Nest, Hive or Tado?

Smurfin

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Hi all

Moving into my new house in a couple of week's time, and whilst I have an electrician onsite it makes sense to sort out my heating. I've got a combi boiler with a standard thermostat and controller currently. The big Q is, which automated control system should I buy?

I've had Hive in the past, and I bought a load of programmable TRVs (this was a few years ago though when it wasn't that common). I loved the idea of the programmable TRVs, although I didn't find them particularly accurate at the time. But especially inthe winter, I don't see the point of heating the bedrooms in the evening if we're all downstairs etc....

I also have a load of Hive plugs left over from my old install, although now I've got a bunch of other smart plugs and different brands can all be controlled by Alexa, I guess these don't really matter too much.

So, I guess my requirements are:

Easy to use
Be able to control my heating remotely (no hot water control needed as I have a combi)
Ability to control temps in different rooms independently (ideally from an app, but not sure how advanced the Hive and Tado TRVs are)

Thoughts?

Ps I have a Mesh wi-fi system so coverage throughout the house should be fine (thinking of TRVs losing connection).
 
Honeywell EvoHome. I’ll be ditching my Nest this summer in favour of EvoHome. I work from home and don’t need to heat 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms for just me. Energy is always going up in price and being able to turn rooms off really appeals
 
Honeywell EvoHome. I’ll be ditching my Nest this summer in favour of EvoHome. I work from home and don’t need to heat 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms for just me. Energy is always going up in price and being able to turn rooms off really appeals

Isn't that what Tado does as well?
 
EvoHome provides much more control than Tado and doesn’t lock its features behind a paywall. Know it’s only £25 pa but I refuse to pay for services that should be free.
 
I use Zwave trvs , a Zwave relay (for the boiler ) and the Hubitat Elevation smart hub for my heating . I can then integrate it with the rest of my smart home .

as I have Zwave multi sensors around the house I use these for temperature monitoring rather than relying on the sensors in the trvs

works a treat
 
Evo also has much more sophisticated boiler control options if you want to use them - cold weather boost and warm weather boiler demand rescaling are a couple of the new functions. These are designed to help with comfort in cold weather or reduce boiler demand in warmer weather.

And if your radiators locations will not give accurate temperature feedback for close control then you can also add additional room sensor modules too.
 
Is it a professional install though or could I get my electrician to install it? Anyone know what’s involved in the installation?
 
Like any of the smart systems, the bits that the electrican needs to deal with are straight forward relay/switches, just like any standard thermostat or timeclock. So if they have any experience of properly wiring up a standard UK heating system with basic controls then they should have absolutely no issue wiring in Evo, Tado, Nest etc in place of the conventional controls.

Where you have a combi-boiler then it’s even easier, as you only have a single “boiler relay” module that needs to be wired to the boiler, which operates the heating sidenofnthe boiler, along with the heating pump, when one or more rooms os calling for heat. Normally this module would be powered from the boiler/heating electrical circuit and either keep the “switch “volt-free” or wire it as a switched 230v feed depending on the boiler. A bit of 5-core heat resistant cable is all that is needed (sized to suit the circuit protection).

After that it is all about the configuration of the controls to complete the setup, so no more electrical works. Evo is supposedly a installer-only system, but is sold through a variety of sources. The instructions are not really aimed at system novices either. So it is quite common to see posts from electricians, plumbers, and end users that have got out of their depth as they find the documentation lacking, and cannot get project specific help or advice from Resideo support. However there is a list of Evo specialists on the Resideo website that their support would suggest you look to for .

I must come clean that I am on their list as I’ve been installing Evo since launch, and installed Hometronic prior to that (since 2005). I don’t mind helping out forum members with a bit of help here and there, but its sometimes hard when you quickly realise that a user is really in need of very detailed help rather than some general advice through the forums. I do this (along with other premium smart home technologies) for a living too, so there quickly comes a point where I’d need to charge for my time as I’m basically doing the job that a paid-for installer should be doing!

In terms of installation works, I only install systems where I supply the hardware too, but have also helped out some customers who got as far as having a system wired but getting stuck with the programming/configuration. I normally charge for this on a time basis. Having said all that, I’ve also managed to remotely commission some pretty sizeable and complex installs using Facetime and Zoom during the last year or so (the latest was a project in Amsterdam that would otherwise have seen me on site for around a week!). So feel free to get in touch if you think a chargeable guided programming session over Facetime or Zoom might help if you want to go down the Evo route.

Note to the moderators, I don’t normally tout for business on the forums, so if this is straying too far into that territory then do let me know and I’ll edit out any parts of the post that may be in breach of any forum rules.
 
Hi @neilball

Thanks for the detailed info. Unfortunately, it looks like you are in Scotland, quite far from London!

I just wondered if you could explain any benefits of EvoHome over Tado?

My understanding is that Tado is more user friendly to set up, is that a fair assumption?

I also wondered about EvoHome choice particularly in relation to:
  • boiler choice/compatibility
  • boiler modulation
  • easy and changeable zoning

Your thoughts greatly appreciated.

Thank you
 
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I have had the Evohome system for a good few years now fitted to a combi boiler. The plumber wired the relay to the boiler and I done the rest. It was straight forward enough with what I can remember.
There is a set up wizard on the controls to set all the zones up once all the TRV’s are paired up to it.
Im getting a new Viessmann combi boiler fitted in a couple of weeks and I’m going to use the Evohome again but it’s getting connected using a Opentherm bridge this time.
 
Not used Evohome but I moved from Nest to Tado about 6 months ago and love it.
Set the whole thing up myself and really impressed with the functionality and zoned control.
Also works very well with my Elan control system
 
have been using Tado for years, must be getting on for 7 or 8, possibly longer .
have recently expanded to include 6 TRVs and am very happy with how its working.
they use their own network, not your wifi/Mesh, which is the only real negative for me.
having said that, since their purchase by Amazon and the massive increase in popularity, support can be a little slow compared to the early days
 
Hi @neilball

Thanks for the detailed info. Unfortunately, it looks like you are in Scotland, quite far from London!

I just wondered if you could explain any benefits of EvoHome over Tado?

My understanding is that Tado is more user friendly to set up, is that a fair assumption?

I also wondered about EvoHome choice particularly in relation to:
  • boiler choice/compatibility
  • boiler modulation
  • easy and changeable zoning

Your thoughts greatly appreciated.

Thank you
Evo supports switched control (using TPI tovaryvthebon-off cycle based on maximum boiler heat demand at that time), or Opentherm (where there is a data-level connection to the boiler and the Evo system gives the boiler a target demand rather than simple on-off signal). Add in some of the new features that can automatically boost zone demand or limit boiler demand on cold and warm weather, based o. your local outside air temperature, then it has a pretty sophisticated boiler demand strategy. The system is also now optimised for heat pump control too, and even allows seasonal changeover and control of cooling setpoints with underfloor systems (so the floor is heated in winter but cooled in summer).

Zoning is also well-species, and the system allows to to have both single room zones or zones of many rooms, for a bit of added flexibility.
 
I only have experience of Tado. Been using it for 2 years with hot water, hearing and smart radiator stats. Been happy but I didn’t fully realise that the system really is dead in the water if the internet goes down - schedules won’t trigger. If you are at home, you can make manual changes but can’t do anything remote. Not a major issues these days with reliable internet. But frustrating they don’t have a local backup for schedules if the internet goes down.
 
Been using Drayton Wiser for 3-4 years. Controlling Heating and Hot water with 8 TRVs. Schedules still trigger if Internet is down, though you cant change anything. TRVs communicate with the heat hub using ZWave I believe. Not reliant on wifi.
 
Evo is fully 100% operational with or without wifi/internet access - cloud access is only used for control from web page or smartphone app. The only aspects stop working are the weather-related functions that use web-based weather data - cold weather boost and warm weather boiker demand rescaling. All other functions are maintained/managed through the main Evo touchscreen controller.
 
Evo is fully 100% operational with or without wifi/internet access - cloud access is only used for control from web page or smartphone app. The only aspects stop working are the weather-related functions that use web-based weather data - cold weather boost and warm weather boiker demand rescaling. All other functions are maintained/managed through the main Evo touchscreen controller.

Whats a good price for Evo home these days Neil? What sort of range would be classed as a "bargain" for the hardware side of things for someone starting out?
 
Prime day next week usually means tado with a 40% discount
 
Internet = no heating really bothers me with tado
 
My understanding was you just used the tado device to control your system, locally, it's the app control that wont work
 
Whats a good price for Evo home these days Neil? What sort of range would be classed as a "bargain" for the hardware side of things for someone starting out?

When I sell systems for install it’s only at full list price, I don’t discount as there is not enough margin to make it worthwhile otherwise. I do sometimes get calls from people who are looking for free technical help for kit they have bought, having found my details (or sometimes been given my details) from Honeywell/Resideo support, but I have a policy of only supporting installs I have sold - I get no payment from Honeywell for providing support or being a specialist installer for them.

Sometimes there are online resellers selling cheap, but you need to be certain you are buying the correct kit for you application, and be certain you how to set it up if you are buying from a source with no in-house technical post-sale backup.

If you are confident you know what you are doing then you can look for the cheapest online price at the time you are ready to buy.
 
Prime day next week usually means tado with a 40% discount
Doesn’t look like it is this time!

after living in my new house for 3 days, the downstairs is definitely noticeably cooler than upstairs….often upstairs is too hot with the heating on (it’s been on the last couple of days as downstairs has felt quite chilly). Makes me think I definitely need something like tado to manage rooms effectively …
 
I bought 2x TRVs for £65 at the end of April. They want £90 at the moment (according to the link they have sent me). So its still a £40ish saving over the £129 it was.
But i wont be buying at that price
 
Well I bought Tado….definitely need TRVs, bought the starter pack with 2 x TRVs from Amazon
 

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