Installing a ducted heat pump and building my own zone control

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tweake

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#3025425 22-Jan-2023 11:12

timmmay:

Two other things to consider regarding purchase vs build:

Wife acceptance factor. If something isn't working right and you say 'I need a couple of days to change it in home assistant' wife may not be happy
Resale: if you ever resell the house having a tablet on the wall to control the air conditioning system is a heck of a lot better than saying "you have to learn and use home assistant to control the system".

the other thing is, are you going to remember how to do it in 20 years time?

i'm not a fan of making systems that are complex to control. even my ventilation system is one of the simpler ones available.

Handle9

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#3025495 22-Jan-2023 15:15

mattenz:

Modern ducted units here in NZ have multiple fan speeds (might even have an EC fan), they're not designed for 'constant volume'. That said, you can only shut off so much, and you might want to monitor static/total pressure, comparing it to manufacturer specs.

A three speed fan is a constant volume system, it just has three set volumes. A true variable volume system has a lot more to it than the crude domestic systems.

VAV has been a thing for a long time. There’s been a lot of attempts to make a cheaper way of doing it but in the end to make it work really well you need constant pressure on the back of the dampers and to measure volume. You demand reset the heating or cooling setpoint of the air handler to provide enough capacity.

To do this requires a lot of cost and specialised gear for commissioning. That’s not cost competitive in a domestic situation.

Obraik

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#3025700 23-Jan-2023 10:45

timmmay:

Two other things to consider regarding purchase vs build:

Wife acceptance factor. If something isn't working right and you say 'I need a couple of days to change it in home assistant' wife may not be happy
Resale: if you ever resell the house having a tablet on the wall to control the air conditioning system is a heck of a lot better than saying "you have to learn and use home assistant to control the system".

Resale isn't my top priority. I want the house to be what's best for me rather than compromising to make the house more appealing for some period in the future when I might sell it. My partner is just as (if not more) capable at making adjustment to issues with whatever might be a problem. He's done it for a job for some time.

Still...I'm kind of leaning towards the idea of going with the premade system and then if it every becomes problematic I can take it over with some DIY stuff. My first priority might be sniffing the traffic between the tablet and the controller in the roof to see how easy it is to create a Home Assistant integration that replaces the tablet, should I need to.

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timmmay

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#3025709 23-Jan-2023 11:08

The cable between the air touch tablet and the ceiling controller is a custom cable, you never know what it's going to be running. It is a standard tablet, not air touch specific.

My home assistant core install is down today because I'm upgrading Python and it is a bit fiddly to get Bluetooth working after you compile the newest version of Python. Fortunately I can use the air touch tablet and native apps on my phone to control the ventilation system and the other bits and pieces I have around here.

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