Jordan O'BrienWhile there may not be much need to have an air conditioning unit in some places across the UK, tado° is hoping that the heat wave continues.
The company has officially unveiled the world’s first ‘Smart AC Control’ which is now available in both the US and Europe.
While there are smart thermostats available from the likes of Nest, Honeywell and of course, tado°, this is the first time a cooling solution has been provided which can automatically turn off an air conditioning unit to save energy.
With 2014 officially the hottest year on record in the US, tado° is hoping to captialise on the increased use of air conditioning – as well as the recent growth in installations here in the UK.
The US is the biggest market for air conditioning in the world, with almost 90% of American households running ACs.
Americans spend over $11 billion (£7 billion) a year in energy and emits over 100 million tons of carbon dioxide.
With its Smart AC Control, tado° makes any air conditioner smart, with the system recognising when users are approaching their homes and automatically beginning to cool it to a set temperature, as well as recognising when they leave their homes and switching the AC off.
The Smart AC Control was unveiled at an event in New York City by Christian Deilman, CEO and founder of tado°.
Speaking of the launch he notes: “Our #smartNYC mission starts today as we aim to smarten up 100,000 of the city’s AC units by June 2016.”
tado° is promising savings of up to 40% on energy costs with its automatic climate control settings, although it also wants to give homeowners the choice to control the temperature inside their homes using an App on their phone.
Users will also have the option to control the interface from the device itself with a matrix LED display and capacity touch interface.
Packed inside the tado° hardware there are sensors for everything from temperature, light, noise, motion and Bluetooth Low Energy.
“Not all of them are being used right now,” explains Christian. “The beauty of connected devices is that they will get better with every update and all existing users will benefit in the same way as new customers.”