Smart thermostats and climate management services can save installers time and their customers money. Svea Kübler, Product Manager at intelligent home experts tado°, looks at how installers can make the most of opportunities in this fast growing market.
Complicated heating systems, orders throughout the whole day, and back-office work in between –installers have a busy schedule. There is hardly time to train themselves in new technologies like smart heating control. At the same time, customer needs are increasing, they want smart and energy-efficient solutions that offer them comfort and affordable prices. The market is very competitive so heating engineers need to differentiate themselves to stay a step ahead of the game.
With smart thermostats, installers can bring their customers’ heating systems to the digital age. The devices are not only helping to make their heating systems intelligent and digital, but also providing more comfort and well-being at home. Our tado° smart thermostats, for example, support more than 15,000 heating systems from around 650 manufacturers and cover 95% of heating systems. Heating engineers just need one training session to learn how they should be installed. A smart thermostat can enable a user to save up to a third on heating costs, so once training has been completed, installers can offer customers a solution that has a long-term positive impact on their energy consumption.
Energy savings
Hundreds of millions of pounds are wasted in the UK every year through the heating of empty homes. Many people keep their heating on all day even when they go to work as they want to return to a warm house. Others find it difficult to use their programmable timer properly and some people have flexible working hours, so a timer is often not very useful.
By the use of such features as geofencing technology and weather compensation, a smart thermostat can detect the presence and absence of users, and also respond to local weather forecasts and building characteristics. When sunshine is predicted, for example, the smart thermostat turns down the heat to leverage the solar gain and avoids overshooting the set temperature, thereby saving energy and increasing comfort.
Information is exchanged through a connection to the internet. The smart thermostats receive a signal via the app when the last person leaves home and reminds the user with a push notification (this can also be automated). The heating can then be turned down until the first person approaches home and then, on arrival, it is pleasantly warm again.
The tado° smart thermostat also takes open windows into account and, thanks to its flexibility and algorithms, is more efficient than conventional heating controls. Even old heating systems can improve their energy efficiency class by using smart thermostats. The app provides smart schedules and allows for multi-room control with its smart radiator thermostats and additional smart thermostats. Different heating circuits and rooms can be managed separately – no matter if a radiator or underfloor heating is in place.
Healthier home
Thanks to our new generation of V3+ smart thermostats, tado° can now also help to analyse indoor air quality. The Air Comfort Skill guides customers to a healthier home environment by providing them with concrete, meaningful, and actionable advice on how to achieve more comfort. It also offers tips on preventing health risks such as mold which can be caused by too much humidity.
The new Boiler Health Monitoring Skill also helps to keep track of the status of the boiler, no matter the brand, as it notifies the user when there is a problem. Residents can then forward this information to their installers. This saves installers precious time and is particularly beneficial for those with digital boilers as tado° detects the error code right away, which can then be passed on to the installer before they set off for the repair job.
Another feature, Boiler Repair Services, is an in-app platform that connects customers directly with heating engineers to get their repair or maintenance check done. Installers can sign up in the tado° Installer Club Portal for free and they will receive local and national repair and maintenance jobs as well as leads for customers who require a new heating system.
Growth market
At tado° we are aiming to make it easier than ever for installers to become a smart heating control expert. The UK smart thermostat market is a fast growing sector and is expected to reach a value of approximately £800m by the end of 2023. There has never been a better time to get up to speed with smart thermostats. Installers who embrace the technology can give themselves a competitive edge and stand out from the competition, get more maintenance contracts, new customers, more orders, and become the number one contact for heating management and savings.
