Ostap Senyuk

Smart heating products that will keep you warm during winter

02 January 2020

Oh baby, it's cold outside! During the harsh winter months we all look forward to snuggle by the fireplace. Luckily, a smart home can bring solace and allows you to control the temperature inside for a warm and comfortable winter. Energy efficiency becomes key. Move over cozy fireplace, these smart home products are the real deal.

Tado as innovator

The German Tado is the European market leader in smart climate control. Their smart thermostat needs no introduction and offers integrations with the major voice assistants. Moreover, they were one of the first brands to introduce a smart radiator thermostat enabling you to adjust your heating settings separately for every room. Today, the Tado° radiator knob is one of the bestsellers in smart HVAC products.

Tado wants you to save energy while maintaining the same level of comfort. Their geo-aware app adjusts the temperature based on the residents’ locations, saving energy when nobody is home and pre-warming your home before you arrive. A good place to start if you want to look at smart heating solutions.


  Tado

Smart thermostats are everywhere

Google's Nest became one of the first widely available smart thermostats to remotely control the temperature inside. Today, more state-of-the-art alternatives exist: Netatmo, Honeywell and Hive are all at the top of smart thermostats lists.

In its core a smart thermostat is nothing more than a standard thermostat connected to a cloud platform. So that you can automate your settings and adjust them via another cloud connected device, such as your smartphone. Compared to their not connected counterparts, they also win by their sleek design and nice user interface.


  Nest

A smart thermostat is known for its fancy design and nice user interface. But if you want to develop more complex routines you should look elsewhere.

If you want to preheat your home before you arrive and adjust your settings at any moment, a smart thermostat might suffice all your needs. But don't expect more than just that.

All-in-one with KNX

You can achieve even more by combining different heating routines and devices within the same setup. For example KNX will not offer you one product that includes all features you need, but they do offer you a solid base to build upon. Every single device is part of the whole system.

This allows you to configure more complex and interesting routines. By connecting different HVAC devices such as your thermostat, airconditioning, radiators... with a visualisation system to control them all. For example your airconditioning is limited to 21° during summer because the solar energy charged batteries are below 20% capacity and the forecast indicates 2 days of cloudy sky. These kind of routines can substantially increase your level of comfort.

Options for a warm winter are numerous. Your choice of products, systems and devices depends on what you want to achieve by developing certain routines. Depending on that outcome you can opt for a simple smart thermostat or for a more integrated system.

Further reading