<div dir="ltr"><div>Last time we bought a new (gas) water heater, we got lucky. We were dumping the Reliance Electric heater for a variety of reasons that I can't speak on a public forum.. Jean kept an eye on the buy/sell pages online, and as it happened there was a contractor who had installed a new heater into a house, but the home owners wanted a different model/size/whatever, so we bought it from him cheap. Called Waterloo Appliances to get it installed and even with the pro installation, we still came out ahead.</div><div><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, 2 Mar 2026 at 18:21, Anton Avramov via kwlug-disc <<a href="mailto:kwlug-disc@kwlug.org">kwlug-disc@kwlug.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">Hi, <br>
<br>
We went through this some time back when I felt the old furnace is end<br>
of life and we also wanted to take advantage of the rebates. <br>
<br>
We eventually settled on Daikin Heat Pump from Able Air and it was sold<br>
to us by the Rep by: <br>
- The only furnace that is actually made for cold climate where as<br>
others are just a combination the heat pump outside, a furnace and<br>
control boards sometimes from different brands and only with 2-3 modes<br>
of operation. <br>
- The variable motor designed for continuous operation with a Daikin<br>
controller that actually utilize the full 32 speeds of the motor (I<br>
think it was 32 speeds). <br>
<br>
I've never actually verified those, but the Rep sounded convincing so<br>
take those with a grain of salt. <br>
<br>
Yes, there is no direct API to the Thermostat but the cloud integration<br>
for Home Assistant works and I had no problems with it. <br>
<br>
Now my specific unit did had some problems and they had to replace the<br>
control boards of the Heat Pump outside a couple of times and even had<br>
a representative of Daikin come and investigate what was the problem,<br>
but eventually they figure it out. The support was good. <br>
The good thing was that when it detected it has a problem with the Heat<br>
pump it just switched to gas and we are never left in the cold.<br>
<br>
Now once or twice a year the thermostat detects there may be a problem<br>
with the heat pump and I should contact support, but the last time just<br>
restarting the units clear the error. <br>
They suggested it might be some surges on the power grid and I should<br>
get a Surge Protection. Conveniently Able Air owner's brother had an<br>
electrical service and they did send me a quote for that, but I ended<br>
up using my own electrician and added a surge protection for the hole<br>
house. <br>
<br>
He had also installed Heat Pump recently and said the installer<br>
provided the purge protection as part of the installation, so you might<br>
check with your installer about that in advance. They might throw it<br>
for free. <br>
<br>
I'm not sure what more can I say. <br>
I don't actually control the heat pump with home assistant because I<br>
use it's build in schedule. In my Daikin thermostat you can have 4<br>
diffident schedules for each day of the week.<br>
Since we believe it's better to sleep in a little lower temperature I<br>
set the temp to 19C in 23h and then gradually increase it to 20.5 in 4h<br>
21.5 in 5 and 22 in 6h. <br>
I do this because the heat pump works much slower that the furnace and<br>
it takes time to build the temperature back up. If the temp diff is too<br>
big and the thermostat detects it can bring the temperature back up<br>
quick enough it would automatically use the gas furnace as needed. <br>
<br>
If you have any questions I'll be happy to answer them if I can. <br>
Here is a snapshot of the sensors in home assistant: <br>
<br>
<br>
Main Room<br>
-3 °C<br>
-3 °C / -3 °C<br>
Main Room Air Handler Critical Fault Code<br>
Unknown<br>
Main Room Air Handler Minor Fault Code<br>
Unknown<br>
Main Room EEV Coil Critical Fault Code<br>
0<br>
Main Room EEV Coil Minor Fault Code<br>
0<br>
Main Room Indoor cooling actual<br>
0.0%<br>
Main Room Indoor cooling demand<br>
0.0%<br>
Main Room Indoor dehumidifier demand<br>
0.0%<br>
Main Room Indoor fan actual<br>
56.5%<br>
Main Room Indoor fan demand<br>
56.5%<br>
Main Room Indoor furnace actual<br>
0.0%<br>
Main Room Indoor furnace blower airflow<br>
791 ft³/min<br>
Main Room Indoor Furnace Critical Fault Code<br>
0<br>
Main Room Indoor furnace demand<br>
0.0%<br>
Main Room Indoor Furnace Minor Fault Code<br>
0<br>
Main Room Indoor humidifier demand<br>
0.0%<br>
Main Room Indoor humidity<br>
41%<br>
Main Room Indoor power<br>
1,723 W<br>
Main Room Indoor temperature<br>
21.9 °C<br>
Main Room Outdoor air temperature<br>
-4.5 °C<br>
Main Room Outdoor aqi<br>
28<br>
Main Room Outdoor cooling demand<br>
0.0%<br>
Main Room Outdoor Critical Fault Code<br>
0<br>
Main Room Outdoor fan demand<br>
56.0%<br>
Main Room Outdoor frequency in percent<br>
43.0%<br>
Main Room Outdoor heat pump demand<br>
43.0%<br>
Main Room Outdoor humidity<br>
41%<br>
Main Room Outdoor Minor Fault Code<br>
0<br>
Main Room Outdoor ozone<br>
163 \u03bcg/m³<br>
Main Room Outdoor pm1<br>
5 \u03bcg/m³<br>
Main Room Outdoor power<br>
1,360 W<br>
Main Room Outdoor temperature<br>
-3.0 °C<br>
Main Room Thermostat Critical Fault Code<br>
0<br>
Main Room Thermostat Minor Fault Code<br>
0<br>
<br>
Best Regards<br>
<br>
On Mon, 2026-03-02 at 12:32 -0500, Chris Irwin via kwlug-disc wrote:<br>
> After the OT discussion on Water Heaters, I realized the Smart Home <br>
> people in this group might know more about furnaces and heat pumps<br>
> than <br>
> me.<br>
> <br>
> My furnace died. I've been working on getting it replaced, but it's<br>
> more <br>
> work than you'd expect if you have any questions during the process.<br>
> I <br>
> could sign the paperwork for a basic furnace and a/c and have it <br>
> installed next day. But I was curious about heat pumps, and these <br>
> questions typically take a day to answer, and then trigger more <br>
> questions. It's been *a week* of back and forth with two different <br>
> companies about this.<br>
> <br>
> I was originally quoted for a "Rheem" heat pump + furnace that was <br>
> comparable in cost to a regular A/C + furnace. Seemed like a simple <br>
> decision. However, after doing my own research, I realized it wasn't<br>
> a <br>
> "cold-climate" heat pump, and it's effective heat output at cold <br>
> temperatures is significantly diminished (even if the efficency of<br>
> said <br>
> heat is good, there just isn't very much heat). It would probably<br>
> help <br>
> in spring/fall, but not for most of the winter.<br>
> <br>
> Upon asking about this, they helpfully confirmed the above, and gave<br>
> a <br>
> quote on "Gree" cold-climate rated heat pump, which is (as expected)<br>
> a <br>
> bit more money, but initially appears significantly better in the<br>
> cold <br>
> (I haven't done my full research on it yet, I just got this quote<br>
> this <br>
> morning). Gree appears to be a made in China affair.<br>
> <br>
> One thing that I like is that this solution uses a normal Ecobee,<br>
> which <br>
> I'm already familiar with, and I know it integrates nicely with Home <br>
> Assistant using a *local* api (apple homekit -- no apple devices <br>
> required)<br>
> <br>
> I've been quoted by a second company for a "Daikin" solution, which<br>
> is <br>
> (despite the Japanese branding) apparently made in USA (which isn't a<br>
> selling feature ATM, other than to say parts are likely easier to<br>
> get). <br>
> This appears to actually be a pretty good unit efficiency-wise,<br>
> however <br>
> they require use of their own proprietary themostat. Apparently it<br>
> does <br>
> a data connection to the furnace, rather than the traditional wires a<br>
> "normal" thermostat would use. Apparently that method is more<br>
> efficient <br>
> (instead of 2/3 stages, it's fully variable speed, etc.). <br>
> <br>
> But there's no local API for the Daikin. There is a Cloud API, but<br>
> I'm <br>
> not sure about it's capabilities, or logevity, though it does appear<br>
> to <br>
> be available in Home Assistant.<br>
> <br>
> (There's also a Daikin thermostat compatability board that costs<br>
> extra, <br>
> would need to be installed in the furnace, and would probably<br>
> invaidate <br>
> some of my support -- and possibly limit some of the efficiency<br>
> gains. <br>
> It also appears to be a source of frustration online)<br>
> <br>
> The home assistant integration is somewhat important to me, partly<br>
> from <br>
> a data-logging POV, but also as none of these solutions implement <br>
> TOU-rate awareness on their own.<br>
> <br>
> So my questions:<br>
> <br>
> 1. Anybody heard of "Gree" or "Daikin"?<br>
> <br>
> 2. Anybody used Daikin's thermostat? Or their Home Assistant <br>
> integration?<br>
> <br>
> 3. Anybody know anything special I should know? The problem is I<br>
> didn't <br>
> do any research in advance of my furnace kicking the bucket, and I<br>
> can't <br>
> help but feel like I'm being rushed into a purchase. Which I am, but<br>
> I'd <br>
> like to make a decently educated purchase decision.<br>
> <br>
> And to be clear, I'm not sure I'll ever actually recoup any<br>
> signficant <br>
> savings from the heat pump. I've done a fair amount of calulation on<br>
> a <br>
> spreadsheet to project costs (which I'll share when I'm happy with<br>
> it), <br>
> but it's not directly applicable to the real world (unless we can<br>
> assume <br>
> a static temperature for a whole month). My main goal is to reduce<br>
> gas <br>
> usage where possible, but without going broke to do that.<br>
> <br>
> <br>
<br>
<br>
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</blockquote></div>