After browsing around the net I came across guys integrating the Midea Aircons into Home Assistant. They actually built a small WiFi dongle to plug into the USB port and from there have an integration module in HA to do everything via HA. This looks pretty cool. You could buy the commercial dongle but I don’t think it integrates to HA. The custom module is just an ESP and voila! Now if there is HA integration there might be ways for Node-Red to get to it, dunno. This is a medium term project so will scratch around a bit more before I buy anything.
Any experience with Midea aircons? I like their Comfort model, looks Ok on paper at half the price of a top line Samsung.
I have good experiences with Midea as a brand (kettles and toasters mostly). It is however made in China (like most everything else). It’s the same people who now own the Electrolux and AEG brands. So I consider it at least an upmarket Chinese appliance.
Now that is quite a deep rabbit hole. Personally I’d keep looking if I were buying new now, but if you’ve already got one, pick up the torch and let’s go!
I’m starting to look at aircons, first up is my bedroom 12000 BTU probably, then later my living room area 24000 BTU.
Smart wifi control is a must for me, preferably straight forward HA integration as well.
I think for electricity use inverter is a must though I see some people say inverter isn’t worth it considering the much higher repair cost and how sensitive they are to derty power with load shedding.
From a quick scan it looks like the second one employs both a heat pump for heating and cooling. Presumably the first one then only employs it for cooling and for heating it uses an element? Don’t know…
I can tell you that my aircon uses a bit more power when heating than when cooling, which makes me think it uses an element for heating. I’d imagine that a heat pump would always just use the pump.
I could be wildly wrong though, so just take what I’m saying as an theory, not fact.
I don’t remember seeing an AC that uses an element since the 80s… (an old General Electric window mount unit). Reversing the condensor/evaporator (which is how this is done) is so easy that I’m sure all of them use that trick now. It does however, as you point out, heat a little less efficiently than it cools, so it does use a little more power to heat. Some even indicate on the spec sheet that the heating capacity is less than the cooling capacity.
Daikin’s website suggests that the “Bluevolution” part is because they use R32. But both those ACs use R32, so that’s not the reason for the extra 10k. The only thing I can see is the more expensive model has some special designed fan of sorts.
The extra plus is another 10% (of whatever A was)… so it’s 1.2A/1.3A = 92.3%… 7.7% more efficient than the less expensive one.
Except for double glazed windows maybe, there’s not much more I can do here in my new house to insulate, double volume thatched roof house.
It’s currently 35 degrees according to 2 different weather apps, with that being said my bedroom is actually the coolest place in the house currently.
Only 60 km or so by road, but there’s a 4 to 5 degree difference between here and my old house.
@TheTerribleTriplet so maand terug kom kuier my niggie vir die naweek af die Kaap, land die oggend met ‘n jas aan as of sy reg maak vir sneeu. So uur later toe gaan koop sy vir haar kort klere.
Mense uit Tvl vlieg kaap toe, kort klere aan. So uur later trek hulle warm aan. Epic as mense nie luister as jy vir hulle se dis so bietjie ongemaklik vandag innie Kaap van STORMS.
But I hear your plight, just thought I post an alternative view, sometimes someone reads that and thinks, hold on, let me start there first.
Just came back from a week in the Cape and we just threw extra warm clothes in the car and put it on, as needed. Went up the cable car on Friday, totally misty and cold on top, after coming down, went to Camps bay so the grandkids can swim, and beautiful sunshine weather
Four seasons in a day …
I’ve had that on international trips. Your head tells you “it’s Europe, it will be cold”. I pack all my denims because that’s what I wear. I have two that fit a little tighter than the rest, but the wife likes them so I keep them… and man… did I sweat in those! In the first week of May, which is supposed to be Spring!
Once drove from Seapoint to Westlake, we just arrived in Cpt way back:
Seapoint, clear beautiful sunny morning.
Around Lionshead through Cpt CBD, windy like dinges.
Around the mountain past Kirstenbosch and it was raining.
That was the day I said to myself … die plek, dit gaan interessant wees.
Once drove back from PE to Cpt, it was coming down in buckets all the way from Plett to Grabouw.
As you come over Sir Lowries, it is a beautiful clear sunny day in Cpt.
Ugh absolutely true. Just came from the Netherlands and Germany. Max temperature was low 10’s and minimums were single digits. I packed fricken 20kgs of clothes - jackets, jerseys, denims, long-sleeved shirts.
Also knew that we were going to walk a nature reserve once, so threw in camping trousers and some tekkies as well.
What did I wear?
denims
shirts
one jacket
2 pair of shoes (the sneakers I travelled with and some fancier shoes).
That’s it. It rained and I wore the same.
Back-on-topic: my 24,000 BTU Samsung aircon still running well (and often these days - so bloody hot in PTA).
