Does anyone use a Tado & digital rad valves?

[LivingRoomdilemma]

Tado is a wireless thermostat to control the boiler and you can then use remote control Tado radiator valves.

Does anyone here have this system, and would you recommend it if so please?

It's to balance out the big variation in temperature between the rooms in our home - the north side becomes very cold while the south facing side is warmer and upstairs rooms warmer again.

Thanks in advance 🤞

Yes, really really REALLY recommend it.

We have TRV's on all our radiators and tbh it just runs itself. Wouldn't be without it.
This is our energy report from September:

Thanks @AmuckAmuckAmuck , that's brilliant.
Could you tell me if the Autoassist is a subscription service please? And if so, how much that costs? Thanks again.😊

Yes and we LOVE IT!!!! Installed it in our last house for efficiency (easier to turn rooms on and off as needed and had concrete floors upstairs so it was our only option). Then installed in a relatives house so that the heating could be popped on remotely. Moved house last year and it was one of the first things we installed in new house too. We don’t use the subscription service. Only thing u need to do is keep spare batteries for radio thermostats handy, they can run out after about 9 months. About once a year on average the tado service has gone down which is a pain, but has been back online in a few hours.

I don’t think we pay for that, but the caveat there is we were very early subscribers to Tado and somewhere in the back of my mind I recall later users paying.
I will ask DH in the morning though!

Thank you.

We have these and agree they are great for targeting which rooms you want heating. We have had issues with batteries needing replacing frequently, and the other thing I would mention is the noise they make. The one in our bedroom wakes me up every morning when it switches on. Very annoying!

Can someone explain the benefits to a layman? If you use the old style thermostats on the rads, with the boiler on a timer, what’s the difference?

You can target each room and set the temperature and schedule for that room. Eg my son gets up an hour before his sister, so we have his room set to come on earlier than hers. You can control them via an app, so you can switch the heating on and off when you're away from home/can't be bothered to get off the sofa 🤣 It also knows when you enter/leave the house, and prompts you to switch the heating on/off as you come and go.

It's basically like having a remote controllable house thermostat in each room in your house.

Ok have asked him.

Open window and Geofencing comes as standard. There is no extra charge for those. You can add auto assist apparently And that does a couple of extras like the energy monitoring.

we don’t pay for those because we installed it when it was first released.
Auto assist wasn’t added until much later and tbh with the window and geofencing in place the savings are really evident so you probably don’t need the additional.

if you’re putting TRVs in (and they all make a click noise when coming on whatever brand you choose btw) then you’ll notice a difference. When we installed they said we’d save the cost of it in bills in a year. They were right.

DS has Tado without the sub. He was off on honeymoon recently and his internet went down meaning Tado went offline. Had they paid the auto assist I believe it would have notified him that there was an issue. As far as I can see that’s the only benefit really.

Ah I See. Yes that would make sense then. Ideally they would be DIY level installation.

Thanks everyone, it sounds like it's well worth it. We'll maybe try it without the subscription first.

You can install yourself, both times we've sent Tado a photo of the boiler and they have sent back a personalised instruction on how to fit to the system.

The thing that sticks in my mind with the level of service was not long after we'd had it we had issues with geofencing. I worked about 200 yards from home at the time and the system couldn't pick up that I'd left the house. Called them and they said to give them a quick call when I got to work. Did that, they did something to the system and changed the settings and fixed it within the hour.

Hi, apologies for replying to an old thread but need Tado help;

I am fitting 4 new radiators upstairs after renovating there. Downstairs will remain as is for a while (unless I win the lottery 😬). I want to put Tado TRVs on each rad as I'm already going to be buying decent TRVs and seems like it would be worth the extra money to future proof. My bro in law helps me with everything and is a major DIY freak and is very anti them...! He's trying to put me off! Says the whole system has to be on all the time- but that's sort of a combo boiler system in a way anyway isn't it?!

Anyway- they're going in the kids rooms and it would be great to have it that they are on their schedule as they walk home and so are there for a couple of hours before I get back from work. Plus they wake later/ stay at their dad's occasionally etc so I'd love individual room controls.

Can I just put them upstairs for now or would I have to do downstairs too? Not a major problem if so as I've JL vouchers to spend and just seem they sell the kit!

Thanks

Pretty sure you can set each radiator to a schedule. I wouldn't be put off - just because your BiL doesn't like them doesn't mean he's right.

We have Tado, and with the geofencing and controls it will detect when you're in the house v away, so adjusts accordingly - the whole system does NOT have to be "on" all the time. With the thermostat as well if the house is already at a certain temp it doesn't switch the heating on.

We have this set up: all of our 'room' radiators are Tados, but our towel rail/hallway rads are on a normal TRV. We've found that having one Tado on turns the radiator on in that room but also turns on all the other non-Tados. I think because the Tado turning on fires up the boiler, and creates a demand for hot water which then flows through the whole system.

This means if I'm working from home I put my office Tado on, but it also turns on all the towels rails in the house. I've never been able to find a way around it.

We have Tado, have had it for a few years now. Overall, we're really happy with it. Geofencing is good, and it can be overridden to put the heating back on when you're out, so you're not coming in to a cold house. If you don't have Tado valves on all of your radiators, then the non Tado rads will be on if one of the Tado rads is on. This is really the only downside, and it's not a big deal really. We didn't want Tado valves on all of our rads as we have ornate cast iron radiators and so don't want the look of them spoiling with the (slightly ugly) Tado valves if they are very visually obvious.

Thank you!

So it might be worth just replacing the valves on the non- new radiators anyway I think? As otherwise all the downstairs ones will come in when I just want a boy's room on?

I think it might be worth it as I'm perpetually changing the schedule for the heating depending on our endless sports clubs etc..!

Sorry all- me again!

Spoke to my plumber (who's my BIL's cousins- they're all in the building trade in one way or another..!)

He was very sceptical- he said what about firing the boiler up just to heat one room- I said well that happens when I run a bit of hot water..?!

He also said what about heat loss into the unheated rooms but I assume that it's still more efficient than heating any rooms?!

I can't find a good article which isn't proprietorial to read- any truth in what he says?!!