It looks like Nest has some competition. In Europe, at least.
Adam Lesser- Wednesday, November 14, 2012
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Well the folks at German smart thermostat maker Tado may have taken notice of Nest’s success, opting to roll out their own smart thermostat. It’s a pretty interesting twist on the energy saving thermostat and is targeted at the European market.
It doesn’t have great hardware design. Instead, it relies solely on an iOS and Android smartphone app that controls the thermostat, which is essentially just a wall mounted, button free thermostat that is controlled by your phone. The advantage to this strategy is that because people carry their phones almost all of the time, the thermostat knows if you’re home or not. It also knows when you’re heading home.
Ensuring that an HVAC unit only operates when you’re in the home is one of the leading energy savings mechanisms for all smart thermostats. The company is giving away the hardware in exchange for a $126 annual subscription fee. That seems pretty high to me, given that its competing dumb thermostats costs about 80 bucks all in. But the company plans to deliver reports showing its customers just how much energy they’re saving. Which should go a bit of the way to convincing them the subscription fee pays for itself.
