May buy Tado, would like more info. on Vaillant Ebus integratioin if possible.

GazzaH

Hello, I'm a Gas safe engineer myself and I'm considering Tado in my own home but also to possibly start fitting it for customers.

Regarding my own home - I have read some other posts but my specific questions don't seem to have been covered.

I have a two year old Vaillant Ecotec Plus 418 Open Vented (not a system) boiler on a y-plan system with a standard cylinder stat and HIVE controls. The hot water cylinder is a vented indirect.

I'm looking to try to get weather or load compensation from my boiler and, because of Vaillant only using the Ebus protocol, options are limited.

Vaillant V smart would be compatibe if I fitted a Vaillant VR65 or VR66 wiring centre although I think that V Smart has server issues and loses signal? The app may also not be as good as Tado.

I found out that Tado can speak Ebus and it does look like a good smart control.

To clarify, I don't want to control the system via on/off control which I already have with HIVE, I want to use the boiler's modulation capabilities which require Ebus.

Because of legionella, the Vaillant needs to do its weather or load compensation on heating mode and must not do it in hot water mode.

To do this, a Vaillant wiring centre must be used to wire the three port valve and cylinder stat or temperature sensor. This wiring centre's Ebus terminals then get wired to the boiler and the Tado or Vsmart. The three port valve can be set in the Ecotec's parameters to hot water priority, the boiler satisfies the hot water demand before the heating is allowed to operate. In doing this, it could use a different flow temperature when charging the cylinder as opposed to the heating.

I have obtained a second hand Vaillant VR65 unit. I heard that Tado Ebus can work with the older VR65 but not VR66.

I can wire a Vaillant VR10 sensor from the VR65 and foil-tape it with heat sink compound to the bare metal of the hot water cylinder then put polystyrene over it and then duct tape that in place and remove the cylinder stat.

The HIVE receiver wiring then becomes redundant as the 'hot water on', 'hot water off' and 'central heating on' wires at the hive receiver end are no longer used as it's a VR65 and not a y-plan system any more. I can use two redundant wires to get Ebus from the airing cupboard cylinder and VR65 area to the boiler. There are old roomstat wires in the wall that means I can get Ebus to the Tado from the boiler area.

What I'd like to know is, when controlling by Tado Ebus to a Vaillant Ebus heating and hot water boiler via a VR65, do I only need the Tado stat and internet bridge?

What does the Vaillant boiler 'see' when the Tado is connected by Ebus?

Going the other way, can the Tado 'see' the boiler flow and return temps, faults or anything like that?

Are there any glitches or compatibility issues? Is the Tado recognised in the Vaillant's parameter menus?

When the boiler is connected to the VR65 via Ebus and the VR65 is connected to the cylinder by a VR10 sensor, then the Ecotec's hot water knob becomes active and the hot water temperature can be set at the boiler. Can the Tado 'see' or adjust this temperature? Vsmart can. Can I set the Tado to run the boiler flow on say 70 degrees C on hot water mode to heat the cylinder quickly but modulate flow temperature lower to a heat curve in heating mode?

If I did get Tado to control the boiler by Ebus and later wanted to add Tado TRV's, would it all work together?

Finally, if I forgot about the Ebus and Vaillant VR65 because it was all too much hassle and instead connected the Tado via on/off control, what advantages does Tado have over HIVE in this scenario?

Have I made any mistakes im my assumptions of how to connect all of this? The boiler manufacturers prefer us to use their own controls but I'll bet that the Tado is more user friendly then the Vaillant app and controls!

Sorry for the long post and if anyone has time to answer the questions then it would be appreciated!

Thanks.

Hunter

I can only answer the last question around hive comparison. Answer not alot, except the TRVs seem to close on demand, don’t take 4 hrs to not calibrate and link with an external temp sensor to give a better room temp, especially for multiple rads in a room. Still running hive single channel upstairs and using hive TRVS in non critical locations without HOD active.

I am unclear currently if the temp control algorithm are similar but there is none of the boosting business that hive TRVS had, but rather a nice master slave relationship per room. I don’t expect trv temp measurement is any better but the Tado TRVS are noisier but an easy sacrifice.

my switch was totally for the trvs implimetation as I needed two rooms to be completely controlled separately.

hive historian and GUI is also bare and dated. The thermostats are bulky but a new mini is Tado like.

Tado calling for heat on the app and the wavey lines is not an improvement on hive, but hive could also not tell if you were actually consuming gas or not.

Rmec

I'm in exactly the same situation, I have a EcoTec plus 424 with standard relay controls currently on Y plan.

I have an original extension kit and a tado wired stat but no VR65 (There is a vr66 with a vr65 emulation jumper). I've asked Tado but they said they don't support valved systems and I have to use the relay.

I'd like to have modulation for central heating working at a condensing and slightly hotter HW temp but it's not clear how this would work!

I

johnnyp78

If you do a forum search, there was a long thread a few weeks ago on people’s experiences installing Tado with a vr65.

GazzaH

Thanks for the replies.