@Sumnerboy I'm looking at you here :-)

I'm about to sign a contract to build a new house in Rolleston (I have bought the land and going through final stages of a quote for the house build)... Unfortunately, while the local tech people for Mitsubishi and Daikin (and some others) are all trying to be helpful, they just don't have any reliable answers to my question, so I have had to take the heating out of the house quote and pursue it myself while other stuff happens.

My question.

"What ducted heatpump system would you recommend for basic multizone control (on/off really)  and integration into a home automation system either directly, or through the addition of a 3rd party smart thermostat like Nest or EcoBee?"

I could HEAR the blank stare from most people when I asked this, but the few that understood it didn't have any reliable answers. Note that I don't want to purely use the proprietary apps for the individual brands - partly on principle, partly because they won't be able to integrate with things like "Alexa, turn on the projector" and partly because I don't like the idea of shunting the data off through a cloud server.

Daikin have what looks like the most likely solution, either using their SkyFi controller (BRP15A61) or an older unit (kkrp01a).

- I know their app is the only one that is meant to use it but I have read suggestions that it can function in basically the same way as the earlier one.

- Do I need a multizone controller (in addition to the IP unit) to control the other rooms? (open/close their vents and adjust main fan speed to compensate?)

- Does the old unit support new heatpumps?

Mitsubishi have what looks like a nice solution, but it's definitely tied into their own cloud based ecosystem

I haven't looked in detail at other brands yet

I'd prefer to use IP - but I just saw this - https://harizanov.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/DAIKIN-Internet-remote-control-unit.pdf

I'd happily stump up for something like an EcoBee3, but none of the places I spoke to even knew what I was talking about when I asked if they supported 3rd party thermostats.

I know there are a bunch of professional and commercial systems but while I'm happy to spend $500 on IP enabling my system, I'm not prepared to spend $4k for a controller and $unknown on professional services to come and deploy it :-)

This thread is hopefully to help me collect knowledge and experiences that can help me choose:

- Brand and model of heatpump

- Options required (IP add-in and controller upgrades?)

- Whether 3rd party thermostats can integrate

- What the smart home control integration is like

Cheers - N