Usability—show visual indicator when heater is active

Unfortunately tado doesn’t give you any feedback when it’s turned the heater on or off, in my case it’s hooked up to ducted gas heating so it would be ideal to have an icon displayed whenever the heating is active (possibly subject to schedules and optional user preferences)
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  • This feature is hidden behind their pay wall. It shows which rooms, if any, are calling for heat, how hungry/thirsty they are and totals of which rooms wanted the most heating, as a distribution percentage.


  • Hi @eezytiger

    You're absolutely correct it is available through the Tado "pay for it" feature.......which I believe should be "free" for all users.

    However Tado's algorithm for this feature does not take into account that any SRT's set to "INDEPENDENT" aren't actually "calling for heat" but are actually "piggy backing" on the heated water being supplied to Tado Rooms/Devices that are actually "calling for heat"

    So therefore any/all the figures and percentages produced are totally inaccurate and clearly DO NOT represent the actual usage of your central heating system. Tado use this inaccurate information to provide your "predicted savings with auto assist"......which Tado ask you/us to pay for........there is (in my opinion) only function within the "auto assist" feature that is work having is the automated part of the "open window detected"........not that it "actually" detects an "open window" it actually detects a sudden and significant drop in temperature at the specific Tado device..........more Tado "smoke and mirrors"

  • @GrayDav4276 Hi. I'm not sure what you mean by "SRT set to independent". I've only had my system for a week, with SRTs on seven out of nine radiators. I also have a smart thermostat in the hall, which corresponds to my old setup with dumb (or no) TRVs. The hall radiator has no thermostatic valves and cannot be controlled by Tado. There is also a towel rail in the bathroom left fully on at all times, without a thermostat.

    The consequence of this is that, when any of the Tado SRTs needs heat, the boiler will fire up to meet its demands, regardless of whether the hall thermostat is above, below or at its set temperature. The hall is always a bit over temperature because the hall radiator always warms up when any other radiator in the house wants heat. I've almost closed the lock shield completely, but still the hall remains a little above set temperature.

    Anyway, Tado lets me know which thermostats are asking for heat and records which spend the most time in an "on" state, it appears. I don't know whether there is more sophistication in the maths, but the numbers certainly match expectation, qualitatively, if not with exact precision of values. i.e. it is no surprise that the kitchen wants the most heating. It has two external solid brick walls, is north/east facing, shaded from the east in winter, and has two fixed open ventilation bricks in the walls. It also has a concrete floor with ceramic tiles.

    So as far as I can tell, while the numbers might be questioned, the general principles and ranking order matches up with what I would expect.

  • @eezytiger

    If you are happy with the functionality of your system......then far be it for me to say that your belief is wrong......no way.....I'm glad that you are happy with your system 👍

  • Right, a better example here. It's just turned 20:00 and I've set the schedule to start warming things upstairs in preparation for comfortable sleeping.

    Master bedroom and landing are below target by 1.0C and 0.1C respectively. The boiler has fired up as expected, despite no demand from the smart thermostat in the hall. Tado reports a heating request from the bedroom and landing to bring them up to temperature. Everything else is OK.

    Note that the bedroom is asking for more heat as it has a larger temperature difference to close.

  • cbd20
    cbd20 ✭✭✭
    @eezytiger I agree that with your setup, like mine, the statistics reported are pretty accurate and match well with what I would expect.

    The "independent" mode that @GrayDav4276 is referring to is where you choose not to set a zone controller for a particular room in the settings - therefore that room is "independent". What happens in this case is a smart radiator thermostat can open the valve according to its schedule, but cannot request the boiler to fire. It is instead reliant on the zone controller to be actively calling for heat, in order for that room to heat up.

    I've never had a need to use this setting in my house, but from owners who have, they have reported that the activity graphs incorrectly report a heat request and duration from a room that had no way of calling the boiler. In other words, the valve was open, but the boiler was actually off, yet the graphs would imply the boiler was on. As I say I've never used that mode so cannot prove one way or another.

    So long story short:

    - Zone controller set for all rooms = data is pretty good.
    - some rooms with no zone controller set = potentially questionable data in the heat request graphs.
  • @cbd20

    You are correct about Tado's inability to differentiate between a "normal" Tado Room and an "Independent" (no zone controller) Tado Room.

    I have 4 Tado Rooms set up as "Independant" ........and I can definitely confirm that the data is not correct.

    So for this (subscription) function to be "relatively accurate" no Tado Room can be set as "Independent".......otherwise the data is a total waste of time.

  • @GrayDav4276 OK, I've finally tracked down the option to make SRTs independent. It's not something I was aware of when I set up the system - I didn't see, or at least notice - any such option. Now I think I understand.

    In fact, when I first installed Tado (one week ago today) I started just with seven SRTs and my old timer/thermostat in the hall. So by necessity each SRT was independent and each was at the mercy of the dumb timer/thermostat to make heat available - effectively the piggy back scenario.

    Two days later I add a smart wired thermostat. All my SRTs were add to the zone for that smart thermostat without me making any conscious decision about it and then the smart magic happened, with the boiler firing when any SRT required heat rather than just the hall. Rooms would no longer stay cold simply because the hall was up to temperature.i

    With that background out of the way, as far as I can tell the independent SRTs may indeed be "calling for heat", and Tado would know that. The problem is that, without a zone controller, nobody is listening and Tado can't be expected to know whether the heat is there or not.

    So I think the data might reasonably reflect the demand from the SRTs, but cannot reliably reflect the actual heat delivered if you choose to make some SRTs independent. It's not that the data is wrong, rather that it represents something other than what you would wish.

  • @eezytiger
    I actually agree with you....however if the Tado algorithm uses the data from the "INDEPENDENT" SRT's in their calculations for %energy usage and %timescales and then extrapolate that data to give an indication of a users most "energy hungry" rooms/devices/radiators then these results are "flawed"......the old computing comment can be used here
    "Rubbish In = Rubbish Out"
    So until Tado can differentiate between an "INDEPENDENT" SRT's demand for heat and an "actual/genuine" call for heat, any data collected and utilised is a "waste of time"
    And finally.....I cannot see Tado spending any effort to achieve this.
    So to quote the "dragons"....."for that reason..... I'm out"
    👍🙏✔️😎