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State of the art- Minisplit Heat Pumps (Air conditioning)

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    State of the art- Minisplit Heat Pumps (Air conditioning)

    I am having a ductless heat pump (Minisplit) put in, primarily for air conditioning.
    I searched the forums and there is quite a bit of information but seems to be changing with newer technology.

    I originally was going with Fujitsu but the contractor has now changed to Mitsubishi because he thinks that they have a better control interface-
    Mini Split Heat Pump system Mitsubishi, 2 ton, 23 SEER, Variable speed Model SUZ-KA24NA2, PEAD-A24AA
    Smart Thermostat Interface Module​
    How about the newer "Smart" minisplit thermostats like Sensibo?

    I am still running HS3 and use HSTouch for my automation control.
    Any words of wisdom?

    Thanks
    DSteiNeuro
    DSteiNeuro

    HS3Pro

    MSI Cubi Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-5200U CPU @ 2.20GHz, 2201 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s) 16GB DDRl RAM

    Enabled Plug-Ins
    BLRussound, BLSpeech, HSTouch Server, JowiHue, MyQ, Nest, Rain8, Squeezebox, Ultra1Wire3, UltraGCIR3, Vista Alarm, X10,Z-Wave

    #2
    I've researched this topic extensively; I have a Fujitsu system with an outdoor heat pump that supplies 4 separate indoor heads.

    Most modern systems allow the installation of an adapter at the indoor head that provides two-way communication between an external programmable thermostat and/or a manufacturer hosted web platform. This allows the customer or the installer to remotely monitor and control the system, and get actual status back from the system. Various folks on various home automation platforms have worked on decoding the APIs for these adapters so that they could be controlled via home automation.

    The self-contained external smart thermostats like Sensibo are just one-way communication, just like the infra-red remote that comes with the mini-split. The only difference is that the Sensibo has a web-based platform that you can access from anywhere. But it's still one-way, meaning you never really know the status of your A/C unit, ie, whether it was previously running, did someone shut it off, etc.

    If you like the idea of a Sensibo, you can do it yourself with HS. I have an IR Blaster controlled with the mcsMQTT plugin, I can set schedules and then send IR commands to my indoor head units to set mode, temps, fan, etc. The IR blaster can also control other things like LED Candles, TV, fans, etc.

    Hope this helps.

    Comment


      #3
      I stressed over this and went down every rabbit hole I could find. Also got input from the good people on this forum in this thread: https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/ho...ardwired-tstat

      I eventually went with a Mitsubishi mini-split: MSZ-WR24NA & MUZ-WR24NA

      Then used a PAC-US444CN-1 board which allowed me to connect the mini-split to a Honeywell ​TH6320ZW2003 TStat that is controlled via HS4/HSTouch.

      I've been very happy with it so far.

      Comment


        #4
        You might check if Intesis has an interface for your system. They have 2-way comm and support from two Homeseer plugins.

        Comment


          #5
          Thanks for all of the help and information.
          I went with a Mitsubishi/Trane Heat pump and a PEAD distribution in the attic. The advantage of the PEAD is that there are no AC units in the rooms, only registers in the walls.

          Click image for larger version

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          They installed the PAC-US444CN-1 interface board which I connected to the Honeywell T6 Pro Z-w thermostat.

          Everything is working great and with the Z-Wave it was a simple integration to HomeSeer.

          I think that I might have lost a couple of the Mitsubishi features (e.g. dry/dehumidify mode) by not using their control but this is outweighed by the ability to use HomeSeer to monitor and automate
          DSteiNeuro

          HS3Pro

          MSI Cubi Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-5200U CPU @ 2.20GHz, 2201 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s) 16GB DDRl RAM

          Enabled Plug-Ins
          BLRussound, BLSpeech, HSTouch Server, JowiHue, MyQ, Nest, Rain8, Squeezebox, Ultra1Wire3, UltraGCIR3, Vista Alarm, X10,Z-Wave

          Comment

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