The German company behind the Tado° smart thermostat wants to add app-based smarts to AC systems with Tado° Cooling, a small piece of hardware providing a bridge between AC units and mobile devices.
Tado° says Cooling uses geolocation and a Bluetooth LE/iBeacon-based indoor positioning system to monitor home owners, and switches on/off AC units accordingly (for instance it can pre-cool the house when one is coming back from the office). It connects to smartphones via wifi, and replaces the AC's infrared remote to handle control duties.
According to the company the device is compatible with around 82% of legacy remote controlled AC units, including wall hanging, in-window or portable units.
A smartphone (iOS and Android) app adds further features, such as automated settings based on local weather reports, user preference presets and AC behaviour reports. The device also has a translucent matrix LED display and a capacitive touch interface for non-smartphone control.
Like many other pieces of potentially interesting hardware the Tado° Cooling is currently available on a preorder basis over at Kickstarter, where it hopes to reach a $150000 goal over the next 20 days. Once the crowdfunding campaign is over the device should ship from August 2014.
Go Tado°
