Want a smarter air conditioner but don't have the money to buy a new unit with all the bells and whistles? Tado can give you exactly what you need -- an Internet of Things (IoT) device that can improve the efficiency of remote-controlled AC units.
The German startup launched Tado Cooling on Kickstarter Monday and is gunning for $150,000 in funding to mass produce its new smart cooling control box. Tado Cooling combines with the Tado smartphone app, which can track your location and turn on the AC when you are on the way home so that it is cool and comfy when you walk in through the door. Similarly, it turns off the AC when it senses that the last person has left the house.
The control system also has a room-to-room tracking feature that uses Bluetooth Low Energy and iBeacon technology to find out where you are inside your house and know which room to cool and when.
The device itself is connected to the Internet via your home's Wi-Fi network and connects to your AC unit using infrared. It has a capacitive touchscreen surface with a translucent matrix LED display so you can make manual adjustments. Tado Cooling also comes with a humidity sensor as well as light, noise and motion sensors so that those without a smartphone can still use the system's tracking feature.
"The combination of location sensing, weather forecasts and intelligent software enables Tado to achieve ideal indoor temperatures and higher energy efficiency with AC units already installed in homes and small offices," says a Tado spokesperson in a statement. "Here, Tado leverages its experiences and intelligent algorithms it has developed since 2011 for the European heating market."
Towards the end of 2012, Tado started selling its smart thermostat and has seen a few thousand sales trickling in every month from places such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the U.K. Owing to the fact that Nest, Tado's major competitor in the smart home devices category, has a smart cooling device made for centralized AC cooling, Tado Cooling is designed specifically for in-window, wall-mounted and free-standing AC units.
"Especially in Asian countries and Europe and Japan and Australia, basically there are only split units installed. Also on the east coast of the U.S., you have a lot of these in-window units. These can't be controlled by Nest," said Tado chief executive Christian Deilmann.
Tado Cooling is compatible with the most popular AC brands, including LG, Sanyo, Samsung and Panasonic and will work with four out of five AC units in the world. Tado claims its IoT smart cooling device can reduce energy consumption by 40%.
The device costs $99 as a pledge on Kickstarter before it starts selling at a retail price of $149. As of press time, Tado Cooling has raised more than $56,000 or 37% of its goal amount.
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