assistant. Definitely do not pay for those features.

[@gasmoney9319]

Basic system can't measure or control stored tank hot water. Go sonoff

[@camerongray1515]

The wired thermostats can't as they are designed for combi boilers. The UK wireless kit supports hot water control.

[@gasmoney9319]

@@camerongray1515 only on off not temperature reading or adjustment

[@camerongray1515]

Generally in the UK that's how hot water systems are designed, you'd have a tank thermostat in circuit that will shut off the hot water once the tank is up to temperature but all the programmer does is turn on/off - if the tank thermostat senses that the tank is up to temperature it'll shut off irrespective of what the programmer is doing. I'm sure you could build something more powerful but you're getting well beyond the realm of something that'll fit into a regular UK heating system without significant modification.

[@mitchellmnr]

recommendation is to keep the wires disconnected in the back. Unless you 100% know they are not connected on the other end .... they could be - and could cause problems (or bang)

[@camerongray1515]

In my mind that's a reason to explicitly connect them to the parking terminals (of course with each wire in it's own terminal). The parking terminals are designed to take live wires, they don't connect to anything, nor connect to each other. That way it's completely safe if any wires were to become live. Much safer than having random live wires floating around inside a wall. For example, if you left an old neutral and CPC floating around in the wall - if they ever moved and touched each other your RCD will trip and you'll have a nightmare trying to track down the issue!

[@stevengoetz6773]

I was today years old when I learned the UK still doesn't use forced air in new builds.

[@camerongray1515]

Forced air heating is unheard of in the UK, personally I've never really seen the appeal, especially when it's not combined with AC which also is rare in the UK. If anything, high end properties are moving more towards underfloor water based heating, not forced air. UK houses are also smaller than in the US so the space taken up by ducts and forced air furnaces is not ideal. On the other hand, all I have is a gas boiler mounted half way up my garage wall (many houses have them inside kitchen cupboards instead)

[@stevengoetz6773]

@@camerongray1515 I live in Southern Ontario Canada. Have gas forced air with AC. It's pretty much a necessity. Winter will get to -40 C and summer will be over 30 C for months on end. Basements are in almost every home here so the furnace/blower lives in the basement, as does the water heater, either tankless or otherwise. A lot of North American homes are moving to heat pump systems, especially in places where Natural Gas isn't an option.

[@andljoy]

Forced air is only worth it if you cool as well , not common in the UK.

[@edc1569]

@@stevengoetz6773forced air is a crap way of heating a house, underfloor radiant with a heat recovery ventilator system is the way to do it. Never mind the insanity of having an other heat source just to heat domestic hot water, with more expensive heat pump systems I’m not sure how that makes any sense. Elon was meant to be bringing North America domestic heating into the 21st century but he’s rather distracted at the moment.