While Nest is the name most often associated with smart thermostat startups, German startup Tado has been developing new features for its heating control app and has been raising money to launch its business across Europe. This week at the IFA show in Berlin, Tado showed off how its app can display daily home heating costs with and without Tado’s heating control system, essentially showing customers the possible savings they can achieve.
Tado says you can download the new free app now, but of course you’ll need the heating control system installed to make it work properly. Tado’s heating management unit costs £249 ($ 389), plus shipping costs, or £6.99 per month to rent. To many people that seems rather expensive for a unit and app that automatically turns off and on a heater.
Tado’s heating control works through cellphone GPS and geolocation, and when a user leaves the house the Tado app tracks them and knows they’ve left the building. With the occupants gone, the system, naturally, turns off the heat.
I’ve heard that one of the biggest energy savings components for Nest is the home away feature, which turns off the heating and cooling. So it does make some sense for Tado to focus on just this part of the equation. Tado says its app can save 27 percent on heating costs, as well as the associated carbon emissions.
Tado’s new round of funding of $ 2.6 million comes from Target Partners and Shortcut Ventures, reports Tech Crunch. Tado raised $ 2 million from these firms last year. Tado launched its product in Germany late last year, and plans to open up the service to the rest of Europe in October 2013.
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