Does Smart AC actually change fan speed to bring the temp down quickler in Thermostatic mode?

Pottypotsworth

Hi there,

It is starting to get much hotter in my part of the world and today I noticed that no matter what temperature I set the target to in thermostatic mode, the airspeed of the AC unit stayed the same.

You can see from the attached photo that the target temp was 23c but the actual temp was 29.1 yet the aircon was blowing out air on the lowest AC fan speed. There is absolutely no way at all that Tado V3 will be able to reach anywhere near the target temperature without aggressively changing the fan speed to pump out more air. In fact, about 30 minutes after this was taken the temperature had gone up another 1c to above 30c.

Is there something I am missing here? What is the point in having a target temperature if Tado doesn't adjust the speed of the fans to push out more air to have any hope of reaching it?

Thanks

[Deleted User]

Hello ,

Please contact our Support Team either via our contact form:

https://support-request.tado.com/#/contact?locale=en

Or via our Live Chat (yellow chat box, bottom left):

https://www.tado.com/

Kind regards,

Joey

Pottypotsworth

I have opened a ticket. But just to add that if I switch the Tado into non-thermostatic mode then I can change the fan speed whilst in AC without any issue at all. It is just like the thermostatic mode never tries to be more aggressive with the cooling by increasing the fan speed.

Thanks

shufflez

@Pottypotsworth did you ever hear back? I'm facing similar issues.

The 'Thermostatic' option of Tado is a farce. Afaik Tado is basically only switching AC on or off (which our multi-split inverter really dislikes). Tado is not actually thermostatically controlling the climate-settings of the AC. E.g. if your 'Acceptance Range' is set too narrow, Tado keeps switching on/off (limited by 'Min On/Off Time'), instead of actually sending temp-changes to AC.

Hoping someone from Tado can prove me completely wrong! At this point Smart AC has little/no value other than initial gimmick value.

Pottypotsworth

I am afraid @shufflez that I did not hear any more on this, and like you have had more issues with a multi-split invertor getting upset than upsides using Tado.

Tado it actually now relegated to my empty spare room where I just use it to switch on the AC on a couple of times a week for a couple of hours just to keep the humidity down and some old books and boxes in check. The whole "smart AC" side of it is entirely useless.

I did have Sensibo running in my bedroom and living room and have found using that with Homebridge for use with Apple HomeKit gave me much more control, but still it is essentially used as a fancy timing device to switch modes or temps at a certain time.

It seems so obvious to me that people would want Tado to operate in the manner I thought it did in my initial post, but seemingly not?

All the best.

Nuno

I was having the same issue, and I'm a programmer, so I decided to fix this myself.

I shared my solution with tado, which basically ignored it.

It's on GitHub: https://github.com/ncruces/smarter-tado-ac

You can download the release, if you're interested, set the username/password on the json file, configure it to run every 5 min (make it a scheduled task, or a cron job, or something), and report back.

Read the README for details, it's a big wall of text, but it describes the problem and the solution well.

I've been running this for 3 years now, works great for me.

I can answer questions here, but I don't know if I'll pay attention to this thread beyond the next couple of days, so ping me on GitHub if you run into issues.

Given tado's lack of response, I've pretty much given up on them ever improving their AC product.

jelockwood

@Nuno

Congrats on your code and sadly I agree with your comments.

I just read your ReadMe. I could not tell if your code still obeys any schedules set via the Tado app and also geo-fencing. I presume you read the target temp via the Tado api so if someone via the Tado app changes it your code obeys it.

Does your code prefer that Tado be running thermostatic or non-thermostatic mode?

Personally I am now leaning towards either trying HomeBridge or eventually an AirZone module fitted inside the AC unit. I also find it very disappointing that effectively zero European AC brands support HomeKit, Alexa or Google.

Nuno

My code is only tested with tado running in non-thermostatic mode. It respects all your schedules and geo-fencing, as well as (as much as possible) manual mode.

It makes decisions based on the current temperature/humidity (and mode), and a target temperature (and mode).

The current temperature/humidity is as measured by the thermostat, the target temperature is the one specified in your schedule 5 min into the future, or the one specified for away mode (if you're both away and keep your AC on while away). The target humidity (for dry mode) is between 40 and 50%, since there's no way to specify it in the app.

It tries to decide what to do to take the temperature/humidity from where it is now, to where you want it to be in the next 5 min, under the constraint of using the mode (cool/dry/heat) and temperature you picked. The only actions it takes are: keep AC off if you're close enough already, turn it off if you've overshot, or boost fan speed if you're running behind (more aggressively on auto fan speed). It never turns the AC on, changes the temperature, or mode.

Looking 5 min into the future (and to the scheduled temperature when you're away) means it can prevent the AC from even turning on when temperatures are close enough already.

Settings are "manually" applied for 10 to 15 min (as if you had done it through the app). If it fails, they automatically expire. If you run it regularly (every 5 min is recommended), they get extended as long as they still make sense.

When you, yourself, set manual mode, my code tries to get out of the way and respect your settings as much as possible. However, since it is also using manual mode itself, it might get confused. So if you set manual mode for say 1 hour, it might override you on the last 10 min (so, after 50 min); if you set it for 10 min it might ignore you completely. This is the biggest drawback of using this.

On the plus side, on "temperate" months your "energy savings report" will say "tado was manually set to an energy-saving temperature 50% of the time" (basically, it was tuned off).

Binwaa

I have a Daikin Multisplit unit with 4 AC units (Stylish). When I am asking to heat up the living room from 21 to 22 degrees, it stops when the living room reaches 26 degrees or sometimes more.

This is really not working except when I switched it on and off my self.

I bought 4 Tado AC smart controller, one for each unit. But I really regret this investment.

Hopefully there will be a solution soon.

kukacwap

Same here. I bought 6 of them in the summer time when it worked more or less fine, but now when I need to heat it won’t work in thermostatic mode 😞