If you've been reading up on smart thermostats, you'll have seen three names: Hive, Nest and tado°. We fit all three across Doncaster, and over the last year tado° X has become the one we recommend to most customers. This guide explains why, without the jargon. What it actually does in your house, what it costs fitted, and who it's right for.
One thing to clear up first: a smart thermostat doesn't make your boiler more efficient. It stops you paying to heat rooms nobody's in, at times nobody's home. That's where the saving comes from, and tado° X is simply the best of the three at doing it automatically.
What tado° X Does, in Plain English
1. It heats the rooms you're using
A normal thermostat sits in the hall and heats the whole house to one temperature. With tado° X you can put a small radiator thermostat on each radiator, and then every room has its own schedule. Bedrooms warm up at 6.30am and go off at 8. The living room comes on at 5pm. The spare room and the box room stay off unless you've got guests. In a typical three-bed semi in Doncaster that alone is most of the saving.
2. It turns down when everyone's out
It uses the phones in the house. When the last person leaves, the heating drops to a low "away" temperature. When the first person is on the way home, it warms the house back up so it's comfortable when you walk in. You don't press anything. If you'd rather it asked you first, it can send a nudge to your phone instead.
3. It notices an open window
If someone opens a bedroom window and the temperature in that room suddenly drops, tado° X stops heating that room rather than running the boiler to warm the street. Small thing, but it adds up over a winter.
4. It watches the weather
It pulls the local forecast. On a mild, sunny afternoon it lets the boiler tick over; on a frosty morning it works harder. You just pick the temperature you want and it sorts out how to get there.
5. It can turn your boiler down, not just on and off
Many modern boilers (lots of Ideal, Baxi and Worcester models) can be told to run gently instead of flat out. A basic thermostat can't do that; tado° X can, on a compatible boiler. The boiler runs longer at a lower flame, which is quieter, kinder to the boiler and cheaper. We check whether your boiler can do this before we quote.
6. It shows you what it saved
The app gives you a simple monthly report: how much heating you used, how it compares to last month, and what the away mode and open-window detection saved you. It's the clearest of the three apps for this.
7. It works with what you've already got
Alexa, Google Home and Apple Home all work straight away. It's also built on the new "Matter" standard, which is the industry's way of making smart-home kit from different brands work together. In practice that means it'll keep working with whatever you buy next.
What It Costs Fitted in Doncaster
A tado° X starter kit (the main thermostat plus the part that connects to your boiler) is £280 to £390 fitted in Doncaster in 2026, including the hardware, our labour, and getting the app set up on your phone before we leave. Room-by-room control is about £60 per radiator on top, so a full system for a three-bed house with five radiator thermostats comes to £650 to £900. Most people start with the main thermostat and two or three radiator thermostats on the rooms that matter, then add more later. Full prices for all three systems are in our smart thermostat cost guide.
What It Saves
On a typical Doncaster home with a £1,200 winter gas bill, a tado° X used properly saves £60 to £180 a year with just the main thermostat, and £150 to £250 a year with room-by-room control. So the starter kit pays for itself in two to three winters, and a full system in three to four. After that it's money in your pocket every year.
The Honest Bit: What to Watch For
- There's an optional subscription. The leaving-home and open-window features work fully automatically if you pay tado° around £4 a month (or £30 a year). Without it, they still work but send you a tap-to-confirm nudge on your phone instead. Plenty of our customers are perfectly happy without the subscription.
- Radiator thermostats add up. Six rooms is six valves. We'll tell you which rooms are worth it and which aren't.
- It doesn't mix with the older tado° V3+ kit. If you already have V3+, you either stay on that or replace the lot.
- It needs fitting properly. The part that connects to the boiler is wired into the boiler's controls. That's live mains and it's a job for a heating engineer, not a general handyman.
Who It Suits (and Who It Doesn't)
Good fit: families where people come and go at different times; anyone with spare rooms they don't use every day; people who work from home some days and not others; anyone who likes to see where the money's going.
Maybe not: a small flat with two radiators where a £250 Hive does everything you need; or a household that wants one dial on the wall and nothing on the phone. We'll say so at the survey if that's you.
How to Get One Fitted
Tell us your boiler make and model (it's on the front of the casing) and how many radiators you've got. We'll give you a fixed fitted price, usually over the phone or by email, and book you in within the week. Call 01302 963007 or book online. We're Gas Safe registered (638592) and fit these across Doncaster and the DN postcodes every week.