Can AC Controller and Thermostat be linked

UKTadoer

I have a thermostat for wet radiators and an AC controller in the same room.

Is it possible for them to be linked so:

1. They aren't allowed to work in conflict (i.e. you can't set cooling lower than heating)
2. They can work in tandem to heat the room with both mechanisms without setting them separatly.

I can't see any concept of a room in the tado app beyond the name you set.

selterdurst

I have the exact Question. I am thinking to get an Aircon and with everything going on, I would love to supplement the gas heating with electricity, ideally even "smart" so that the aircon is at efficiency peak given the outside temperature etc.

It's quite a niche use case, but with everything going on, if I can save on gas, I would want to do that. I think Tado would be extremely well positioned to offer such a feature across all systems and manufacturers.

MichielTado

You can quite easily calculate when to use the Airco for heating and when the gas powered heating.

Breakeven COP = 9 / (Price M3 gas / Price kWh electricity)

Then use the eurovent certification website to determine at which temperature the calculated breakeven COP is reached. Use the Airco when the temperature is higher than this temperature, and gas when the temperature is lower.

With the current A-brand split aircos like MHI and Daikin, and current prices for energy the cutoff temperature will most likely be between minus 4 and minus 15 degrees celcius (when heating). In most western european countries the airco is cheaper to heat most of the time, I would guess more than 98% of the time. Even if you don’t want to bother with checking the actual outside temperature, always using the airco is by far the best choice.

tbandras

@MichielTado would you mind explaining a bit more on the calculation shared above? I would like to optimize my system, as i have both AC and gas, but for that I would need to understand how the calculation is done.

I apologize if this is obvious, but I am not an engineer.

Thanks a lot in advance for your help!

MichielTado

@tbandras I am not sure what kind of explanation you want :-). If you have a specific question please let me know.

The high level explanation of the formula is that with a certain set price for electricity and for gas, you can calculate at which COP both options would be equally expensive. If you know this COP you can use the eurovent certification website (ot the documentation of the airco) to lookup your airco and find out at what temperature the airco reaches that COP. Understand that the lower the outside temperature, the lower the COP is of the airco. So if the actual outside temperature is lower than the calculated breakeven temperature, the airco will have a lower than needed COP and therefor be more expensive than the gas boiler.

So now you know when the outside temperature is lower than the breakeven temperature, gas heating is cheaper, and when the outaide temperature is above the breakeven temperature the airco is cheaper when heating.

ps: my formula only works for condensing gas heating with high efficiency vs airco. If you have a non condensing gas furnace the 9 in the formula changes to 7 of 8 probably to account for its energy inefficiency.