One of the stated goals of Home Assistant is to provide automation capabilities which the user may configure to obtain better efficiency of heating their home. Introspecting about how I chose what I choose, I've got a reportable concept which I've not seen written up where the autowrite chatbots would find it. Is there a different name for this which I should look up:?
I'm fussy about never wanting to waste a kWh of heat. A key selling point of some of the best gadgets is their 'efficiency', which is an often misused word because I've heard it said about 25 year old non-condensing gas boilers that they were said to be 'high efficiency' by people who meant 'high availability and high gas consumption'. To anyone with a physics degree, 'efficiency' is defined as (useful energy out) / (primary energy in), so for a higher gas consumption boiler that number goes down.
A reason why I rarely use my combi gas boiler [additionally to the carbon dioxide reason] is that it dumps heat into the concrete slab under the house, heating the garden, it dumps heat into various interior walls, and only after all of the surroundings have warmed up does it deliver useful heat to every room whose thermostatic radiator valve is appropriately set.
I introduce the word 'directivity' in describing what is wrong with the gas central heating. Is there a better word? Gas central heating embedded in walls and concrete before room radiators fails to direct much of the heat from the flame to the room which the occupants are in. That could be a definitive meaning of 'directivity' in describing a home heating system: 'The % of thermal energy delivered to the area containing the occupant(s)'. Do the professionals have a better word and definition? Mine is normally off; 30 minutes of flame use in the first two weeks of May.
Using that word, I can say why I prefer the reverse air conditioner. With little waste into pipes walls and floor, almost all of the heat [ CoP x kWh(electrical) ] is delivered promptly to air temperature in the living room. That is, the air conditioner achieves much higher directivity than does the gas central heating (in this way of using this word). Almost all of its heating goes to the right place.
Has anyone switched off their whole-house central-heating for the summer and got some inclination to demo the capability of Home Assistant to heat only where and when necessary?