Potential New user - so confused!

wimc99

Hello,

I am having my house rebuilt, and the plumber has suggested Tado.

We will have 3 Underfloor heating Zones (Study/Kitchen/Utility) as well as about 15 radiators (on a single zone).

He is proposing only having a single Wired thermastat (In the utility, close to the boiler), he has also said all we do is just setup schedules on the app.

From reading documents on here/online, this looks like a pretty "dumb" way to use Tado? Shouldn't each "underfloor zone" have it's own wired thermastat?

My key questions are:

1. With only one wired thermastat, is there no way to use a sensor to turn on/off the UFH in each zone? (I'm happy to use 3rd party with homekit if that works?)
2. If I put TRV's on all the rads, can they independently be on/off? i.e. 1 room reaches 20 the rad turns off, but room 2 is only 19 so stays on? Or is it an "all or nothing" situation?

Thanks

policywonk

OK. Starting with. What you plan to do now.
1. I presume your plumber will be using one manifold, with valve controls for the under floor heating system. If that's the case, and the rads are controlled by tado rad stats, there is a good case to use tado wired thermostats in ufh zone, triggering the individual valves that open pressure into the relevant zone.
2. If you have a system boiler which handles both heating and hot water, with an immersion tank, then you'll need an extension kit, in addition to the basic wireless receiver. If you have no immersion tank, so heating to the taps is on demand, you won't need an extension kit.
3. Your Plumber will probably install a ufh wired centre to control the manifold, a two way valve for the ufh manifold, its pump, and use indiviual wired thermosats to switch each zone on or off. The zone valves control the comparative flow into their respective zones.
4. There will be another pump which handles the radiators.
5. The flow side of the rads are controlled by the tado stats, the return side sets the relative flow rate when switched on. This return side is similar to the actuator valve that handles an individual ufh zone.
Now if your mind has wrapped around this without difficulty, would you describe what's the actual challenge in your mind?

Unknown

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wimc99

Thanks - well, they are installing the boiler next week! And seem to be struggling for alterntaives that control multi zone heating.

wimc99

No one able to confirm ?

wimc99

Wow thanks for the detailed response! I am hoping to meet the plumber next week to go through it in more detail.

But currently it sounds like he was only planning on having one thermostat and all 3 zones working as ‘one’, and the rads all as one.

His POV was there is no point in getting stats in each room, as the heating will be ‘on’ or ‘off’, so my question was is that the case? Or do the individual TRV’s still control the rads (I.e 2 can be on and 2 can be off).

Without stats for the UFH, I assume we would just schedule it, like an old fashioned system? (I.e 8-10 on, 16-19 on etc).

Emcee

Hello @wimc99 and thank you @policywonk for your response 🙂

Jumping in to confirm that underfloor heating can be set up more than one way with tado° products. You can read about heating zones and how they work in the article I've linked below.

What your plumber recommended is not incorrect. It would be the most affordable option.
However, individual Smart Radiator Thermostats could also control the valves independently.

https://support.tado.com/en/articles/4689126-how-does-tado-control-heating-zones-how-can-i-change-the-zone-controller-of-a-room

policywonk

Hi again. Your plumber may be excellent at balancing the under floor heating system - in which case, one thermostat may be enough. Personally, having seen the problems in a few houses we've lived in with UFH, its always a problem getting the room temperatures correctly balanced. If, after the installation there is still a problem, there is a way to retro install wired/wireless thermostat combinations to overcome it.

Good luck. UFH makes a huge difference to the quality of life.

policywonk

Have been thinking this through. Recommending the following
1. Rad stats from tado on every rad.
2. Wired stats for each room that uses ufh, switching the relevant valve(s) on the manifold.
3. Whatever the boiler needs to make it all hang together.
4. It is important that the ufh manifolds are carefully balanced and that the pump on that manifold has the punch to get the heat through properly. Make sure that the plumber has an insurance policy which covers him and you if there are cold spots in the UFH zones so he is forced to get it right.

wimc99

Thanks! Following from from this thread - I have got the plumber to install wired therms for each UFH sector.

He has setup the boiler, I will speak to him about balancing and insurance