Remote Thermostat for Ductless Minisplit in Cold Climate
Hi all,
Any experience with alternative remote thermostats for Mitsubishi mini-splits that sense temperature at that location and feed it back to the mini-split?
We’re in VT and from researching in preparation for our mini splits it seems that remotely sensing thermostats are recommended for better operational efficiency. Our (2) 1:1 Mitsubishi mini-splits were finally installed last month in our 1.5 floor garage/studio (wall mounted in the lower garage, floor mounted in the upstairs studio). The installers weren’t able to install the wired thermostats I asked for as they didn’t realize, and didn’t have the optional MAC interface with them which is required for the wall units to connect to the wired thermostat (I didn’t realize that either..). That interface component is going to add another $300+ per unit – not to mention the hefty price of the thermostats themselves.
The wireless Kumo Touch thermostat option requires extra components as well to work with the controller – putting us in the ballpark of about $600-$650 per unit to implement a remote thermostat with either option.
We want to be able to remotely sense the room temperature and send it back to the mini-split. We also want to be able to set back to 50F. Both the wired Mitsubishi and Kumo wireless thermostats can actually be set back to 40F (per the Mitsubishi Electric M and P Spring 2020 catalog). Are there any other less expensive, reliable 3rd party solutions out there?
Thanks in advance for any recommendations!
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Replies
No idea if this would work, but check out if your units and/or Tstats communicate on the the RedLink protocol. If so, the Redlink gateway will connect to up to 4 devices and allow you to control them remotely. One of those devices can be a remote sensor. I learned about them from another poster on this site. After doing some research to verify it will connect to my Misubishi controllers, I picked up a set on ebay.
The controller connects great to the Mitsu MRCH1 and it's receiver. My Redlink came with a remote sensor, and I have not yet been successful in connecting that, but it may just need more research. Affordable solution for rudimentary remote access.
I've been using Flair pucks for the past year for my 5 Mitsubishi mini-splits. They're a bit unreliable and buggy (there have been a few instances where the unit didn't shutoff based on a schedule - that just erodes my trust in their system). Flair also offers a 'Manual' mode which I really like - it's basically just an app version of the remote the mini-split comes with. There's no automation in 'Manual' mode (e.g. schedules, room sense, smart away), but you can still access most of your mini-splits via the app, which is great!
For my next upgrade, I'm looking into MHK2 + the wifi adapter, which will cost me $650+ per head, eek! Cielo seems promising and reasonable at about $120/head, Sensibo too.