A Guardian writer's two-year test found AI-controlled heating used 18% less gas than careful manual control, worth £205.70 at the current price cap

The Guardian reports that Samuel Gibbs tested Tado X smart radiator valves with the paid AI features switched on in a 1930s house. Over the same 213 days from November to May, his manual control used 14,316.7 kWh of gas and the AI system used 11,735.7 kWh, which is 2,581 kWh less. At the current energy price cap, ending on 31 December, he puts that at £205.70. The system he tested costs about £930, plus about £80 for a heating engineer, and the AI features cost £3.99 a month or £29.99 a year.

• Before you buy smart heating, work out the payback: the Guardian's setup cost about £1,010 installed against £205.70 saved in a year, in a home that was already run frugally.
• Check your boiler's documentation for the OpenTherm protocol, since the writer's boiler did not support it and the system can do more with one that does.

Source: The Guardian. This is our short summary of their reporting. The paragraphs marked "Our read" and the things to do are SeedFoundry's opinion. The summary is drafted with AI tools. Image: Tado, from its own announcement. How we source and credit