DIY HomeKey locks via Reactor

[LibraSun]

I didn't see an existing Topic for heating-ventilation-air conditioning, so here goes...

Is anyone successfully controlling a "mini split" (i.e. ductless) A/C or heat pump system at home? I will be adding such a system soon to new construction, and wondered if certain brands/models interface better via Z-Wave or WiFi than others in a HA setting.

I know a bunch of these "splits" come with handheld remotes, but having robust Home Automation control (preferably without a dedicated plug-in needed on the Vera side) would be idea.

Happy to hear suggestions. Thanks!

• Libra

[therealdb]

This post is deleted!

[therealdb]

If you could get something with an in wall thermostat, you’d add a classic one. Otherwise, you’ll need a plugin. I have something based on tasmota and a virtual device, Nest and Zwave switches mapped as virtual devices as well.

[toggledbits]

IntesisBox makes a bunch of interfaces for various split systems (local WiFI API). I did the Vera plugin for them. I could easily do it for any other of the controllers we regularly talk about, or MSR.

[Black Cat]

I'm using Broadlink's, both the RM Pro and Mini, inexpensive and easy to use. I have 2 Pros and 1 Mini, they have been rock solid for years.
Still using the old Broadlink Vera PlugIn (you all know the one that the author had a dummy spit and took his bat and ball with him after patrick pointed out some problems with his code )
There is/was a problem with the latest RM4 in so much that the existing Plugins didn't work with it, not sure if that ever got sorted out.
The work around now is to use Node-Red with the RM4's
As for controlling sensors, I just got an old Remotec for OAT positioned under the eaves cobbled together with Reactor and Site Sensor (for local AP Weather).

[tunnus]

I've got pretty "interesting" setup on HVAC. I have two heat pumps, a Mitsubishi model that can be controlled through their Melcloud-service, and Nibe F750 which also has a cloud service (Nibe uplink). For both of these I have openHAB bindings (running these on Synology NAS), and with Mitsubishi I'm only currently fetching some data and not really controlling it with openHAB. Melcloud has so good scheduling/timer, that there hasn't been a real need to setup additional control.

Uplink has a decent API and openHAB fetches all data this API offers, which I in turn poll with two SiteSensors (altogether getting 16 values) running on Vera Plus. Obviously it would be more convenient to get these values straight from Vera, e.g. with SiteSensor, but it would require a (dedicated) plugin as uplink API authentication is not so trivial to set up.

Thanks to @therealdb's instructions, I've got two Fibaro smart implants connected to F750 and have Reactor logic to change e.g. ventilation speeds if house is empty or CO2 is rising (Netatmo plugin...). This could also be done through uplink API, but there's two points against it, 1) write access is a paid service, 2) with smart implants there's less dependency on cloud (I prefer local setup/logic as many others here). Downside is that with local (AUX-based) access one can only control 5 functions, e.g. could have 4 ventilation speeds and an increase of hot water temperature (boiler).

Some additional features in use: when ventilation speed is changed, I use Patrick's excellent Sonos-plugin (TTS announcement) and also send Telegram message (again, thanks to @therealdb) with Reactor.

All in all, Patrick's (@toggledbits) plugins have kept my home automation running and kept me from migrating to other platforms. Vera is currently running pretty solidly, probably due in part to decouple script (yes, you guessed it, again by Patrick), but some memory leaks have surfaced that have previously been hidden by multiple luup reloads, so have to at least plan a backup plan for target migration. Hubitat could be one alternative.

[LibraSun]

Just by way of commiserating with @tunnus I must say that my current daily driver (the trusty Vera Plus) has lately become more delicate of nature, sometimes rebooting herself 3-4x, even overnight when literally nothing is happening. This (a) makes the thought of relegating "important things" like HVAC or water heaters rather scary, and (b) has me wanting to update her firmware to 7.32beta even though it's not officially finished.

Thanks for all the guidance here, guys! Glad we now have this topic to toss HVAC info around in.

[ArcherS]

I have a setup that works quite nicely for controlling my "mini split" HVAC.
It is a quite old unit that is more or less totally stupid, it has a remote and that's it.

Some time ago I put together a Tasmota IR device that can control quite a few different HVAC units including mine. Pretty cheap, not too difficult to build and with a nice case it looks ok.

One nice aspect of the Tasmota solution is that both receives and sends IR so I mounted the IR Transciever close to the HVAC so that it also recieves commands from the IR remote. Another upside with the Tasmota route is that it is independent of what hub one uses since it is Wifi and Mqtt.

The next question was how to control it. With the help from @therealdb and his excellent VirtualDevices plugin together with the Mqtt capability of OpenLuup I managed to get a working solution in place.There is some information in the Mqtt Bridge thread on this.

Since I use Homewave the next logical step was to be able to control it from inside Homewave. A few dimmers with fixed steps and a Reactor with some logic and I got something working in place to control on/off, temperature and mode.
Not the prettiest solution but it does the job. The limitations in the old Vera gui and device types do show.

After recently having started playing around with Home Assistant I found a really nice integration for Tasmota IR HVAC control. It was really easy to get in place, it looks quite nice and can control most/all of the functions on the HVAC.