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Home Assistant is open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first.
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Advice: Is the Tado wired thermostat V3 a good idea? (shop.tado.com)

submitted 1 week ago by mat@linux.community to c/homeassistant@lemmy.world

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Hi! I hope this post is on-topic enough. I've just moved into a flat in Germany and its thermostat has an incredibly loud clock ticking every second. My landlord allows me to replace it, so I looked for options and learned it uses a proprietary interface (Vaillant 7-8-9) and my only real option is from the brand Tado. I e-mailed them and confirmed their V3+ wired model is compatible... but costs 220€; way above my budget. However, if I set the site to Germany the price drops to 100€.

Before spending so much on a device (100€ is still a lot!), I'd love to check whether I can use it with Home Assistant. I recently installed it on a spare SBC and got the zbdongle-e working, ready to start connecting things. I found (cw: AI image) this blog post that says it works by having HA emulate Apple's HomeKit, does this mean it should work fine, regardless of the zbdongle-e? Should I be aware of any caveats to this approach, or to the Tado thermostat itself?

Thanks :)

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[–] i_am_not_a_robot@feddit.uk 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

The Tado works fine with Home Assistant. You can use the cloud interface or you can use HomeKit if you want to control it locally.

In my experience the Tado works really well, as it controls the boiler flow temperature rather than being just on/off when it reaches temperature. Just make sure you connect it for EMS - the instructions if you tell it you're replacing an old thermostat sometimes say to connect it up with the relay input instead.

(Edit: AFAIK it doesn't use ZigBee so the ZBDongle is irrelevant)

[–] i_am_not_a_robot@feddit.uk 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This is what you get through HomeKit, there's a lot more from the cloud but if you just want to control or monitor the temperature it's sufficient:

[–] mat@linux.community 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Thank you so much, this is very helpful information! What kind of features am I missing out on using it locally? Setting and measuring the temperature sounds to me like a pretty feature-complete thermostat. :) To clarify, I don't actually need any Apple hardware/software to use this, Home Assistant just pretends to be HomeKit connecting to the Tado USB bridge and provides free control from its interface?

[–] SteadyGoLucky@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yes that is how it works. But not all features are available through Homekit, most notably you can't set te state for Home/Away. That can only be set through the cloud API.

Be aware Tado just announced limiting access to the Api to 100 calls a day. Which is quite low. For full access you need a subscription for 5 euros a month. Perhaps read up on that before investing.

[–] mat@linux.community 1 points 1 week ago

Thanks for the warning, that sucks. I'm only interested in the local functionality, so this should not affect me I think!