10 Room limitation

johnbur

https://community.tado.com/en-gb/discussion/590/can-i-control-more-than-10-rooms

Hi, I see this discussion has been closed - any update on increasing the number of rooms above 10?

Many thanks

davidlyall

It seems to me that a lot of folk overthink the need to have every room as a zone. Tado can have more than 10 rooms but the limit is on the number that can call for heat

Taking @andy_mac_smarthome's example above. I would group the ensuites with their respective bedrooms so that they get heat when the bedroom needs it. I'd also question why a laundry room needs to be able to call for heat itself as it's not like the room is occupied for long periods

By having too many zones, you run the risk of the boiler being cycled too much which can increase the chance of breakdown

Michael

Hi John,

I don't expect an update on this any time soon. Sorry.

Best,

Michael

johnbur

Do you mean never? ;-)

rossy100

Just reading this and in case any confusion - Tado can oakley support 10 zones maximum, but can have multiple thermostats in each zone.

Therefore to work around the limitation, the best/only way is to pair up some rooms into a single zone. I have 18 thermostats across 10 zones, and for example I have multiple bathrooms grouped together in a single 'Bathroom' zone. So long as you pair rooms which have a similar heating schedule there should be no issue. You can also choose which thermostat you want to be the lead (which will become the device from which the temperature is read and triggers heating to all other devices in that zone).

Hope that helps.

LouisR

Way not acceptable. Time to get this corrected. I don't have a big house, but I have more than 10 zones, bathrooms and halls included. Combining zones defeats the purpose of having zones in the first place. Why would you combine hall and bathroom, for example, if each has different characteristics (windows, access to to other rooms). I thought we had a smart system with TADO. This is not smart.

johnbur

@rossy100 having multiple bathrooms in one zone seems ridiculous - having one thermostat triggering heat in unconnected rooms which are bound to have different requirements completely defeats the objective.

dennisoliver

Restriction depends how many heating zones your boiler supports or how your heating is configured. I have 6 physical zones between underfloor and rad heating so in theory can support 60 zones

AndyJain

This is a disaster. tado had promised 25 TRV supported and this 10 zone restriction does not make sense. I had installed 16 trv and the extention kit; don't want to return everything back. Anyone knows the reason for this 10 zone limit, seems like a config parameter to me.

dazzaling69

Any news on whether this issue will be fixed? 10 is too small a number - even if it went to 15 I think that would cover a lot more houses.

It's a shame that this is still an issue - it's otherwise a great product.

If there is a beta programme I can join to test support for more rads then please count me in. I have 12 TRVs.

PACman

I've seen various discussions about this on various websites. I completely agree - 10 rooms is too limiting. Would be good to hear any updates on this.

PACman

And just to add an idea - if (as I've been reading elesewhere) the view is that inceasing from the 10 room would require some significnat changes throughout the tech stack, I wonder whether there are any creative solution that Tado could consider. Such as a developing an expansion device, e.g. repurpose of a wireless thermostat as a controller that then connects as a "room" to the main boiler controller. It would require some development, but if something like this was practical, it could allow those of us with more rooms to buy an extra device to then give us a 19 room limit, and wouldn't technically require any chance to the limit of 10 decices to a controller. Just a thought.

andy_mac_smarthome

I agree with the majority of posters I have seen across the community on this subject, that 10 is frustratingly limiting and I'm surprised that some customers are settling with the suggested workaround that some rooms will just get heated when others within the 10 room limit are coincidentally being heated. And that this is just “likely” to happen if you have more than 10 rooms. 

I think there are two camps here:

- The ones that are accepting of the limit (and Tado themselves unfortunately) who will never agree to the justification of needing more

- And then ones that are lumbered with this limit and know from experience it is not sufficient to maintain the required consistent behaviour and control across all rooms / zones. 

Tado have the data, so will know that rooms need to be broken up because there are often conditions that result in different thermal behaviour like the amount of external wall area, window area, size of the zone, if there are rooms above or below etc. Add to this the varying usage patterns of rooms and zones and you further increase the likelihood that an individual zone would need heat when others do not.

Using my own example. I have 4 bedrooms, a kitchen, living room, study & laundry. So that already puts me at 8. I then have to make a choice with the final 2 zones which en suites or landings get them, and then settle with either grouping rads into other rooms, or setting them as independent and hoping they get what they need coincidentally when other rooms within the 10 are calling…. 

Oversimplifying, I see the 10 rooms working as an OR gate, when any rad within it calls for heat, the zone controller flips to calling for heat. 

I appreciate that more devices will have some load on the bridge etc, but I would have assumed device count would have a bigger impact due to the amount of temperature and humidity measurements being taken and stored, than room count which are just adding to this OR condition and putting addition things on the app UI….? 

So the reasoning that “this is baked in the firmware” and the reluctance to prioritise changing that doesn’t sit right.

Firmware update, add more bridges, swap out for a bridge 2.0 etc.. This can’t be a significant dev effort.

ChadH

I have a query on this.

Where is the 10 room limit? Is it on the Wireless Receiver?

I understand that you can only have one Wireless Receiver, but if I set up a Wired Thermostat as well (which I understand can then be configured as an additional Zone Controller), could I add my extra rooms to this?

If so, my plan would be to put this next to the Wireless Receiver, wire the common and normally open contacts in parallel, and then use this Zone Controller for the additional rooms that can't be added to the Wireless Receiver.

I'd love to heat thoughts on this

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ChadH

I expect/want to be able to control the radiators that I have set up in the way that suits my household. I was aware of the 25 device/room limit (as Tado put it), and that was suitable for my requirements. Had I been aware of the 10 room limit, then I would not have purchased it.

If I turn on the en-suite radiator and it doesn't heat up, then the system is not working in my opinion. I don't feel I should have to second-guess the system and turn on another room unnecessarily. And I don't feel that I should be forced into joining to rooms together that are used differently.

I'm really unsure as to why you are defending this configuration. Great, the system works for you, the 10 room limit is not an issue, but it doesn't mean to say that it's a workable solution for everybody.

Using boiler breakdown as a reason for having a room limit is irrelevant. I have a thermal store, my boiler is not at risk.... which additionally proves my point - everybody's system/usage is different, and it may not match yours!

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ChadH

I've actually resolved this issue, and now have the ability to have 20 rooms on my system - all being able to call for heat.

This solution won't apply to everyone, but if your boiler controls are analog and use either the 'Normally Open' or 'Normally Closed' relay switch, and you're happy to buy an additional wired thermostat, then it can be done.

My wireless receiver is connected to my boiler using the 'Normally Open' and 'Common' terminals. I purchased an additional Wired Thermostat and have wired the same 'NO/Common' terminals in parallel with my Wireless Receiver. Now, if either the Wired Thermostat or the Wireless Receiver call for heat, they can both fire the boiler. (If you happen to use the 'Normally Closed/Common' terminals, then you'll have to wire in series instead of parallel)

I did have to contact support and ask them to enable the new wired thermostat as a Zone Controller, but they did that the following day.

You now have a few options for placing that new wired thermostat. I was fortunate that my boiler controls are on the other side of one of my main bedroom walls, so I chose to put the thermostat in the Main Bedroom and assign it to that room. Another option would be to leave it in the location of your boiler but assign it to any other room (just make sure it isn't the device that measures the temperature of that room, otherwise it will be incorrect), or you could just set up an extra room and have it always set to off.

Now, I am able to assign 10 rooms to the Wireless Receiver, and 10 rooms to the Wired Thermostat (one of those 10 will be the room that the Thermostat is in). I've now got my 14 rooms all able to call for heat from the same boiler, and have the potential for 6 more.

This won't work if you use OpenTherm or a Digital connection to your boiler, but works great if your boiler is driven by a simple on/off relay.

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