Balance is a subscription service in the tado° app that steers your heat pump to heat at the cheapest times of the day. Balance can take into account your electricity tariff, Photovoltaic (PV) system, and the outdoor temperature to optimize the use of your heat pump.
To benefit from Balance, you need the following:
a compatible air-to-water, water-to-water, or ground-to-water hydronic heat pump
a tado° Heat Pump Optimizer X
How Balance controls heat pumps
Based on your set schedule, electricity tariff, and local weather forecast, Balance will:
maintain your usual hot water temperature range
reduce costs by starting heating cycles at earlier, cheaper times
reduce costs by stopping expensive heating cycles at slightly lower temperatures
reduce the target temperature of your rooms by two degrees for the most expensive hours of the day if you are using Room Guided mode
set your heat pump to standby for the most expensive hours of the day if you are using Heat Pump Guided mode
Balance always aims to maintain your comfort, but if you ever feel cold while Balance delays a heating cycle, you can resume your usual schedule for the day.
How Balance works in the tado° app
Once you activate your Balance subscription, select Balance in the tado° app Home Screen to view a graph showing how heating costs fluctuate throughout the day. This takes into account factors like energy price, outdoor temperature, and your PV system. Below the graph, you’ll see how Balance adjusts the Smart Schedule of your heat pump to shift heating away from expensive times and towards cheaper times, helping you save on costs.
Note that the Hot Water option will only appear if your heat pump controls domestic hot water.
You can access your overall heat pump consumption data in Energy IQ.
Setting Up Balance
After activating Balance, you’ll need to provide details of your electricity tariff.
Balance is compatible with:
Flat tariffs: the electricity price is constant. For flat tariffs, the setting Optimize Based on Outdoor Temperature is always enabled to allow Balance to shift water and space heating to when there is more heat available outdoors.
Time of Use tariffs: the electricity price follows a fixed daily or weekly schedule.
Dynamic tariffs: the electricity price follows electricity market prices, and changes either hourly or half-hourly. Balance is currently able to retrieve day-ahead electricity market prices for Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.
You can access the Balance settings by selecting the Balance tile on the Home Screen in the tado° app.
In Balance settings, you can:
activate/deactivate Balance for your heating and hot water, which are toggled ON by default
choose how often Balance intervenes per day (min. 1 hour, max. 6 hours). You can use the slider to focus more on Comfort or Savings. The default setting is 2 hours of daily Balance intervention.
activate/deactivate Optimize Based on Outdoor Temperature. When enabled, Balance factors a forecast of the outdoor temperature into its calculations. This feature should only be activated for air-source heat pumps.
update your electricity tariff details.
enter details of your PV system.
How to add information about your PV system
In the Balance for Heat Pumps screen, select Photovoltaic System.
Enter information about your panel group, including the kW capacity, direction, and tilt.
Select Save. The Photovoltaic System screen will show an overview of your panel groups.
Select Add Panel Group to add information about additional panel groups.
Then, toggle Optimization Enabled to let Balance for Heat Pumps use that information.
Please note: Balance for Heat Pumps does not directly measure the power generated from your PV system. It relies on the weather forecast and on the information that you submit.