[kwlug-disc] (Off Topic) Furnaces and Heat Pumps

[Chris Irwin]

After the OT discussion on Water Heaters, I realized the Smart Home 
people in this group might know more about furnaces and heat pumps than 
me.

My furnace died. I've been working on getting it replaced, but it's more 
work than you'd expect if you have any questions during the process. I 
could sign the paperwork for a basic furnace and a/c and have it 
installed next day. But I was curious about heat pumps, and these 
questions typically take a day to answer, and then trigger more 
questions. It's been *a week* of back and forth with two different 
companies about this.

I was originally quoted for a "Rheem" heat pump + furnace that was 
comparable in cost to a regular A/C + furnace. Seemed like a simple 
decision. However, after doing my own research, I realized it wasn't a 
"cold-climate" heat pump, and it's effective heat output at cold 
temperatures is significantly diminished (even if the efficency of said 
heat is good, there just isn't very much heat). It would probably help 
in spring/fall, but not for most of the winter.

Upon asking about this, they helpfully confirmed the above, and gave a 
quote on "Gree" cold-climate rated heat pump, which is (as expected) a 
bit more money, but initially appears significantly better in the cold 
(I haven't done my full research on it yet, I just got this quote this 
morning). Gree appears to be a made in China affair.

One thing that I like is that this solution uses a normal Ecobee, which 
I'm already familiar with, and I know it integrates nicely with Home 
Assistant using a *local* api (apple homekit -- no apple devices 
required)

I've been quoted by a second company for a "Daikin" solution, which is 
(despite the Japanese branding) apparently made in USA (which isn't a 
selling feature ATM, other than to say parts are likely easier to get). 
This appears to actually be a pretty good unit efficiency-wise, however 
they require use of their own proprietary themostat. Apparently it does 
a data connection to the furnace, rather than the traditional wires a 
"normal" thermostat would use. Apparently that method is more efficient 
(instead of 2/3 stages, it's fully variable speed, etc.). 

But there's no local API for the Daikin. There is a Cloud API, but I'm 
not sure about it's capabilities, or logevity, though it does appear to 
be available in Home Assistant.

(There's also a Daikin thermostat compatability board that costs extra, 
would need to be installed in the furnace, and would probably invaidate 
some of my support -- and possibly limit some of the efficiency gains. 
It also appears to be a source of frustration online)

The home assistant integration is somewhat important to me, partly from 
a data-logging POV, but also as none of these solutions implement 
TOU-rate awareness on their own.

So my questions:

1. Anybody heard of "Gree" or "Daikin"?

2. Anybody used Daikin's thermostat? Or their Home Assistant 
integration?

3. Anybody know anything special I should know? The problem is I didn't 
do any research in advance of my furnace kicking the bucket, and I can't 
help but feel like I'm being rushed into a purchase. Which I am, but I'd 
like to make a decently educated purchase decision.

And to be clear, I'm not sure I'll ever actually recoup any signficant 
savings from the heat pump. I've done a fair amount of calulation on a 
spreadsheet to project costs (which I'll share when I'm happy with it), 
but it's not directly applicable to the real world (unless we can assume 
a static temperature for a whole month). My main goal is to reduce gas 
usage where possible, but without going broke to do that.


-- 
Chris Irwin

email:   chris at chrisirwin.ca
   web: https://chrisirwin.ca