Owning your own home

Very much a moon base / space station / up market ayslum aesthetic.

which if the adaptors I needed to fit the TRVs.

I just replaced all of the lock shield valves in the house. The adapters are a bit shit.

The ability to turn everything off with one tap, or boost everything, is handy. Just waiting for them to add the boost feature to single rooms now.

It was about time they did this - I had to use a modified Home-assistant integration, which was super-fragile, as the Tado API is undocumented and prone to change without notice.

Other than that, the only other problems that I have had (3.5 years in) are that the battery life is a bit rubbish - in the room with the worst insulation though - and there's no real access to the data (although I've not really looked that hard).

In an ideal world, they would have a homebrew version that didn't rely on an internet connection.

On the plus side it was €60,000 for a large (3 bedrooms with potential for 4 more) 15th century house with decent sized barn and workshop, and 1000 sqm of mature garden on the banks of the river Vienne. On balance, all the problems don't seem that bad.

And we have ghost signs :-D

In an ideal world, they would have a homebrew version that didn't rely on an internet connection.

That's what I'm holding out for.

the battery life is a bit rubbish

I've heard this, but only 4 months in so can't really tell. I can see from the reports in the app that they are "firing" far less since we got the new windows. Anecdotally I've noticed the whirr of the actuators far less too.

In an ideal world, they would have a homebrew version that didn't rely on an internet connection.

This was embarrassing when they had their last outage. I had a plumber round fitting a towel rad and he wanted to test it and I stood on the landing faffing with my phone not being able to turn the heating on. Ultimately, I could just go downstairs and do it on the wall thermostat, but that's not the point. I since found out you can at least subscribe to fairly decent updates and notifications about outages.

I think there is still a problem if you have any issue that needs their support. My last (and thankfully only) problem took me badgering the head of customer support on Linkedin to get resolved. Although, to his credit, he responded directly via Linkedin on a Sunday night and it was fixed on Monday morning. He did say they were hiring more support staff too.

Is the free model good enough or am I going to want to pony up the £25 a year?

I went for the free trial and am now paying for it. I am on the fence as I'm not sure how much I need the open window detection/auto shut off (or how accurate it is) so I'd say I'm still trying it out and haven't made up my mind. But I've paid for it now so will have it for the year. I'd certainly say you don't NEED it.

Also, if the internet totally explodes, you can just pop the TRVs off and turn the heating on at the wall if you really need heat as TRVs fail open. Nowhere near ideal but I haven't had to do that yet and fingers crossed it's not going to be a regular occurrence.

I would be on the fence too about the stuff they now charge for - I've been with them long enough to have them by default. Not sure if I would have paid for them.

For instance, I have never used the geolocation stuff, and the open window / door stuff is next to pointless if you are aware of when you open a window or door.

if you are aware of when you open a window or door.

I am aware when I open a door. I am anal enough to turn the heating off. ms_com on the other hand....

The child lock on the TRVs (another recent thing) is also handy for me as mini_com loves spinning the top and making the lights come on. Something that I would have expected to rinse the batteries but hasn't, yet. Almost worth it for the moments when she disappears, we hear the tell tale clicks and then the giggle.

another recent thing

Their has alway been a setting for how long a manual change on the TRV is good for, which has always been useful. I now have them restricted on every TRV accessible to little hands. I've not tried the childlock yet.

Ditto, vis. mrs_tw. Who left the front door open this morning.

In her defence, I do need to fix the front door locking.

@bq Ghost Signs! Please share more. Assuming this are old hand-painted signs no longer in use vs the sign of actual ghosts?

After:

An abandoned corner of the house that had no electricity or heating and had the door literally concreted closed.

I'm assuming the latter.

Total newb questions to follow: I am looking to start the process of some work on my flat (new kitchen and bathroom) - essentially the scope is minor(ish) structural (wall down, joist in and new enlarged window with lintel) and fairly major internal (quite a bit of plumbing - moving boiler, new bathroom suite, better routing of water and gas pipes to allow the new config - and some electrics, then extensive make-good with new floor, plastering, tiles etc and kitchen fitted) - I want a relatively bespoke ply kitchen and have a chap in mind I'd like to use. For the rest, is this a job for a contractor who will have his own trades or possibly not big enough scope for such a set-up and I should be looking at separate tradespeople? I will also need structural engineer drawings - is it possible to get an engineer who would then provide some element of project management and recommend trades? I am generally more capable than this message might suggest and my old man's a surveyor which will be a useful resource.

Any suggestions re best practice/how to approach it and of course recommendations for structural engineers/tradespeople in SE much appreciated!

Cheers

Defo not highest valuation.
Their valuation is irrelevant, the market decides.

JEEZUS thats a bargain.

Next door (terrace) is having their pointing redone. Any issues that I need to be aware of that it may cause for my place, anything to look out for? Cheers

massively wishing i'd done more research on the kitchen of the place we've bought, replaced the hob because they had installed the cheapest ikea one, pretty sure we're going to be replacing the dishwasher now too, also the cheapest ikea one, we've tried multiple 'remedies' to the problems but nothing seems to make it actually consistently clean and dry dishes

the market decides.

I believe @Regal has trademark on that, send royalty via PayPal.

There's also another thread for this here

If it makes you feel better, we don't have a dishwasher in our kitchen, or a washing machine (on order).

There was mouse poo - loads - under everything. We did get two fridge freezers, but they were disgusting inside and needed SO MUCH cleaning. We're in the process of freecycling one at the moment.

When they took out the old washing machine they didn't cap the waste with a blank so if you put too much water down the sink at once it leaked into the cupboard below, which explained the do not use sign. Attached photo is what the sink looked like when we moved in.

It has no heating and doesn't meet building regs but the electrics and heating are up to scratch at least!

Can't wait to demolish it.

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We have a few on the barn, which may have been a shop 100 years ago.
There's a huge "SUZE" painted on the end wall, best seen on Street View: https://www.google.com/maps/@46.0519698,0.6839567,3a,30y,354.8h,86.87t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sQcvsXvzLSIAGS_9BDG9EKg!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DQcvsXvzLSIAGS_9BDG9EKg%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D349.92014%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656
and a couple on the front. One is "Chocolate LOUIT", and the other next to it is hard to make out but may say "Lubin". There's another very faded one at the other end but it's hard to tell what it used to be.

Suze, by the way, is a rather delicious bitter drink. Tastes a bit like chinotto.
Louit Freres still exist, as a subsidiary of an Italian company, but the brand only goes on mustard now.

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Cheers, I'll try there....

excuse me but you could start a transalpine war by linking Suze to Chinotto.

Nice to see someone here not far from where i grew up ! There is a decent summer music+dance festival in Confolens

In 2012 we took the tandem within 5k of this wonderful place. Not a valuable thread contribution, but funny how it goes. It was part of a day that was 160k entirely uphill and tarmac-bubblingly hot, and I had a life changing burger from a tiny little shack in Chalus (wooden goose outside, FOIE GRAS writ large across its belly). I remember it quite vividly. Lovely part of the world.

Ha ha, well they both hit the happy bitter taste buds for me at least!

Small world! I'm looking forward to seeing the festival, if it happens this year. We looked at a house in Confolens and after finding it on Street View realised it was right opposite the festival site. No thanks! Being able to drive or cycle 4km away from it is important :-D