Being somewhat of a nerd when it comes to renewable energy, I was very keen to ensure that our newly installed heat pump not only kept us warm but also ran as efficiently and effortlessly as possible.
For these reasons, when we had our Daikin EDLA08 8kW monobloc air source heat pump installed, I was eager to have a smart controller. I believed it would further enhance the efficiency of the heat pump, without the fuss or faff.
At the time of installation, the Homely team informed me they were working on the integration for my pump, but that it would take a few months before a suitable controller became available.
In November 2023, our installer arrived with a package consisting of the Homely controller, a ‘node’ (a small rectangular case containing a temperature probe, battery, and other sensing electronics) that communicates with the controller via Zigbee, various connectors, two 13-amp plug-type PSUs for powering the system, a terminating resistor for the network connection, and a D.Comm unit for communicating between Homely and Daikin.
The installation was straightforward for the installer, involving two connections (P1 and P2) into the back of the Daikin MMI controller panel and some wiring into the D.Comm unit. The terminating resistor was fitted, and configuring the myriad of dip switches on the D.Comm completed the setup.
Homely required the Daikin MMI controls to be reset to a default state before powering up Homely and allowing it to ‘do its thing.’ During this time, the unit communicates with the heat pump and sets a range of parameters as a starting point. This setup takes about 20 minutes, after which Homely begins monitoring the system and communicating with the node, which is recommended to be placed in a living or relaxing area.
The Homely smart controller then tweaks the heat pump system’s parameters to optimise performance and continues to ‘learn’ the system for a week or more. It improves factors like flow and return temperatures, the time it takes for the room to warm or cool, and it even accounts for weather forecasts, air temperature changes, and solar gain.
Of course, there’s an app (available for iOS and Android via WiFi and internet), allowing users to set up their heating and hot water schedules for individual days. The app also accommodates Time of Use (TOU) tariffs, letting Homely calculate the best times to run the pump to take advantage of lower electricity rates. You can configure preferences for temperature stability, allowing Homely to adjust the system to maximise efficiency and minimise overall energy bills. It’s like micro-managing your heat pump’s operation without having to do so manually.
My Homely smart controller has been in use for a year now and has worked extremely well. There were a few minor teething problems in the early days (I believe mine was the first Daikin pump of this type with a secondary pump fitted with a Homely controller), but the Homely Technical Support team were friendly, helpful, and quick to resolve all the issues I raised.
The performance of the heat pump has been excellent, providing all the warmth we need, with Homely at the helm, ensuring this comfort is delivered economically.
Our registered installer has access to EverGreen Energy’s Connect app, which allows them to monitor the system’s performance parameters. Unfortunately, this app isn’t available to end users unless they are registered installers with EverGreen Energy, who produce the Homely Smart Controller. I’m hopeful this will change, allowing more savvy users to access and monitor their system’s performance.
Overall, I’m confident leaving Homely to do its job, but I can’t help checking the app’s controls occasionally—just like I enjoy keeping an eye on my solar PV production!
Hi Toodles, only had my Homely a few days, could you tell me how to alter the user parameters in the Homely, eg if you want to change electticity tariff etc
@Potatoman Open app, select ‘more’ at bottom right, select Update Account Details, and enter your email and password and press enter, you can then choose between Account Security, Update your Tariff, Change your Homely Mode, select and continue. Regards, Toodles.
@Toodles Thats great ,thanks
Shame that Homely isn’t available for Nibe.
@clive, I’m surprised too, but they are trying to roll it out on more and more brands, so it may just be a matter of time. Homely will be on our podcast this Friday, so I’ll ask about NIBE plans.
@Mars Considering the performance of Vaillant units on HeatPumpMonitor.org, I’d have thought Homely should be looking to support those, too.
One thing that I would like to know is whether Homely can control the way that LWT changes when the heat pump starts up. Does it just tell the ASHP that the target LWT is ‘X’ and leave the ASHP to achieve that value? Or does it control the compressor speed (directly or indirectly) so that the target LWT is achieved in the most efficient way. For example, I have noticed that on some days, when the instantaneous COP settles to around 4.5 once in a steady state, the start up period can vary considerably. On some days, the COP will drop down below 2.0 before recovering and on other days it won’t go below 4.0. I have found that running it in quiet mode for the first 20 minutes and then switching to normal mode makes the start up period much more efficient. I am considering having Homely installed, but would like it to make my start ups more efficient. This is because I use setbacks during the day and at night.
Having experimented with different target LWTs, I believe that it would be possible to automate more efficient start ups using modbus. I suspect that Homely could do this much better than I could, but I am not sure if they do it routinely or would agree to do it if not. Perhaps you could ask them?
@Mike H Don’t know if this is of any help to you mike-h, I have a Daikin 8kW controlled by Homely and I am attaching a graph from a start-up and run just after 02:00 this morning (28th Oct.) It is fairly mild so not representative of a mid-winter night but may give you an idea of start-up behaviour.
I find that, upon a start-up, the compressor runs on very low current for several or more minutes and gradually ramps up so that the pump might be drawing 0.9 – 1.5 kW after approx. 10 minutes then gradually drops back to perhaps 0.5 – 0.6 kW.
All this may not be of much help – but I live in hope and look forward to the Q&A! Regards, Toodes.
@IanMK13, Vaillant and Mitsubishi are two obvious examples of manufacturers who provide add-on modules for people wanting RS485/modbus connectivity. Since Homely is designed around a local wired connection – I believe RS485 – that would mean an extra complication during the installation. Purely a guess on my part but it wouldn’t surprise me if Homely were concentrating on other manufacturers that are easier to service and leaving Vaillant and Mitsi for the moment. I could be wrong, of course, but I wouldn’t blame them….
@Majordennisbloodnok Another question for the Q&A session perhaps @Mars ? Toodles.
I need to take notes… loads of questions materialising here. 😀
@Mars And here’s another one then Mars! Might Homely consider making the Dashboard available as part of the app please? The information it provides is very helpful and is enabling users to make intelligent decisions about their heating regimes and their DHW implementation and planning (as starkers has mentioned). On top of all the useful functions, it provides good material for improving bragging rights and will enable users of Homely smart controls to bore all their friends with the advantages!😉. Regards, Toodles.
Wholeheartedly agree! While I get the point that Homely might not want to expose customers to too much information and their secret sauce takes care of the weather compensation, it still leaves a good few open questions for people who want to further optimise. Maybe hide it under an ‘advanced info’ tab or something to keep up the ‘set and forget’ mindset for the majority of users.
Hello Toodles,
I am from the Netherlands and have been reading your messages about the Homely for some time. This is because I have a Midea heat pump. Is it also possible for me to buy a Homely? I hope you can help me. Greetings Frits
Welcome to the forums @Frits. Yes, Homely supports Midea, but I don’t know if they sell to The Netherlands. I’ll find out.
@Mars If you would like to do that for me, I would be very happy.
I have already tried to contact Homely by email, but they have not yet responded.
@Frits, I spoke with Homely, and it’s not available in the Netherlands just yet. If you’re trying to reach them, the best email to use is team@homelyenergy.com – that’s the address they’ve recommended for contact.
Thanks for the effort. I will send an email to them and wait for their response. Greetings
Hello, Unfortunately, they haven’t answered my email yet. I hope they continue to do this. You say that the Homely is not yet available in the Netherlands, that is correct, but they could still send 1 set. greetings
Hello, Unfortunately, they haven’t answered my email yet. I hope they continue to do this. You say that the Homely is not yet available in the Netherlands, that is correct, but they could still send 1 set. greetings
Please bear in mind, @Frits, that @Toodles doesn’t work for Homely; he’s just built up a good relationship with them.
Welcome to the forum, btw.
@Majordennisbloodnok Thank you. I already had that idea.
I have/had a Homely hub installed with my ASHP worse thing I’ve ever encountered TBH only supports a single zone (and they may/may not be looking at 2 zones sometime in the future) unless of course you want someone else to control your heating/hot water!
having listened in to a conversation between my installer and Homely it was obvious that the “customer" (me) was low priority now looking for a control system that actually does what I want.
Honest opinion not worth it right now.
how can I find an installer? I can’t see any register of them, has anyone got experiences of Homely and Grant Aerona ASHPs
We’ve had our heat pump (EBAC) since October, with a few struggles now got a working system, but really struggled with the lack of data available. The system came with Homely and we don’t have any of alternative controllers. Our issue isn’t with homely, but more with the lack of data available to us. We’ve tried to get access via our installer, manufacturer and homely but we’re not making any progress. We’ve spoken to MCS, energy ombudsman, local MP , NAPIT and tried to question GDPR rules but not having any success. Our relationship with the installer isn’t effective, once installed he’s not interested. We are running out of any options and the data could really help us to optimise our system. At the moment we are trying to trick the system to run slow and steady by guess work and are struggling to get a good balance of warm enough when we want it but not overheating in the middle of the night when the electric is cheaper. We can’t even see the COP we are getting so any ideas on how we might persuade Homely to give us data would be great.
@Simon and Zoe Bit busy as I am expecting a surveyor (triple glazing) any moment but have you access to the Homely Dashboard? Regards, Toodles.
@Toodles no, unfortunately we don’t have access to the dashboard and would love it. We have been repeatedly asking Homely’s and our installer for this but other than a single screen shot we’ve not had anything.
@Simon and Zoe You didn’t hear this from me but…
If you go onto their website and browse to the details about being an installer, you will find it is possible to carry out the on-line training they offer, register as an installer then you can gain access to the Dashboard facility. Toodles.
@Toodles whilst I agree with toodles the actions he described would allow you to register as an installer then you can gain access to the Dashboard facility, I dont think it will allow you access to your heat pump dashbord as this will be email/pass word protected,set up by your installer, unless you know it.
Sorry for the delay in replying. We are now able to access my data as an installer. I got a little worried part way through but all up and running now. The dashboard is perfect and not sure why this can’t be made available. Thanks for the help and support.
Hello Simon and Zoe. I also have a homely that was installed and is basically not fit for purpose (single zone for 400sqm house with a mix of UFH downstairs and radiators upstairs). So I need to see the data and provide it to some heat specialists so they can advise on what remedial works I need to fix the problems with my system.
I’ve also been refused data by Homely and don’t have access to the dashboard. Please could you advise the steps you took to get access to the dashboard?
Hi there, does it still work?
Been constant issues and failures on my elderly mother’s Homely Daikin instal that was done as part of Ivie EnergySure trial, and neither Homely, GetTraining nor Ivie seem interested in either fixing what they done, or removing it.
Terrible. Appalling way to leave a vulnerable customer.
Next stop legal action…
Sorry to hear that @Bruce. Sadly I’ve heard from multiple sources Homely’s support is getting worse. Have you written to all parties concerned? Let me know if you need any assistance escalating complaints.
Hi Toodles
Loving what mine does too, it exceeds my expectations for economy and it keeps tight control in a room that has a large but variable solar gain. But I have one niggle that I hope you may be able to assist with please.
I have set a schedule, on the smart (not +) function of 06.00-22.00 of 17C, then back it off to 15C overnight. However, it refuses to even attempt to back off to my overnight set point at all, it just maintains 17.3(+0.2)C for 24 hrs a day.
I know there is a night time setback function in the smart+ mode but I don’t want to pay a subscription as that is all I’d be using it for.
Have you found a way to get it to cool off overnight without smart+ please, as I’m finding it oppressively warm as is and I’d rather not keep it at 15C all day as the alternative? I suppose I could crank the TRVs down in the bedrooms, but I was trying to keep everything open loop having gone to the trouble of a major refit to minimise flow restrictions.
Thanks in advance for both the helpful article and any guidance provided. Perhaps the nature of it being a minimum set point and the ML targeting steady state control means that I will have to pay my £25.
@Papahuhu I believe that the Homely algorythms need improvement; I have had many conversations with the techies about this and I gather that the app will endeavour to maintane the temperature so that it meets the highest setting over the next day or two if in the Smart+ or Smart mode. I am using the Standard mode as this does seem to allow my actual settings to be obeyed; I am currently using slightly different temperature settings during any 24 hours and Homely follows this regime (but only if set to ‘Standard’ mode.) Perhaps give that a try.
Only today, I was musing about writing to their techies about this ‘feature’ as I feel the programmers are missing something and should be less obsessive about keeping the highest setting as a priority! Regards, Toodles.
@Toodles
Thank you kindly for the suggestion, I will try, but yes that’s a significant design flaw.
It’s not as if I can turn the heat pump completely off at night, we have antifreeze valves and I don’t want them dumping the heating fluid every time we have a cloudless night sky.
@Papahuhu Doesn’t your heat pump periodically circulate between the house and the outside unit when the outside temp drops?
@HowardP99
If you mean running the circulation pump without running the compressor, if it does I’ve never noticed it doing so. Does it use the return flow temp or the external unit temp as the reference value?
Is this circulation feature or parameter (which make sense to me to prevent freezing) a setting I’d find in the heat pump control unit or is it driven by the homely interface please?
thank you
@Papahuhu I have a Samsung Gen7 HP and this has an automatic frost protection system that will simply circulate the water if it detects a frost risk whilst not active. I don’t run Homely but would expect the frost protection would still run even if I did have Homely.
@HowardP99
Thank you. Mine is the older Gen 6, but I will have a look at the operation manual to see if it has the same or similar function. But so far, I can’t get the damned thing to stop heating at night and cooking me! My installer stopped all heat pump operations about 3 weeks after my install, whilst I was very happy with the design and install the support is no longer available and I’m working through with them how to transfer their residual customer liabilities.
@Papahuhu I know this tread is about the Homely controller but you might also try dropping an email to either Henri Casteleyn or Alex Nelson at Havenwise. They support Samsung HPs and will provide a control system that will get your heat pump running using a very slick third-party thermostat. For Samsung systems they supply the Shelly wifi thermostat and it provides unbelievably precise temperature control (I am getting constant temperatures to within 0.1°C and no hysteresis. Unbelievable. I believe the Havenwise approach is similar to what Homely does (but I am no expert here) but there is no wiring or circuit modifications with Havenwise. They charge £50/year and have provided me with fantastic 1:1 support. Their system will “learn" how your house responds during teh first few days and then tailor the control accordingly. I’ve been with them for about 9 months. The Havenwise approach is effectively to minimise the flow temperature and modulate the frequency of the compressor aiming to achieve the lowest possible energy consumption as well as minimising short-cycling during the less cold periods. You may want to check that your Gen6 can be modulated. The Gen7 can. Using the minimum flow temperature approach does take some getting used to, as Henri and Alex will probably testify! Unless it is very cold outside or you are asking for a rapid rise in temperature then the radiators will feel pretty cool. The system looks to achieve the set point temperature 24 hours per day. You can have as many program steps as you want, and each day can be different, but if the system sees a conflict in terms of a lower future temperature that is inconsistent with the current programmed set point temperature such that the algorithm knows the house will not cool down sufficiently in time, then it will limit the current temperature so as to avoid this future conflict. My preference would be to treat the cooling aspect as a passive request rather than a “hard demand" but the overall approach is to avoid large temperature swings and so ensure that the active heating flow temperature is as low as possible. Effectively, this is what the Samsung WaterLaw should have been all along rather than just setting the flow temperature based on the outside air temperature and using a pretty useless thermostat built into the hard-wired and ugly controller which has no place in a living room setting. Given the low cost of the Havenwise installation I can’t see what possible reason there is not to try it given your apparent situation. All you have to do is get the Shelly onto you wifi network and make a few Field Setting Value changes on the controller. Reasonably simple to do.
@Toodles
I don’t know if you noticed it but there has been a very recent addition to the section where you can add or edit the heating schedule. Four choices of schedules, a “max savings” an “ultimate comfort” and a “ balanced and buget” in addition to the smart+. I don’t know if they really change the heating algorithms, but I do see that the first 3 remain on the “smart” setting, rather than “standard”. I’m trying the max savings one as it matched my 17C set point anyway, I will let you know if it helps, the cynic in me suspects it won’t.
@Papahuhu Oh! Thank you, I hadn’t spotted that! Possibly missed it as it is included under the ‘Smart+’ heading rather than a separate section of its own! Quick look but have not tried any changes yet, on the face of it, it looks as though the options are presets they have chosen but I would need to edit or alter the settings for my requirements if that is possible. Regards and Thanks, Toodles.
As you were I think, the options appear to be just some presets and I don’t think they are linked in any way to the logic algorithms, thus the over-temperature tendencies are unlikely to be any more tamed than my old schedule provided. I may be wrong of course – but I have reverted to my old schedule for now. Regards, Toodles.
One thing though, they have responded to my request for the Homely app to work in landscape mode on the iPad – though the text is still on the small side for me to manage😉 (Did I mention, I’m 78 today?😆) Toodles.
@Toodles
I can’t get the installer app to recognise the serial number of my controller when on an iPad. I was wondering if it was because the installer has already registered my unit on their list of installations and it doesn’t allow more than 1 registration, or whether it was because I was doing it on an iPad. Have you ever successfully accessed the dashboard for your system please?
(I tried the preset last night and it didn’t ramp the heat pump down at night), in fact I didn’t notice any difference at all. I’m going to buy a cheap temperature logger and try to locate the warmest spot and move the node there. I suspect my bedroom is several degrees warmer than the current node location, but I want to be sure.
I used to work in Switzerland about 20 years ago and the house had a heat pump from the previous owner, I don’t remember ever having any niggles with that system. It just used to run all year round in the background, never missed a beat.
@Papahuhu I have the Homely Connect app on my iPad and it works; the ‘connect’ name is the new moniker for the installer app. So I now have the Homely controller app and the installer (now Connect) app working. I did gain access to the installer app via their website by becoming ‘an installer’ using my existing credentials. Later I was invited to download and move over to the Connect app via one of their email-shots to installers. Regards, Toodles.
I decided to give the ‘Smart’ mode another try to see if anything has changed with the over-heating problem. I have now reverted to ‘Standard’ again as it would appear not to have changed or improved for my set-up but still pushes the temperature a degree or more above my setting. I feel an email to Homely coming on… Toodles.
@Toodles
When I go on the web portal after I had registered as an installer this is all I get. No matter what search terms I use it never issues any results at all.
I had the same problem with the homely installer app, it wouldn’t recognise my homely serial number.
@Papahuhu Sounds as though you need to speak to your installer, failing that being possible, perhaps speak with Homely as they can presumably ensure your serial number goes on the database. Regards, Toodles.