lyndondrake:

 

I like the Fibaro Z-Wave dimmers that we’ve installed, more than I do the Hue bulbs. I could see myself doing more Z-Wave and similar into a HomeAssistant controller, as long as I can get the automation installer to look after the config as I have zero interest in doing that stuff these days.

 

Yeah this is the interesting thing. I also have to think about what I'm going to leave behind if we ever sell the house. I'm happy to do configuration, but probably others won't.

hairy1:

 

I think Home Assistant is your best bet for aggregating as many devices as you can. The trick is to remain flexible for the future as any manufacturer could change their API (TP-Link did this) but I guess that is a risk with any vendor.

 

Which is why I think this might be key. If there's hardware out there that can look dumb to the naked eye, but then also work with home assistant, that'd probably be perfect.

In terms of automating heat pumps if you get a Mitsubishi with the CN105 connector (basically any model that supports the Wifi module I think) you can get full two-way automation using a little Wemos D1 (see https://chrdavis.github.io/hacking-a-mitsubishi-heat-pump-Part-1/). I think a few GZ'rs have done this, and I am about to in the coming months as I am building a new house also and will be ordering a Mitsi specifically cos of the ability to hack it this way.

aspett:

 

Yeah this is the interesting thing. I also have to think about what I'm going to leave behind if we ever sell the house. I'm happy to do configuration, but probably others won't.

 

It's pretty easy to extract the Fibaro dimmers. The switches are just normal dumb switches (or in some cases we've swapped them for instantaneous, which we hold down to dim/undim) so new owners won't be faced with any infrastructure other than lots of ethernet jacks around the house.

aspett:

 

Which is why I think this might be key. If there's hardware out there that can look dumb to the naked eye, but then also work with home assistant, that'd probably be perfect.

 

Yep I'm thinking along the same lines. Make sure everything works as is, which also has advantages if the network goes down (I think the Fibaro dimmers are ok at local control if they lose their base station too).

SumnerBoy:

 

In terms of automating heat pumps if you get a Mitsubishi with the CN105 connector (basically any model that supports the Wifi module I think) you can get full two-way automation using a little Wemos D1 (see https://chrdavis.github.io/hacking-a-mitsubishi-heat-pump-Part-1/). I think a few GZ'rs have done this, and I am about to in the coming months as I am building a new house also and will be ordering a Mitsi specifically cos of the ability to hack it this way.

 

That is very helpful to know. I like the Mitsubishi units anyway, so if we can get a normal installer to put them in, and then get the home automation person to layer the automation in rather than having to accept whatever horrible automation option the heat pump manufacturer decides to cobble together, that's a good outcome.

lyndondrake:

 

SumnerBoy:

 

In terms of automating heat pumps if you get a Mitsubishi with the CN105 connector (basically any model that supports the Wifi module I think) you can get full two-way automation using a little Wemos D1 (see https://chrdavis.github.io/hacking-a-mitsubishi-heat-pump-Part-1/). I think a few GZ'rs have done this, and I am about to in the coming months as I am building a new house also and will be ordering a Mitsi specifically cos of the ability to hack it this way.

 

 

That is very helpful to know. I like the Mitsubishi units anyway, so if we can get a normal installer to put them in, and then get the home automation person to layer the automation in rather than having to accept whatever horrible automation option the heat pump manufacturer decides to cobble together, that's a good outcome.

 

We have four Mitsubishi Electric heat pumps that were all installed at the same time, and they all have the same very annoying firmware bug.  When they have to do a defrost cycle, if the fan is set to full speed, after the defrost, they heat the room way past the setpoint - basically they blast away at full power for quite a while.  The reason we bought them was that they have the ability to work very quietly when the fan is set to the lowest or auto modes, so they are suitable for bedrooms.  They work well for that.  But I prefer our big Panasonic in the kitchen for ease of use - you can alter its settings at any time, where on the Mitsubishis, they have to be switched on for the settings to show on the remote and to be alterable.

Of course, if you are going to use Home Assistant on a phone or tablet to do all the control for the heat pumps (and the rest of the house), the remotes can just be discarded.  I think that is probably the preferable way to go due to the problem of the remotes only working one direction and having no way of following the actual state of the heat pump.