The problem below didn't surprise me. I live in considered one of the hundreds of Nineteen Fifties Eichler houses within the Bay Area that was built with underfloor heating. It worked great, nevertheless it takes hours for the radiant heat to kick in. It also used natural gas, which will not be as environmentally friendly as electricity, so we disconnected the gas line and switched to electricity.
Heating a big room
Much of our downstairs area is one large open space, but there’s an 80″ tall partition between the living room and the kitchen/dining room area. The configuration leaves only 27 inches of space above the wall for heated air to travel from the living room side unit to the cooking and dining area. Another challenge is that the outward facing “wall” of both the living room and kitchen/dining room is largely made of single pane glass, which is not very good insulation.
When I turned up the heat, it got warm in the living room, but less so in the kitchen and dining room. I asked our contractor, Michael Calvey of Calvey Heating & Air, for advice and he suggested a few options. One of them, which would cost about $4,000, was to install a second unit in the dining area. However, as a cheaper alternative, he suggested installing a relatively large and powerful fan on top of the partial wall between rooms to blow air from the unit into the kitchen/dining area.
Solution
I realize these instructions may seem complicated, but with the help of ChatGPT I created a simple 6-step guide that you can find at larrysworld.com/HVAC.
Using a fan to redirect the warmth worked, especially after I purchased one Dreo 16″ 25DB Smart Air Circulation Fan ($99.99 at Amazon). It has nine speeds and the flexibility to pan as much as 120 degrees from each left to right and as much as down. This swivel, also called oscillation, proved to be very useful as it will probably distribute the air to each corner of the kitchen/dining room. Best of all, it comes with a smartphone app and is compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, allowing not only voice commands but in addition the flexibility to establish routines to regulate fan speed and other aspects depending on the temperature within the room . There can be a handheld remote control. The app and handheld remote control are particularly practical since the fan is inaccessible on this a part of the wall. I selected Dreo because I had previously purchased two Smart Dreo Heaters and was impressed with their email support after I had an issue connecting considered one of them to the WiFi. They responded quickly and replaced the device with one which was easy to attach. The same app controls each the warmers and the fan, which is a plus. My phone already has too many apps.
The temperature within the dining room will not be measured
Another problem is that the Mitsubishi thermostat is built into the device and subsequently only measures the temperature near the device location, but not within the dining and kitchen area, where it is usually several degrees cooler. Mitsubishi's overpriced solution is a $450 wireless thermostat, but I discovered a less expensive solution that ought to work with any heating or cooling system that has an infrared handheld remote control.
I tested two competing smart controllers. Both Sensibo and Cielo offer Wi-Fi-enabled devices that upgrade traditional air conditioners and warmth pumps by allowing handheld remote control via a smartphone app or voice assistants equivalent to Alexa and Google Assistant. They are also easier to make use of than the Mitsubishi distant and less expensive than the Mitsubishi Wi-Fi adapter. Both work well and each firms offer email support. The $100 Cielo Breeze Plus looks and functions like a daily thermostat with on-device and in-app controls that could be wall-mounted or placed on a table. Cielo also offers phone support, which to my delight responded to my call and helped me resolve a difficulty when a few of its features initially didn’t work properly on my system. Talking to a patient person is normally higher than going backwards and forwards with support via email.
Some HVAC systems don't even have Wi-Fi adapters, so devices like this are the one option to make them “smart.” Although these devices are an important option to control the device, they didn’t solve my problem on their very own as they need to be inside just a few meters and in line of sight of the split device to ensure that the infrared signal to achieve the device. So when it measures the temperature, it measures it on the split unit, which is normally several degrees higher than my dining and kitchen area.
But I had an Echo Dot which solved this problem. Amazon's fourth- and fifth-generation Echo Dot has a temperature sensor, as does Amazon's $50 air quality monitor. These devices can send signals to many smart devices via WiFi, including Cielo and Sensibo controllers. Next, I needed to create an Alexa routine that instructs Alexa to show the heater on when the temperature drops below a certain value and switch it off again when it exceeds that value. In the summer I’ll create a distinct routine to attain the alternative.
This solution worked. The Echo Dot works like a thermostat and the Sensibo or Cielo device finishes work by sending a command to the split unit. In addition to turning it on and off, it will probably even be used to regulate the temperature, fan speed, and the position of the “louvers,” or fins, that control airflow.
The Sensibo starts at $99 and the Cielo starts at $59. I purchased an Echo Dot on sale for $22, so this can be a pretty low cost solution. But should you don't must measure the temperature in one other room like me, you don't need the Echo. Either Sensibo or Cielo do the job alone.
There is one other solution for distant room monitoring. You can use a so-called IR blaster, which picks up the infrared signal from the Cielo or Sensibo and transmits it to the heating/cooling unit.
Simple instructions
I could also be a techie, but I don't have much patience for sophisticated coding or configuration. So if you desire to do this in your system, try the simplified instructions below Larrysworld.com/HVAC.
We wish you a warm and comfortable Christmas season.
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