Browse Forums Heating, Cooling & Insulation 1 Jun 11, 2017 11:03 pm Hi guys, I'm looking at installing ducted reverse cycle heating and cooling in my house (it has to go through the roof, as there isn't enough clearance under the floor). I am looking at an inverter system for efficiency, but I've come up with a little problem in terms of integration into my home automation system. It appears most inverter systems run proprietary software, and thus aren't compatible with regular smart thermostats. (Nest, Ecobee etc). Ideally, I want a system that I can integrate into my Amazon Alexas, but I can't seem to find an inverter system that is capable of this? Does anyone have any ideas? The only other option I can think of is a ducted heating system with an AC add on, which I understand are smart thermostat compatible, but terribly inefficient, and I believe not generally ducted through the roof. Any help would be welcomed. Re: Ducted reverse cycle heating/cooling + smart thermostat 2Jun 12, 2017 10:03 am I think the reason most smart thermostats are not yet available in Australia is that the majority of our heating and cooling solutions are not compatible, especially inverter technology because of its embedded smarts. Smart thermostats seem only to be viable to add a smart layer over dumb on-off systems. Re: Ducted reverse cycle heating/cooling + smart thermostat 3Jun 12, 2017 10:15 am This is a real pain in the butt, because there doesn't seem to be an inverters system with a decent thermostat on the market. Re: Ducted reverse cycle heating/cooling + smart thermostat 4Jun 12, 2017 10:20 am burnertoasty This is a real pain in the butt, because there doesn't seem to be an inverters system with a decent thermostat on the market. Depends what you mean by decent. They may not look good, but the inverters systems are pretty smart, which is why they are efficient. The add-on smart thermostats found a market overseas because the US and Euro boilers systems were very inefficient. It just so happens that the Nest, which really started it all, looked good and so now others have followed their lead. Re: Ducted reverse cycle heating/cooling + smart thermostat 5Jun 12, 2017 10:50 am I'm really after smart home integration. I'd love to be able to voice control the thermostat natively. If not natively, at least have some Openhab integration possibilities. (APIs or something). Re: Ducted reverse cycle heating/cooling + smart thermostat 6Jun 12, 2017 10:59 am burnertoasty I'm really after smart home integration. I'd love to be able to voice control the thermostat natively. If not natively, at least have some Openhab integration possibilities. (APIs or something). Sorry, no clue. My home automation revolves around an Internet-of-things implementation - if the device is not smart enough on its own and doesn't play nicely with others, I'm not interested. Re: Ducted reverse cycle heating/cooling + smart thermostat 7Jun 12, 2017 1:34 pm burnertoasty I'm really after smart home integration. I'd love to be able to voice control the thermostat natively. If not natively, at least have some Openhab integration possibilities. (APIs or something). Hi burnertoasty, Like yourself I 'was' looking at Nest/EcoBee integration along with Haiku Fan Smart Breeze. However I have resolved to the fact that the Actron Unit I will end up getting will have Smartphone integration via an app. This will give me zone and temp control where ever I have an internet connection, I even have 'wants' that include fresh air options via a filtered intake on the balcony that isnt a standard option anywhere. I will set up other things in mind like blind controllers that will gauge temp and light to determine whether to drop the blinds down for the afternoon sun in summer, or whether the leave them up for winter! Like Arcadeit says, it should have enough smarts on its own, the entire home automation is a nice to have, but i am finding that the it is not the Be All and End All. Re: Ducted reverse cycle heating/cooling + smart thermostat 8Jun 12, 2017 5:07 pm As Arcadelt said, most systems in Australia use some form of dedicated controller with a proprietary protocol between the controller and the unit. This is different to the situation in the US where many (especially older) systems use 24v circuits to control heat/cool/fan etc; these are simple to retrofit with a device like Nest. My previous house had a old "dumb" AC system and I was able to use C-Bus thermostats to control it in this manner. Even new ducted gas systems use dedicated controllers rather than relay controls (and while floor ducts are preferred, you can use ceiling vents as this is what I have in my house). AC manufacturers are coming out with Internet/smartphone compatible systems such as the Daikin SkyFi - and it seems like it should be possible to reverse engineer the protocols There are alsosome other options Re: Ducted reverse cycle heating/cooling + smart thermostat 9Jun 17, 2017 12:25 am Found a solution for anyone who looks at this in the future. Some people have accessed the Daikin API and integrated it to Homebridge. http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2440219 We already paid for somfy motors for the blinds. The quote above was purely for “pre-wiring” so the blinds company can install the motors and blinds. That’s why we… 5 16252 I am planning to get shelly dimmers added to the non-smart switches that control light. It has no affect on the mechanical functioning of the switch and this is wired… 1 1428 Hi all, sorting out the ducted air con for a 350sqm double story house. Does this placement sound reasonable to you? Also, I plan to have 6 zones I think. Living room… 0 0 |