Energy Efficiency

buddhabaker

It is my understanding that "smart" central heating controllers are more energy efficient because they "smooth out" the heating boosts, ie switch on/off more frequently so that the house cools down less in between each heating boost and therefore use less energy re-heating the house. Is this correct?

rafm5

Talking purely about tado° - not necessary, my system mainly works in manual mode as it works best for my needs.

I do not see any savings in terms of lower consumption, but I do see great time savings in accessing the system, whether local or remote, it usually works well.

For some, constant problems with high power consumption or connectivity issues do not make tado° energy efficient. Some sources claim that the system turns the heating on when not needed (lost connection), some complain about battery drainage issues. Early start, starting too early does not help save money etc.

In general, smart systems should be more energy efficient thanks to their algorithms & logic, but this isn't always the case in real life.

buddhabaker

Hello rafm5;

Thanks for your input.

As a newbee, I use my system (as yet no tado radiator trvs) in auto mode with an annual subscription.

What I find is it heats up to the required temperature and is then left to cool down, and so the room is half warm then cool. To counter this I have set lots of schedules in 15 minute portions, warming up and then cooling down with 1/2 degree differences. I'm unsure of the energy savings but the rooms are maintained at a more even and acceptable level for the duration.

This is why my other question was about the need to or not to continuously run the TADO app. in the background on my mobile.

rafm5

Each system may work slightly differently and offer different functionality - OpenTherm/eBus | Relay are not the same. The mobile app is not really needed unless you want to go for geofencing as explained in the past.

Phil_A

I'm not sure setting small blocks is the way to go. In theory at least, Tado should use a closed loop feedback to learn how much it needs to heat to maintain an even temperature. I would leave it with the schedule you want and keep an eye on the graph on the app. If there are large sawtooth like variations as the system turns on and off that don't reduce over time then you have an issue but I would leave it for a good week or so before saying this is an issue. Of course you'll get minor variations as the system can't fully cope with things like sun/clouds, open internal doors and perhaps even heat from cooking.

buddhabaker

Hi Phil;

Thanks for the feedback.

Once we went live, I left it for a while and Val my partner was complaining that she was getting cold, especially during the evening. Since making the changes she hasn't complained once. As you suggest, I shall leave it for a couple of weeks and see how we go, perhaps returning back to my original settings. As the summer progresses it should become less of an issue anyway, until autumn starts..