Smart thermostats allow to reduce home energy consumption with Christian Deilmann

“Our ambition is to lead the fast growing smart thermostat market with superior user experiences, saving money and maximising comfort.”

Christian Deilmann, CEO and Co-Founder of tado°, set up the company to develop technologies and products to significantly reduce home energy consumption without sacrificing comfort.

tado° was one of the first players in the completely new product category of intelligent home climate control and is now a leading player in this rapidly developing market.

We spoke to Christian about what it’s like living in a tado° home.

How did the tado° adventure begin?

While I was studying in the US, I was always discussing the air conditioning with my flatmates. Switch off the air conditioner when nobody is at home to save energy, or leave it running through the day so we could come back to the comfort of a pre-cooled home. Back in Germany I had the same problem with my heating system. I hated that I had to decide between saving energy, or comfort.

Together with my friends Johannes, Leo and Valentin we started to work on an intelligent solution to this problem. The initial prototypes were soldered in our living rooms with friends and family being the first to try out the new technology. After numerous modifications tado° was officially born in 2011.

Who are your clients?

tado° primarily serves consumers who own or rent houses and apartments. We also work with professionals, such as telecom, and utility companies, retailers and installers.

What makes your air conditioner control and thermostat special?

tado° believes in making your life more simple through intelligent and automated control. We have invested a lot of time and resources into ensuring we have the most advanced geolocation services to automatically switch your heating or cooling systems on and off depending on your location. We have also integrated weather forecasting into our automation to provide the best possible energy savings and, tado° also gets to know your building’s characteristics to maximise efficiency.

How does your product help people and companies optimise their energy consumption?

tado° adapts to your particular lifestyle. Through geolocation, weather forecasting and the algorithms of building characteristics, using the tado° Smart Thermostat can save customers up to 31 per cent of their energy bill without sacrificing on comfort.

What were the main challenges you had to face when you first started the project?

From a market perspective, it was a brand new product category with no public awareness. So we had to do a lot of work getting our message out, educating the market and to convince people of the inherent benefits. On the technical side, Europeans have a vast array of different types of heating systems that work in particular ways. It took a tremendous effort to get to where we are today — Europe’s most compatible smart thermostat.

You recently announced a partnership with O2 and AT&T to integrate your smart heating system into the telecom companies’ smart home ecosystems. What new features does this bring to your technology?

It’s all about convenience. We have established ourselves as the best vertical player, compatible with key platforms. Cooperations help us to reach out to people who are interested in smart home technology and to simplify cross device integrations.

What is the Apple HomeKit and how does it work?

HomeKit is Apple’s framework for smart home automation. It allows developers to create and integrate hardware with iOS for seamless communication and configuration between a wide variety of smart home products and services. From a customer’s perspective, it means simplicity and convenience, in that everything can be controlled through one platform and through Siri. tado° has just joined the HomeKit family!

Are you working on new products or projects?

Our ambition is to lead the fast growing smart thermostat market with superior user experiences, saving money and maximising comfort. Thus, we continuously work on updates, improvements and new launches of software and hardware — it never stops.

To further increase customer benefits, tado° is developing its services in cooperation with local heating installers. They can use a remote service portal to help ensure a customer’s heating system is running smoothly and efficiently, while alerting users of any potential problems before they even occur. Partnerships with local utilities can also enable each tado° user to contribute to the stabilisation of the energy network for a smarter and more efficient national grid. Watch this space!

For more information about tado, visit the website.

Interview by Anne-Sophie Garrigou