Smart heating controls

ThisIsWeird

When (if) you contact Tado, keep the explanation of your situation simple;

House with separate flat, and separate CH systems and boilers. Single BB router. House has been Tado'd, and wish to ditto the flat for completely independent control.

jennifernil

I asked the question on the Screwfix website and got an answer from a tado rep.  It is possible, just have to set up a separate "account" for the second system, so that is good.    Have ordered a starter kit and 4 smart TRV heads from Screwfix, should be available to collect on Friday.     

Will let you know how we get on.

ThisIsWeird

Excellent!

jennifernil

Update as promised.....

we got the stuff from Screwfix a week past Friday, OH was busy on Saturday, and on  Sunday it was my birthday party, so it was Monday before OH started installing things.  On Tuesday he commented that the style of the valves had changed, but on looking at them, and reading the label on the box, it soon became obvious that Screwfix had not supplied the correct valves, but rather the  less expensive "basic" ones.

Took them back on Wednesday,  new, correct ones ordered, set off for other shopping then they rang to say the correct ones had been sent, but the guy in the store had given us the wrong box, please come back, we have your  ones here.

Installation completed on Wednesday evening and is, we think, now working, but there have been a few problems.

Setting up a new tado account involved using a different e mail address, and we cannot use the tado app that we use on our main system, which is  a bit inconvenient.  Fortunately we do not need to change things on the second system as often as on the main one.

There does however seem to be some interference between the 2 systems if both internet bridges are plugged into our router close to each other,  so we have had to separate them a bit, which also is a problem.

 We have just changed from Plusnet broadband to 3 Home Broadband, which is over their 4g and  5g network and have moved the router to a window sill where it has line of sight contact to the 3 mast, so the router is no longer centrally situated in the house, which means some rooms are struggling with the signal.  

Now getting something to help with that....mesh something maybe?     Above my pay grade anyway!    Will see how things go.

FreeBear

jennifernil said: Sunday it was my birthday party

Happy belated birthday - 21 again !

ThisIsWeird

Thanks for the feedback.
Hmm, maybe the folk on the forum knew something after all!
The simplest way to extend WiFi range is by using a cheap TLink plug-in extender. This may even have the added benefit of effectively giving you a different 'router' for the other Tado hub. Possibly.
I think a model of TPlink comes with an ethernet socket (or is it USB?!), in which case your second router could plug in there. 
Maybe.
If you cannot use the App with the second system, what do you use?
Bottom line, if it doesn't do the job properly, then it ain't fit for purpose, so return it and get an alternative make.
But talk it through with Tado first.

400ixl

Tado is known for having a lot of limitations and complications.

It may be worth looking at putting in Home Assistant (run mine on a Raspberry Pi) and running the gateways on that and using it as a front end you can bring together multiple systems.

FreeBear

400ixl said: It may be worth looking at putting in Home Assistant (run mine on a Raspberry Pi) and running the gateways on that and using it as a front end you can bring together multiple systems.

Home Assistant has a pretty steep learning curve. With the right sensors & interfaces, it would be able to control both boilers at the same time. But without some previous experience of both Linux and Home Assistant, it is going to be difficult to set up. Took me several days to get a basic system up and running. The latest instance, I'm still working on.

jennifernil

ThisIsWeird said:

Thanks for the feedback.
Hmm, maybe the folk on the forum knew something after all!
The simplest way to extend WiFi range is by using a cheap TLink plug-in extender. This may even have the added benefit of effectively giving you a different 'router' for the other Tado hub. Possibly.
I think a model of TPlink comes with an ethernet socket (or is it USB?!), in which case your second router could plug in there. 
Maybe.
If you cannot use the App with the second system, what do you use?
Bottom line, if it doesn't do the job properly, then it ain't fit for purpose, so return it and get an alternative make.
But talk it through with Tado first.

Having set up the second account we have to log into that via app.tado.com, using  the different e mail address and a password.  We either have to keep that window open on a device or log in each time.  A bit of a faff, but not too bad as we would usually only be altering any settings on that system when we are at home and needing to use and therefore heat specific rooms.  It is mainly the ability to set individual rooms to individual temperatures at specific times that we want.

On the advice of our technical advisor ( very computer savvy daughter) we are getting a set of 3 x Deco M4 devices.  Both she and our son have this system as they have similar problems.  She has a ground floor flat, 260 sq m , in an extended and then horizontally split 100 year old house with very thick walls, son has a 200 year old farmhouse also with thick stone walls and a traditional sprawling layout of one room leading to another and to another, and so on,  plus  bedrooms in the converted roof space.

Going back to what I said about getting something similar for our guide hall once we get internet installed.......with 3 boilers on tado systems  it would need 3 different accounts.......or maybe it would be better to have 3 different makes of system?

ThisIsWeird

All I can say about your guide hall issue is what I said before. I replaced the two manual room stats, serving two separate boilers, at a local hall with a couple of Hives. A single account. I'm typing on my phone, and if you give me just a few seconds... I can tell you that the main room down there is currently at 12.3o, and the rest of the building is 13o. A third zone should be just as easy to add, as would individual Smart TRVs.
However, the Hive is essentially an on/off controller, without the fine tuning of Opentherm or similar. So, depending on the types of boilers down there, perhaps Wiser might be better, tho' it would need more complex wiring.
For our hall, both boilers had just basic electro-mechanical stats, and one boiler had a built-in timer, tho'  this was kept always 'on'. The problem was, the hall was only used around 5 times a week, sometimes day, sometimes eve. So these stats were just turned 'down' to background heating, to allow the temps to be turned up quickly - an astonishing waste of energy as they ran pretty much 24/7.
Really transformative to be able to have then on 'frost', but programmed to deal with the specific demands of groups - rooms warmed in advance of their arrival, and always off when they departed, but no unnecessary usage.
Tbh, for the limited use made of our hall, the savings to be had from adding more advanced controls than Hive, even if they worked, would likely be minimal, and I doubt they'd cover the extra purchase and installation costs. So if you think 'Hive' is enough for your guide hall, then it's simple and transformative. And cheap if you buy carefully on eBay - I picked up both for way under full retail.
An added bonus is that most folk still don't have Smart heating, so the kudos gained from noticing a slightly flushed member of the management team and saying - as you pull your phone from your pocket - "A touch warm? Hmm, let...me...just...sort..that..for you. There." Is pretty priceless.