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I'm getting a new boiler installed, and quite fancy one of these wifi/internet based control systems.
Does anyone have any experiences with either? Also, how difficult are they to fit? (would this void my boiler warranty?)
Got Tado and very pleased with it.
Another one with Tado here, and I am very pleased with it too.
Netatmo for another option. Works well, took 20mins to fit
So are these smart thermostats saving you any money?
I have a Nest, and am pretty impressed with it, it's a smart looking piece of kit too, imo better looking than hive. Got mine for free with install just for switching to Npower.
Great to be able to turn hearing on when on way back from being out so house is warm, automatically works out when you're homework not and adjust accordingly. Like I've already said, it's a good piece of kit
I've had Hive for around 5 months
Good
Ability to adjust heating and hot water away from home or sofa on phone/ipad/puter
Now have 6 slots in 24 hrs to adjust heating on/off and temp
Good tech support on phone and social media
Controls hot water AND heating (Nest just heating I think)
Bad
App was a bit glitchy initially (android - apple one was better) but recently no problems
Takes up LAN slot or router
Can be a bit temperamental with connections - am getting a "booster plug" so signal can make it from the hub (router in lounge) to the receiver (boiler in loft)
No idea on heating bills - to be honest we didn't have a thermostat before never mind a smart one Plus we upgraded our whole system - new boiler and megaflow so hard to do comparison
Wouldn't be without it now though
So, what's better about tado? It seems to be £100 more expensive...
You can rent the tado rather than buy it outright. It looks like it's been designed for function rather than looking pretty.
I think when I looked at this about a year ago only the tado offered the automatic detection of multiple smartphones to switch off and on on your way home etc. nest seemed to be much more manual
Had Hive with my old boiler. When that died and I needed a new boiler fitted I discovered my Hive receiver (2 channel for heating and hot water) would not run my new boiler (combi) and I would need a new single channel receiver, that'll be £100 thank you sir.!!! Umm, actually I won't bother thanks, I'll use one of the competitor products and sell the Hive onto someone else..
'Oh, I'm sorry Sir I'm afraid your Hive is registered to your property and cannot be moved to a different property without reregistering it at a cost of.. you guessed it.. £100..!!'
The end result being I have a useless Hive sitting in the box that my nice new Tado arrived in. Took me about an hour to wire the tado extension box to the new boiler and most of that was chasing the cable into the wall. The smartphone app is much nicer and faster/more reliable and it shuts the heating off when we all leave and switches it on again when we come home.
I got a Honeywell wifi one. I couldn't see the extra cost of a Nest brought me that much added value. Being able to set, adjust etc from my phone is the biggest single improvement. Fitted it myself, one call to helpline (it is an air pump system) and no worries since. App is a doddle to use.
These 'clever' controllers don't appear that clever to me if they look at the Internet to try and guess what the weather will do. Our boiler (veissmann) has an external temperature sensor do there is no guessing, the boiler works as hard as it needs to.
Boiler does not know if people are home yet..could be firing up to heat empty house. Tado fires up boiler when occupier is at home or approaching home......theoretically!!
Do these work with biomass systems? What happens with Tado if 2 people in the house have smartphones:
Can Mrs i and I both be linked to Tado? If I'm at work and she's out will it respond to either of us coming home?
What if we have rellies staying and we pop out with them at home - will Tado turn their heating off?
Interesting thread, watching carefully. I started one on HIVE a few months back. I am very interested in these devices for the remote control ability when returning to the house, also new multi time controllers are IMO too complicated now for wall mounted control.
My one concern is manual override, I have a worry the devices will fail at some stage and you'll have no heating, I don't like the fact the old fashioned controllers are removed completely.
"Do these work with biomass systems? What happens with Tado if 2 people in the house have smartphones:
Can Mrs i and I both be linked to Tado? If I'm at work and she's out will it respond to either of us coming home?
What if we have rellies staying and we pop out with them at home - will Tado turn their heating off?"
Yes you can have multiple phones with the Tado, I have mine and my wife's linked and it knows when either of us arrives home, we were away a few weeks ago and my daughter was staying in the house on a not particularly cold day, I could see she had turned the CH up to 23 so I was able to turn it off remotely 😉
Ok so it turns the system in when you get near home, how near though? It takes more than 5 mins to warm a house up.
Just manually turn the heating on from the app surely?
Don't get me wrong I'm not against them, but they are expensive, and the selling point of these particular 2 is that they can adapt to the weather.
As far as I know, Tado takes that into account too - depending on the wiring at your existing thermostat.Our boiler (veissmann) has an external temperature sensor do there is no guessing, the boiler works as hard as it needs to.
I am very happy with our Tado. It works very well.
Edit: the app uses Geolocation, Tado learns how long it takes to warm up your house, so will turn on the heating once you are near enough. You can control this to a degree, in the comfort vs savings settings. Much easier than trying to remember to turn the heating on and off.
very interested in this. I signed up to the npower tarrif in december with a view to getting the nest installed. as if yet no one can tell me when i can book a date to get it fitted!
we need a new thermostat so thats the only reason ive gone for it. If i had the cash i would go for the honeywell one that can control each rad independently. but that came in at 700 quid+
I didnt like the fact the hive one was tied to the house. Although not sure why you would remove it?
If only the nest did hot water as well. It seems like a big miss that one!
All I have to add to this:
I'm as geeky as the next man (actually, massively more so) and pondered this same question.
Ended up getting a Salus programmable wireless thermostat for £36 rather than bothering with a smart one.
Maybe I'll swap it out later, but decided it didn't matter that much provided the house was the temp I wanted when I wanted.
if it can't light my log burner for me with robot arms, then i'm not interested.