Hasta La Ideas

No one likes looking at a thermostat, so if you’re designing one, what do you do? Berlin-based industrial design consultancy Pong designed this ultra-minimal tado° thermostat to visually disappear when not in use.

“All tado° products are characteristically smooth and unobtrusive, allowing them to blend into any home,” writes Pong. “Bright colouring and simple shapes fused with an intuitive interaction makes tado° the perfect match for every household.”

“With the smart thermostat we introduced an as yet unseen display technology to the world of IOT products. By back-lighting the LED dot matrix, we made a display on demand possible, resulting in a product that looks perfect whether on or off. This sets tado° apart from all other home tech products with their noisy screens.”

The system comes in multiple configurations and can work with both boilers and radiators, wired or wireless. (Yes, sadly it’s an IoT-capable device.)

There’s also a little iMac-like stand (fitting, as it’s sold in Apple stores) if you’d rather not have it on the wall.

“tado° proves that a product development which is fundamentally design driven ensures a user-centred experience that encourages sustainable business success,” writes Pong, which has been working with tado° since 2014. 

“Over the past few years, tado° has gradually grown into the leading smart climate company in Europe while simultaneously drawing increasing attention from the internal tech scene. Their products are sold in all Apple stores across Europe and they have even been elevated to the Google partner program. [The company] is ranked as one of the rare, future, German hardware unicorns.”