50 MILLION DOLLARS: TADO RECEIVES GRANTS FROM AMAZON, E.ON & CO.

The Tado brand is known above all for its smart heating thermostats. Now the company is receiving a financial injection from large companies and the European Investment Bank. With the new 50 million US dollars, the Munich-based company wants to strengthen its market position.

Amazon, E.ON, Total Energy Ventures, Energy Innovation Capital, Inven Capital, the European Investment Bank and other companies have invested in the Munich-based manufacturer of smart electronics. With the financial injection of 50 million US Dollar the enterprise comes up-to-date on a total financing of 89 million euro according to current press release.

Tado belongs to the large ones

About one third (30 percent) of the energy used worldwide is used for heating and cooling buildings. The German manufacturer Tado sees a correspondingly strong market here, in which one can still grow considerably. The company is right: an annual growth rate of 54 percent for smart heating is forecast until the end of 2022.

How the technology works

The smart thermostats from Tado connect heaters and air conditioners to the Internet. An app on the smartphone detects as soon as the residents leave the home or approach it again or a window is open and sets the temperature accordingly efficiently. In addition, weather forecasts and self-learning algorithms help to save up to 31 percent on heating costs and at the same time improve comfort and well-being - says the company.

More about Tado

We are invited to Tado on November 02, 2018 and will take a closer look at the products and philosophy of the company. A corresponding assessment by our editorial team will follow.

If you can't wait any longer, you'll find the manufacturer's current products here.

Smarten up your fan

Since connecting your home is now done from floor to ceiling, from light to lock, plug, air purifier and thermostat, why not also connect our fans?

The fans also have the right to be smart

Today we are on the way to connecting all our lives: our clothes, our food, our interiors. But if there is one thing we have never really paid attention to, or even abandoned, it is our fan. Yes, this object that you all know, especially when you don't have air conditioning and summers are often too hot to be tolerated. By integrating intelligent sensors and other information gathering systems, it has never been easier to connect our windmakers.

Hunter and Haiku, your allies against the heat wave

Hunter is an innovative and beautiful product. Presented at the last CES in Las Vegas, USA, it was developed to work with the Apple HomeKit, and is obviously available on iOS operating systems. It will, we hope very soon, be available to the general public.

The Apple HomeKit, in case you land straight from a spatiotemporal flaw, allows you to control your home with Apple's famous voice command: Siri.

Haiku, on the other hand, works with the company's technology at the head of "Big Ass Fans", designed to cool large industrial spaces. Equipped with "Sense Me" technology, this fan will become smart. It has WiFi connectivity, as well as motion, temperature and air sensors. This way, you can control and program it directly through its application.

Also compatible with the Apple HomeKit, you will also have the Haiku application from your Nest thermostat or your Amazon Echo or Alexa virtual assistant thanks to Android.

The problem with Haiku is that it will become more of an ally of cost than of price. Do not expect to pay less than 400 dollars or even up to almost 1000 dollars. If this price is an obstacle to the purchase of the latter, you can always buy the wall switch of the same brand which is worth the coquettish sum of 110 dollars. All this being worth no less than 360 dollars and more, it is certainly expensive to connect your house, but useful in view of the savings that can be achieved.

An application with multiple functionalities

Easy to use, the features of the smart fan will be divided into 5 tabs.

The first one controls the speed of your fan, as well as its brightness, because it necessarily offers the advantages of a luminaire. The second tab will allow you to customize the reactions of your object according to the movements it detects in the room or the temperature it makes in the room. The third tab will allow you to program the fan and light at specific times determined in advance. The 4th function allows you to determine the actions of your object during your sleep. Finally, the 5th feature will offer you the possibility to activate "Whoosh", which will adjust the ventilation speed of your object as a game.

Do you need a smart teapot?

Tea is one of those drinks that can be enjoyed for a long time, a very long time. Methods have improved and our habits have changed. Is there a new stage? It is in any case the idea of Teamosa, a smart teapot present on Kickstarter.

Make some tea? Easy, isn't it? However, a simple search on the Internet reveals dozens of different methods, each of which is explained with a lot of photos and details. So what's the best one? Each of us will have our own answers to this question. Teamosa, a smart teapot now wants to claim this title.

The ambition to produce the best tea

Are you satisfied with the way you make tea or do you feel it could be better? If you are in the second category, then it's time to take a look at Teamosa. This smart teapot promises to make the best possible tea every time and better than any other machine.

How does it work? The object is composed of two parts. A reserve located at the top where you can put a capsule designed by the company or classic sheets. Below, a water tank But rather than just running the machine, you will then have to open the application and adjust the settings to your convenience. These include temperature, maceration time, tea hardness or the quantity you want to make (up to 250 ml). These settings can be saved to make the tea the way you like it every time.

The device uses ultrasound technology for the operation to extract as many antioxidants as possible. The company cites several scientific studies to demonstrate the effectiveness of this technique even if the real impact is probably still something very personal.

Teamosa already funded on Kickstarter

Presented on the Kickstarter participative financing platform on September 13, Teamosa has already reached its goal of $100,000 thanks to the support of more than 350 backers. If you purchase Teamosa, the first available price is $239, the machine then comes with 10 capsules. The next one is $279 with 20 capsules. Be careful, however, you will not have to be in a hurry since deliveries are scheduled for September 2018 to destinations all over the world.

As always, it is necessary to be careful when you support a project on Kickstarter. On paper, Teamosa seems to be very interesting. But, it is still difficult to know if Teamosa will fall into the category of really useful DIY projects like Yomee for example or totally useless ones like Juicero. The possibility of using sheets instead of capsules is surprising.