In your two storey home standard for ducted A/C is 2 zones 1 controller. I'm thinking a 2nd controller would be beneficial (rawson didnt have a price for second controller but im sure I read somewhere it was $450?) or can you install one dedicated controller on say the stairway wall and adjust the temp for upstairs/downstairs there?
In your two storey home how many zones did you go for? (we're building the Balmoral 38)
They asked where we'd like the modem point in the house to be? I hadnt even thought of this... With a two storey house where did you guys place yours? (i.e is it best on ground floor or first floor, I'm assuming with a large home you'd need two wifi routers one for each floor or do you use extenders?)
Did you guys install a doorbell after handover? We didn't like the intercom system and we're glad to get a $210 refund on that...
Unless they have changed things, they way they do zone control is with mechanical light switches and then they use a standard (single) Navease controller. The big problem with this method is even if you have a second slave controller you can only have one thermostat source which for a double story house is useless. And with mechanical zone control you cannot program zone changes. So for example you might want the heater to come on downstairs in winter mornings but unless you change the switch before going to bed it won’t work.
What I would do is ask for the proper zone controller and either a slave controller or remote thermostat. These are bit on the ugly side but work well enough.
With these can you program what zones come on when and choose which thermostat to use. Master, slave, air return provider the installer enables them.
The ultimate way to go is to not have a Dakin controller at all. There are third party providers that provide zone control and more complex and nicer controllers. But you would be paying for it and doubt Rawson would allow it to be done during the build. That said if the basics of what they install are good it can be retrofitted later anyway. Again at more cost.
Thanks for the reply its appreciated!!
Hmm damn, I'd assumed that a 2nd controller would be a 'daikin' controller and operate the same on either levels... hmm..
I'd lived in a two storey terrace years ago it had the controller downstairs and by memory witches upstairs to turn bedroom on etc. I'd assumed we'd advanced a lot since then!!
I'm guessing it wouldnt be possible to retrofit the third party zone controllers after handover since itd be much easier to do it all beforehand on a two storey home?
Do you know what the names of the third party providers are?
We're thinking to upgrade to either MyAir or iZone after handover. Clarendon seem to offer it as an upgrade, but Rawson, I don't know if they offer it, I haven't heard any Rawson customers talk about it.
We talked to the MyAir rep at the last Sydney homeshow. He assured us their system integrated with the Daikin system. Ideally we want a zone for every room so we can turn the AC on/off only to the rooms we're using. Also prefer thermostats in each room and the ability to turn on/off remotely. Retrofitting the zone controllers is easy for upstairs but can be a little harder for the ground floor. We'll cut a hole in the ceiling and repair the gyprock if necessary. The individual room thermostats can be wireless but require batteries. Hardwired thermostats are available but harder to retrofit. All can be controlled from a tablet or phone (iPad or Android) via an app.
The iZone system is very similar.