Tado Savings Report (January 2019)
New Home Tricks
by Mark Lomas
3y ago
It’s time to update you on how things went in January saving money and energy using Tado! Sadly due to a billing glitch I can’t bring you the usual details, but the figures reported by Tado look good! Sadly, we had a billing error crop up with our energy provider. Thus they refunded us the month of December, and then recalculated December and lumped it together with a single bill covering both that month, and January. This means I don’t have usage for the period of January specifically. However, I can share with you the savings report as detailed by the Tado app. This shows; Overall savings ..read more
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Philips Hue Fair Ceiling Lamp Unboxing & First Impressions
New Home Tricks
by Mark Lomas
3y ago
It’s been a while since I posted here about installing any new Philips Hue lighting kit. Well, I’ve got something new to share! We’ve installed the Philips Hue ‘Fair’ Ceiling Lamp into our entrance hallway. I’m pretty pleased with it, and today I’d like to share what it is, how we found the install process, and what it’s like as a lamp. When I first started New Home Tricks, the Philips Hue product portfolio was a lot smaller than it is today. That isn’t to say it wasn’t a comprehensive set of products, but since that time, they’ve dramatically expanded the products on offer. This has mostly c ..read more
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Tado Savings Report (November & December 2018)
New Home Tricks
by Mark Lomas
3y ago
It’s time for an update on how Tado is getting on saving us money through Smart Heating. Here, I run through the savings we’ve made using the Tado system during November & December. As you’ll remember from my Tado Savings report for the month of October, it wasn’t a great start, with pretty low savings. In fact, they were so low, that if we were also having to pay the Tado subscription fee, we’d have actually been worse off that month. I’m happy to report though that for November and December, things were a lot better. Starting with November, Tado reported a saving of 20.9%. This seems pr ..read more
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Tado V3+ App Upgrade & Tour
New Home Tricks
by Mark Lomas
3y ago
The upgrade to the Tado V3+ app is now available for existing customers to access. Here, I run through the upgrade process, go through a tour of the new app in the video, and also give my thoughts on the new version. If you’ve seen my previous posts and videos (“Is Tado still worth it?” and “Tado Pricing Update”) you’ll know that there’s a new version of the Tado app, paired with the new ‘V3+’ version of their Smart Thermostat. Existing customers are now able to upgrade to the V3+ version of the app via a one-off payment of €19.99/£19.99. There aren’t two versions of the app in the app stores ..read more
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Sonos Beam & Sonos One Overview
New Home Tricks
by Mark Lomas
3y ago
For my first update of 2019, I want to delve into some additions to our Sonos speaker setup. We’ve added a Sonos Beam, and a Sonos One to our setup. Both of these speakers are from a new generation of devices from Sonos that have some interesting and attractive new feature set. In fact, I’d go so far as to say outright: Don’t buy an Amazon Echo or Google Home device - go Sonos instead. First up - an apology. I haven’t posted anything since November 2018. First there was a holiday, then a bout of illness, then along came Christmas & New Year (suitably busy period). However I want to get ba ..read more
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Tado Savings Report (October 2018)
New Home Tricks
by Mark Lomas
3y ago
I’m going to have a crack at committing myself to a monthly update on our Tado energy savings during the Winter. Since the Tado app gives you a report at the start of each month on how much you saved in the previous month, I’m going to use that to report back how effective the system is. One of the key ideas of Smart Heating, is that it should save you energy and money. However working out just how much you’re saving can be difficult. Thankfully, many smart heating systems give you some form of report, and Tado is no different. Every month, Tado gives you a report in the ‘Energy Savings Repor ..read more
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New Website Design!
New Home Tricks
by Mark Lomas
3y ago
This one is a quick update.. as you will have noticed I've refreshed the design of the site. I'm fairly happy with it, but I'd like to know what you think! Drop me a comment to this post, or contact me using the contact link (at the bottom of the page).  Many thanks, and thank you for visiting!  ..read more
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Tado Pricing Update
New Home Tricks
by Mark Lomas
3y ago
Things have changed following my last post. Tado have now changed their pricing policy to better reflect the ‘deal’ existing customers felt they were getting with their investment in Tado Smart Heating. Read more on the changes below. In my previous post ‘Is Tado still worth it?’ I explored how Tado have introduced a subscription fee for their more advanced services. Dubbed ‘Auto Assist’, the more advanced automated features like location-based heating control would now be covered by a subscription of £2.99 a month. This subscription fee would not be applicable to existing customers, unless y ..read more
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Is Tado still worth it?
New Home Tricks
by Mark Lomas
3y ago
A bold question to ask I know, but with Tado introducing a subscription, it's important to ask: is Tado still worth it?   (Update 2 (25-Oct-2018): Tado have now updated their pricing information, thus the below information is outdated. See my update article ‘Tado Pricing Update’. )     (Update 1 (5-Oct-2018): one reader pointed out that you could use Homekit or IFTTT to automate Tado rather than paying the subscription. Whilst this is true, the control would be much more crude compared to Tado. Tado adjusts your heating in a granular fashion based on your di ..read more
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Nest Cam Outdoor Unboxing & Setup
New Home Tricks
by Mark Lomas
3y ago
Nest is a well known name in Smart Home technology, but so far we've not had any of their products in the New Home Tricks house.  All that's about to change, as we've now installed the Nest Cam Outdoor!  Here I take you through the unboxing and setup process. Security is one of the more popular elements of Smart Home Technology.  Protecting your home is something many of us want to do.  Perhaps the easiest way to do this is through the use of a 'CCTV' camera.  The term 'CCTV' is something of a misnomer, since we're not really talking about a 'circuit' here.  Toda ..read more
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