Under manual control, Gibbs set a short morning and evening schedule, turned off unused rooms, adjusted other rooms by hand and switched heating off when leaving. After controlling for hot water with summer 2025 recordings, that used 14,316.7 kWh of gas over 213 days from November to May — about 10 to 15% less than earlier, less frugal years.
Gibbs wrote that the boiler seemed on more often, rooms heated faster and the house was generally warmer. Individual room control made it easy to heat a living room in the evening without overheating a bedroom. Energy IQ flagged a radiator heating an uninsulated porch in the first week.
Gibbs doubted he could cut costs and still keep warm by putting technology in control. To find out, he compared a basic schedule and tight manual control with Tado’s AI.
Samuel Gibbs spent two winters comparing miserly manual heating control with an AI-governed Tado system and found the latter used less gas while keeping the house warmer.
After two years of testing, he concluded that AI can save money on a heating bill.
The full setup he tested cost about £930. Tado lent the equipment. DIY installation is possible except for the boiler wiring, which costs about £80 in labour. AI features require a subscription of £3.99 a month or £29.99 a year. The subscription can be paused when heating is not in use. It also stores 13 months of logs and powers Energy IQ, which shows heating cost by room.
Tado’s AI is built from anonymised data from more than 1 million homes, which the company does not sell to third parties. It learns how quickly rooms heat and cool, manages heating room by room, can shut radiators when a window is open, turns heating off when the last person with the app leaves, and preheats for a predicted return. If a boiler supports OpenTherm, it can lower flow temperature.
Across the same 213 days with similar outdoor temperatures, and after the same hot-water adjustment, AI control used 11,735.7 kWh — 2,581 kWh less, an 18% cut — despite greater comfort. At the energy price cap ending 31 December that equalled a saving of £205.70.
In summer 2025 he replaced a Hive thermostat with a full Tado X system on an existing combi boiler. The kit included 13 smart radiator thermostats, a wireless thermostat in each of the two largest rooms, and a programmer wired to the boiler.
Manufacturers typically claim average savings of about 25%, or £180 a year. Those promises are heavily caveated, and changing energy prices make it hard to isolate what is having an impact.