I’m talking with a couple of installers locally around most likely getting a multi-split system installed and I have a strong preference to go down a route that enables me to have local control directly into Home Assistant.
None of the installers I’m talking to have had any experience in doing this and so just looking for pointers for avenues of research to make sure that the brands/configurations I’m looking at won’t paint me into a corner.
All of the options I’ve discussed with them have WiFi controller options but from what I can tell they are all pretty closed systems but I also haven’t been able to dig into them that deeply as the details I can get my hands on so far is pretty light.
Being multi-split I’ll end up with individual indoor units for each room, which will be where the control systems would plug into. One of the installers did get pointed at CoolMasterNet - Home Assistant by the brand rep so keen to find out if that is a good solution and/or what other options there are? I’m completely open to running some sort of MQTT bridge or something similar.
The brands I’m currently been looking at are:
Daikin (has a direct integration Daikin AC - Home Assistant but looks like I’ll need to get my hands on older WiFi adapters)
Mitsubishi Electric (advice I’ve gotten is that this brand is pretty expensive)
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
I’m also in New Zealand which may complicate things a little in terms of parts (but we should have pretty much anything available in Australia).
I am using two different solutions to get the AirConditioning connected to HA:
the older one that I used for a couple of years now (7 years maybe)… It is called Intesishome: two options here depending of the AC model you have: a box connected directly into the internal unit or a box communicating with the unit via InfraRed… The negative of this: it is pretty old so only supports 2.4Ghz 802.11b ! Advantage: it is available for different AC brands… I have 7 intesishome box (3 connected and 4 IR) to pilot Fujitsu/General AC units. This is integrated in HA core.
That company is also developping an IntesisBox but I am not using that product… IntesisBox devices can be controlled locally using the WMP protocol. There is no integration in HA for that product as far as I know.
the newer one (bought last year): Daikin has WiFi module included. I have two external units and 5 internal units. Works fine for what I have to do (you could even get power consumption). In this case, wide support for wifi 2.4 Ghz (more than just 802.11b). No Wifi 5Ghz support…
Hoping this help you a little bit with my experience.
WMP looks to be a protocol that Intesis have developed itself.
It looks incredibly straightforward as it’s all just plain text communication over TCP, but not that secure, out of the box it wouldn’t be too hard for a rogue agent on your local network to cause some grief. However, if you have a rogue agent on your local network you probably have other problems.