Home automation of ducted heatpump solution?

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reven

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#1644693 3-Oct-2016 13:04

SumnerBoy:

reven:

My old house was 202m2 (minus 30ish for garage) for a 8 outlet panasonic ducted system and was $9.5k ish including the wifi module and one zone on/off switch (living areas I could turn on/off) from EES (auckland, maybe cheaper due to competition???). Cant recall the kw for unit, but it was the size of a double fridge. That was a 4 bedroom house with a large open planning living area (living room, family room, dining, kitchen). this was done in about early 2014.

Will be doing the same to new house, once renovations are done and all the walls are up where I want them.

I would like to see how much wiring you are running for HA in your renovation!

not that much this time :), conduits for cat6a cables (cat7a to hard to come by ATM). using wemo light switches everywhere instead of zwave ones (more reliable i found due to wifi vs zwave protocol). still have a few zwave device (yale deadlocks, fibaro eye motion sensors). biggest thing is just the ethernet cables to a full height server cabinet in garage (which I cant install yet, need walls put up in room above garage so I can run all the cables straight done into it). went with sonos wireless speakers for surround sound vs in ceiling/wall due to 2 story house and its just easier/cheaper/sounds better/expense is similar since I would have to replaster/paint everything.

ill go with the recommend wifi ducted system here, panasonic was alright, it worked, but like I said needed internet connection and IFTTT.com to work, which is less than ideal.

timtait

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#1644694 3-Oct-2016 13:05

reven:

timtait:

Will be interested if you find anything that works with a Panasonic ducted setup. We just got ours installed but the guys installing it couldn't set the wifi side of things up yet as it wasn't available to them, we're talking about retro fitting something one day.

Currently we just have a wired controller but if you asked me if it was worth spending another $1K to get the wifi controller I probably wouldn't worry about it now. I thought we'd like to be able to set things remotely but meh the wall controller is so easy to setup and the thing is cheap as chips to run anyway that I'd be happy just to leave it on if we were going out.

We're in Dunedin and excluding garaging we are at roughly 180m2. Had the house sitting between 18-22C from 17:00-2:00 pretty much every day. Looking at the unit we've avged about $2-3 power each day which I'm pretty chuffed with. Will be interesting to see how it goes over Winter :D

an intesishome addon for a panasonic ducted heat pump system cost me around $400 from EES. You could probably order one and install it yourself or pay someone to install one for total $500ish.

Oh nice I might flick them a message and see what they say. Cheers

neb

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#1644792 3-Oct-2016 16:10

If you don't mind waiting a bit, you could also look at this. It's a bit more than when they were funding it, but it still seems like a good price.

SumnerBoy

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#1644801 3-Oct-2016 16:25

There are quite a few of these IR based controllers. I am not a big fan of these personally, mainly because they all require a 3rd party cloud service to run, and they cannot provide you with any feedback on the state of the heat pump. For example if someone manually turned on the heat pump via the factory IR remote, your app would have no idea about this change in state.

neb

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#1644803 3-Oct-2016 16:27

Yeah, true. I've looked at a pile of them, ranging from DIY arduino-based ones to pricey commercial ones, and this one seems to be the least kludgy, and it's also rather cheaper than the manufacturer-provided options. It also depends on what you need, I just need something to pre-warm the room before we head home after dinner or something.

mdf

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#1644808 3-Oct-2016 16:41

SumnerBoy:

There are quite a few of these IR based controllers. I am not a big fan of these personally, mainly because they all require a 3rd party cloud service to run, and they cannot provide you with any feedback on the state of the heat pump. For example if someone manually turned on the heat pump via the factory IR remote, your app would have no idea about this change in state.

Any views on RF based remote controllers? Maybe the Broadlink one @richms mentioned?

I've got a similar issue to the OP's query, though ours is a gas ducted central heating system rather than a heat pump. The system itself is great, but the "smarts" in the controllers leave a lot to be desired. I've got three zones, each with a controller. One is wired and the other two are "RF" wireless (I assume these are RF 433 MHz, but can't actually find anything in the manuals to confirm this, so some hit and hoping may be involved). The wireless controllers do seem to be two way though, and take and display feedback from the unit.

The multi zone set up seems to rule out the Nest, Ecobee etc. options, so looking at other alternatives. So I'm wondering if spoofing instruction signals from the existing remotes would be the way to go?

My main aim is to be able to have a more advanced schedule programmed into the system, but needless to say talking and phoning instructions to the unit would be a geeky value-add.

SumnerBoy

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#1644812 3-Oct-2016 16:52

mdf:

Any views on RF based remote controllers? Maybe the Broadlink one @richms mentioned?

Not really sorry - never used them or even done any research in RF control of heat pumps. One thing I will say is they have an awful website! They seem to have an IR + RF based controller but I am not sure what devices their RF can actually interface with. No heat pump I have ever heard of has RF control so I am not sure how much luck you would have. Your gas controller might work but it sounds like it would be extremely fortunate if they were compatible. Most of these things use some form of propriatory comms but I guess it is possible the Broadlink device allows record + replay of RF?

Sorry - not much help on that one :(.

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Talkiet

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#1644829 3-Oct-2016 17:51

Based on the information that the SkyFi Daikin unit is addressable, I'm going to do that way with a Daikin 10kw Ducted unit with multizone controller and Skyfi card. Apparently they have had lots of issues with their own wall mounted remote control tablet system (so much so they have withdrawn it from sale while the SW developers are whipped)

"Multizone" for residential ducted heatpumps is a bit of a misnomer and usually means that you can turn other vents on and off - there's generally no individual temperature control (Makes sense given they all feed from one unit I guess) but that's all I am after so I think it'll work out for me.

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

richms

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#1644862 3-Oct-2016 18:29

The RF is for controlling the broadlink lightswitches. Ir does the Aircon.

Richard rich.ms

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