Goldair wifi connected Eco panel

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Shoes2468

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Topic # 214631 21-May-2017 21:45

Hi all

Just wondering if anyone has had any experience with these wifi enabled panel heaters? Looking at the instructions the controls are pretty basic, I'm a little put off by the fact they don't seem to have the ability to have a weekly timer.
Wondering if anyone has had any experience with one and could share how good the app is /isn't.

We have an international home stay student and I was wanting to setup a timer so it's on when there home and off when they are not as they are notoriously bad and turning that kinda stuff off. Plus I could control it when the power is cheaper flick electric

Link to panel heater
http://www.goldair.co.nz/product-catalogue/heating/wifi-heaters/electronic-wi-fi-control-eco-panel-heater-geph205

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Reply # 1785721 22-May-2017 07:07

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Just get a $10 timer from bunnings or miter ten and plug it into an oil heater. "Eco" is false advertising on any heater that's no a heat pump, they're all equally efficient they just distribute the heat differently. "Eco" is marketing speak for "less power and less heat".

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richms

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Reply # 1785746 22-May-2017 08:30

They also will bake any wall you attach them to, so when you go to remove them after finding they are useless, you will not just have 4 holes to patch but potentially a large crack in the join between sheets where its been heated up for so long that its a major to patch and restore the wall.

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Shoes2468

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Reply # 1785759 22-May-2017 09:11

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Thanks for the feedback.

I always thought it was a bit stupid heating the wall like that, Im sure a decent amount of heat just goes into the wall cavity. Also I am aware that they are not Eco at all they just have a low wattage making them simply a low powered heater as this is for a home stay student, this is a postive as it limits the impact they can have on the power bill.

A timer on an oil heater is a good idea I have considered this but using something like a Belkin Wemo. A couple of problems with this is.

1. They could just circumvent the timer and plug straight into the wall.

2. No control over thermostat/ room temp.

From what I can see the Goldair heater gives you control over the thermostat temp and on/off control. However there doesn't seem to be a turn on at x turn off at y availability.

richms

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Reply # 1785767 22-May-2017 09:24

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Who provides their cloud servive? Goldair is just a brand of CDB who sell all sorts of low end appliances - so I dont expect they would operate their own server.

The issue with offering timers on things like that is you want them 100% reliable, which a cloud system never will be due to the internet connection. If they wanted they could put a local real time clock on the heater and store the timing settings locally, but that would be more expensive and most people wouldnt really care about it.

You might be able to make something that just hits their cloud service on a schedule to toggle it?

Richard rich.ms

Shoes2468

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Reply # 1787005 23-May-2017 19:22

richms:

Who provides their cloud servive? Goldair is just a brand of CDB who sell all sorts of low end appliances - so I dont expect they would operate their own server.

The issue with offering timers on things like that is you want them 100% reliable, which a cloud system never will be due to the internet connection. If they wanted they could put a local real time clock on the heater and store the timing settings locally, but that would be more expensive and most people wouldnt really care about it.

You might be able to make something that just hits their cloud service on a schedule to toggle it?

That's a good question, and was the kinda thing I would like to do. I was hoping someone on here had already investigated, A little hard to investigate without the hardware I guess, anyone here already have one who might be able to shed some light? I might email goldair see if they are willing to divulge any information.

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Reply # 1787324 24-May-2017 10:46

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There have been so many security issues with IOT/internet connected devices, I dont know why anyone would buy one.

Do you really need your fridge, heater, oven, baby monitor, toilet going out on the internet ?
Just adding another point of possible failure, and adding a backdoor to let hackers into your house (possibly)

Shoes2468

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Reply # 1788954 26-May-2017 21:43

Emailed goldair, they don't have an open API and only allow turn off timer or turn on timer, not a scheduler

gabesmith

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Reply # 1997745 17-Apr-2018 12:42

An update to this. I have developed a way to programmatically control the Goldair Wifi controllable panel heaters and I suspect this will work with the Goldair eco panels as well. Some details are found here: https://github.com/codetheweb/tuyapi/issues/31

phrozenpenguin

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Reply # 2038195 15-Jun-2018 11:24

gabesmith:

An update to this. I have developed a way to programmatically control the Goldair Wifi controllable panel heaters and I suspect this will work with the Goldair eco panels as well. Some details are found here: https://github.com/codetheweb/tuyapi/issues/31

Hi @gabesmith this looks really interesting, nice work. I have a few of those panel heater and ultimately would like to integrate them into home assistant, so I can get rid of the Goldair App and reliance on their servers.

Did you follow the setup instructions in order to get your key? You sentence "Device Encryption Key discovery is done by finding these in the mobile app log file." I didn't really follow (I'm on iOS...).

Any chance of a few bullet points explanation around the best way to get started to test control not using the Goldair app?

da5id

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Reply # 2038328 15-Jun-2018 14:38

The downside to the $10 timer is that many of the newer oil heaters (at least the two we bought) now have digital buttons that turn them on and not a physical toggle switch that can be left on so that it starts when it is supplied by power. You have to turn the power on and the heater unit is always off before you push the button on the heater. This also precludes use of network-connected plugs (although you could turn it off but not on).

timmmay

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Reply # 2038384 15-Jun-2018 16:31

da5id:

The downside to the $10 timer is that many of the newer oil heaters (at least the two we bought) now have digital buttons that turn them on and not a physical toggle switch that can be left on so that it starts when it is supplied by power. You have to turn the power on and the heater unit is always off before you push the button on the heater. This also precludes use of network-connected plugs (although you could turn it off but not on).

I'm sure some use traditional controls. My oil heaters were $25 from The Warehouse maybe 10 years ago, ugly but they work well.

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richms

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Reply # 2038420 15-Jun-2018 19:34

I got a dehumidifier with pointless LCD and controls and its ended up where I hardly use it because I want them all on timers for when the solar should be doing its best to save money. Pointless crap on things like that is annoying.

Richard rich.ms

olivernz

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Reply # 2038426 15-Jun-2018 20:35

Built my own WiFi controlled panel heaters. Used an ESP8266 (Sonoff/Electrodragon) with a temp sensor. Been working just fine for years.

Oh and watch out for the recall on panels.

https://www.recalls.govt.nz/recall/euromatic-eco-panel-heater

Shoes2468

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Reply # 2038471 15-Jun-2018 23:34

gabesmith:
An update to this. I have developed a way to programmatically control the Goldair Wifi controllable panel heaters and I suspect this will work with the Goldair eco panels as well. Some details are found here: https://github.com/codetheweb/tuyapi/issues/31

Awesome thanks for the update , I’ll have to revisit this.

MikeAqua

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Reply # 2039600 18-Jun-2018 12:40

have a look at the dimpelx unique heaters. They may achieve the wifi control with weekly timer you want.

Mike

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