LAUNCHED SEPTEMBER 2020 - LIVE & ONGOING

Ideal Heating Halo — Smart Heating, Built from Scratch

Sauce partnered with Ideal Heating to design and build Halo — a fully bespoke IoT smart heating platform that transformed one of the UK's largest boiler manufacturers into a connected, data-driven business.

PROJECT SUMMARY

Sauce worked as a long-term IoT development partner with Ideal Heating — which produces around 400,000 boilers a year — to design and build Halo, a bespoke smart heating platform. Launched in 2020, Halo includes a mobile app, programmable thermostat, Amazon Alexa and Google Home voice control, geolocation-based automation, real-time weather adaptation, and automatic fault reporting. Ideal now accumulates billions of data points and operates its own in-house IoT team.

CLIENT

Ideal Heating

SECTOR

Home Heating / IoT

LAUNCHED

September 2020

STATUS

Live & Ongoing

THE BUSINESS CHALLENGE

A market leader at risk of being left behind by smart technology

Ideal Heating is one of the UK's largest and most successful home heating manufacturers, producing around 400,000 boilers a year with an annual turnover of nearly £290 million. Owned by Groupe Atlantic — a major European HVAC group — Ideal had an excellent reputation built over decades.

But customer expectations were shifting rapidly. Smart home technologies and connected devices were becoming mainstream, and competitors were beginning to offer IoT-enabled heating solutions. Ideal faced a business-critical challenge: embrace smart technology or risk losing market leadership.

Specific pressures driving the project included:

  • Growing customer demand for remote control and scheduling of home heating
  • A competitive market moving rapidly toward connected, app-controlled boiler systems
  • Reliance on third-party technology providers limiting Ideal's flexibility and IP ownership
  • No in-house IoT capability or data infrastructure
  • The need for a scalable platform that could evolve with future product development

OUR PROCESS

Co-collaboration, education, and agile iteration

Education & Discovery

Sauce introduced Ideal's team to agile methodology and IoT possibilities, running collaborative workshops to map business goals against technology opportunities — building shared understanding before any build began.

Bespoke Platform Build

Using iterative agile sprints, Sauce developed the Halo mobile app, thermostat firmware, and backend platform — with Ideal reviewing and shaping every increment to ensure it met real customer and operational needs.

Launch & Ongoing Partnership

Following the September 2020 launch, Sauce continued as a development partner, working alongside Ideal's newly established in-house IoT team — with further product developments in active pipeline.

THE SOLUTION

Halo: a fully bespoke IoT smart heating platform

The result of Sauce's partnership with Ideal is Halo — a connected smart heating system that gives homeowners full control of their boiler via mobile app or desktop, and feeds Ideal's business with a proprietary data asset it fully owns.

Advanced Scheduling

Users can adjust heating timings and temperature settings from anywhere in the world via the Halo app or desktop platform — no more manual thermostat adjustments.

Alexa & Google Home

Full integration with Amazon Alexa and Google Home allows householders to control their heating through voice commands — adjusting temperature and schedules hands-free.

Geolocation Automation

Halo uses the homeowner's smartphone location to automatically turn heating off when the home is empty and back on when someone starts heading home — eliminating wasted energy.

Real-time Weather Adaptation

The system constantly adjusts to current local temperatures using live data from weather stations across the world — ensuring optimal comfort without manual intervention.

Automatic Fault Reporting

Halo alerts users immediately if an issue is detected with their boiler system — reducing response times and supporting proactive maintenance before a problem escalates.

Remote Smart Support

Ideal's Customer Care team can connect remotely to diagnose and support customers' systems — improving first-call resolution rates and customer satisfaction.

THE RESULTS

A transformed business model — and a proprietary data asset

The impact of Halo on Ideal Heating's business has gone well beyond product functionality. By owning a bespoke platform rather than licensing a third-party solution, Ideal now controls its own technology roadmap, its customer relationships, and — crucially — its data.

Billions of data points

Ideal now accumulates billions of lines of data from connected Halo systems, informing maintenance planning, customer service, and future product development.

In-house IoT team established

Ideal built its own IoT department as a direct result of the partnership, with Sauce specialists continuing to collaborate with this team on ongoing development.

Full technology independence

Unlike competitors dependent on third-party platforms, Ideal owns its smart heating technology outright — giving it freedom and flexibility to develop further without restriction.

Improved customer care

Remote smart support, automatic fault alerts, and usage pattern analysis have significantly improved Ideal's customer care capability and satisfaction levels.

“We've worked with Sauce on numerous projects and we have an excellent relationship with them. The team are great to work with and, with their expertise, they've helped us take the home heating experience to a new level. Halo gives households more control and flexibility, providing better comfort and energy efficiency.”

- Lizzie Wilkinson, Head of Domestic Product Management, Ideal Heating