Putting in an order for 1....

I have a Mitsubishi electric heatpump...

Ok the pigtales I ordered have arrived from the US. If you wan't me to make you up one of these, please send me a DM. I need to order the boards (but they usually arrive in a day or two), and have a go at tweaking the software so it's more configurable without needing each of you upload your own sketches. 

Price of the boards has gone up a bit since I last ordered some, so the pricing is going to need to be about $75 inc. postage. 

Hey all,

We are entering Winter time soon and I would like to automate our bedroom heatpumps by asking it to turn on (say set to 22 degrees C) when (a) I tell my Google Home Hub "bedtime" and (b) but only if the room temperature is below 20 degrees C at the time. If the room temperature at the time is not below 20 degrees C then only turn on the heatpump when it drops below 20 degrees C between then and say 8am or sunrise. Ideally if it was smart enough, it should know to turn off the heatpump when the room isn't going to drop below 20 degrees C with it turned off anyway (to save power). This could be due to sunrise or due to a warm evening outside. "Bedtime" is currently just a routine in the Google Home app that turns off the bedroom lights and turns on a desktop night light. Separately I'm using the Hue app to turn off the night light after midnight.

Does anyone have any advice for me? I think the closest solution for me is either the Ambi Climate 2 or the Sensibo Sky - which one is better I'm not sure but I'm thinking the Ambi Climate 2 might be slightly smarter. Whether I can set them up for exactly what I would like to achieve above is also an unknown at this stage.

I see HN is currently selling the Sensibo Sky for $185 + shipping while Meridian Energy is selling the Ambi Climate 2 for $229 free shipping. If anyone is currently a Meridian Energy customer you might have access to a discount code to take 20% off the price of the Ambi Climate 2 too - unfortunately I'm not with Meridian :(

Hope someone sees this and could share some of their experiences! Cheers!

Shoyu:

 

Hey all,

 

We are entering Winter time soon and I would like to automate our bedroom heatpumps by asking it to turn on (say set to 22 degrees C) when (a) I tell my Google Home Hub "bedtime" and (b) but only if the room temperature is below 20 degrees C at the time. If the room temperature at the time is not below 20 degrees C then only turn on the heatpump when it drops below 20 degrees C between then and say 8am or sunrise. Ideally if it was smart enough, it should know to turn off the heatpump when the room isn't going to drop below 20 degrees C with it turned off anyway (to save power). This could be due to sunrise or due to a warm evening outside. "Bedtime" is currently just a routine in the Google Home app that turns off the bedroom lights and turns on a desktop night light. Separately I'm using the Hue app to turn off the night light after midnight.

 

Does anyone have any advice for me? I think the closest solution for me is either the Ambi Climate 2 or the Sensibo Sky - which one is better I'm not sure but I'm thinking the Ambi Climate 2 might be slightly smarter. Whether I can set them up for exactly what I would like to achieve above is also an unknown at this stage.

 

I see HN is currently selling the Sensibo Sky for $185 + shipping while Meridian Energy is selling the Ambi Climate 2 for $229 free shipping. If anyone is currently a Meridian Energy customer you might have access to a discount code to take 20% off the price of the Ambi Climate 2 too - unfortunately I'm not with Meridian :(

 

Hope someone sees this and could share some of their experiences! Cheers!

 

The solutions you mention are one-way push only, so you won't know the state of the HP if someone has changed with the remote. This might be OK, but there might be a better option if you want 2-way control.

What brand HPs do you have?

ajobbins:

 

The solutions you mention are one-way push only, so you won't know the state of the HP if someone has changed with the remote. This might be OK, but there might be a better option if you want 2-way control.

 

What brand HPs do you have?

 

Mitsubishi Electric - 2 x FB35VA and 1 x GL25VGD. True, I'm sort of expecting noone to touch the remotes and expecting the external device to have a really good and strong IR blaster to always get the HPs set correctly, good point!

ajobbins:

 

Shoyu:

 

Hey all,

 

We are entering Winter time soon and I would like to automate our bedroom heatpumps by asking it to turn on (say set to 22 degrees C) when (a) I tell my Google Home Hub "bedtime" and (b) but only if the room temperature is below 20 degrees C at the time. If the room temperature at the time is not below 20 degrees C then only turn on the heatpump when it drops below 20 degrees C between then and say 8am or sunrise. Ideally if it was smart enough, it should know to turn off the heatpump when the room isn't going to drop below 20 degrees C with it turned off anyway (to save power). This could be due to sunrise or due to a warm evening outside. "Bedtime" is currently just a routine in the Google Home app that turns off the bedroom lights and turns on a desktop night light. Separately I'm using the Hue app to turn off the night light after midnight.

 

Does anyone have any advice for me? I think the closest solution for me is either the Ambi Climate 2 or the Sensibo Sky - which one is better I'm not sure but I'm thinking the Ambi Climate 2 might be slightly smarter. Whether I can set them up for exactly what I would like to achieve above is also an unknown at this stage.

 

I see HN is currently selling the Sensibo Sky for $185 + shipping while Meridian Energy is selling the Ambi Climate 2 for $229 free shipping. If anyone is currently a Meridian Energy customer you might have access to a discount code to take 20% off the price of the Ambi Climate 2 too - unfortunately I'm not with Meridian :(

 

Hope someone sees this and could share some of their experiences! Cheers!

 

 

The solutions you mention are one-way push only, so you won't know the state of the HP if someone has changed with the remote. This might be OK, but there might be a better option if you want 2-way control.

 

What brand HPs do you have?

 

The sensibo does know what you've done with the remote. The Sensibo unit itself sits under your Heat Pump and if you use the remote, it picks it up and adjusts accordingly.

For example, you use Sensibo to turn the Heat Pump on then pick up the remote and change from heat to cool - it will instantly be reflected in the Sensibo App.

I don't know how clever Google Home is with Sensibo skills. Alexa can turn on the heatpump, turn it off, change temp, change heating/cooling but I don't think it has conditional settings - so you couldn't tell it to only turn on if it's below a temp. In the Sensibo App, you can set those things - set a timer, set it to come on above/below a certain temp. It will send you a notification when it does the auto sense (so if you are away from home, you can then turn it off if you don't need it to be heating an empty house when you're not going to be there).

Yep, Google has full control of the Sensibo, wife has even stopped using the remotes and prefers the Sensibo App

Check out Sensibo web site 3x incl free shipping $327usd

offtopic/

Just found that fujitsu controlled heat pump using FGLair app, got google home support! Just search and add FGLair account

Turn on/off. Nothing fancy :(

Blanch:

 

Yep, Google has full control of the Sensibo, wife has even stopped using the remotes and prefers the Sensibo App

 

 

 

Check out Sensibo web site 3x incl free shipping $327usd

 

Thanks! Subsequent to your input I found the Sensibo Sky for sale at JB Hifi for $159 NZD at the moment, so I intend to purchase one and if successful, I will report back!

Shoyu:

 

We are entering Winter time soon and I would like to automate our bedroom heatpumps by asking it to turn on (say set to 22 degrees C) when (a) I tell my Google Home Hub "bedtime" and (b) but only if the room temperature is below 20 degrees C at the time. If the room temperature at the time is not below 20 degrees C then only turn on the heatpump when it drops below 20 degrees C between then and say 8am or sunrise. Ideally if it was smart enough, it should know to turn off the heatpump when the room isn't going to drop below 20 degrees C with it turned off anyway (to save power). This could be due to sunrise or due to a warm evening outside. "Bedtime" is currently just a routine in the Google Home app that turns off the bedroom lights and turns on a desktop night light. Separately I'm using the Hue app to turn off the night light after midnight.

 

In speaking with a mate over what I'm wanting to achieve he suggested that I can just set our heat pumps on a 7 day schedule between the hours of the expected 'bedtimes' and let the heat pumps idle when the room is up to temperature since it works based on its own thermostat. I.e. he is suggesting that let's say we set the heat pumps to "Heat mode @ 20 deg C", it will idle and draw almost no power when the room is up to temperature anyway. He suggests buying an appliance like Sensibo that runs 24/7 uses the same amount of power an idling heat pump would be using. Does that make sense?

How would we work out how much an idling (turned on but not actually pumping out warm air) heat pump uses in power? It seems my googling skills aren't up to scratch for this particular question.

If it works with Pebble Air, there's a good chance it works with the myriad of other similar infrared controllers like Sensibo, Broadlink and others. I have an obscure WiFi controller from Europe called the AirPatrol and that controls my Fujitsu heatpump nicely.

Hey Tim, the IntesisHome box is best for these. You can buy an IR controller to wire in then add a Pebble etc but from memory you would be looking at around the same cost.

I purchased mine from manufacturer directly I think as I'm not sure there is a dealer in NZ.

@jnimmo This is awesome! Thank you so much. I have messaged them and It looks to be compatible. 

I have actually been looking for something like this for years. 

If you don't mind me asking do you remember the cost?

Also not sure if you are running iOS but I have searched to see if it is compatible with Homebridge. And sure enough it is!

Thanks again! I really appreciate it!

Tim