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A comment on Launch HN: Electric Air (YC W23) – Heat pump sold directly to homeowners. Parent comment

Re:Launch HN: Electric Air (YC W23) – Heat pump sold directl... by cmui on Monday March 13, 2023 @02:14PM (#35139964)
If people have a preferred way of integrating their devices, like home assistant, I'd want to make that possible for people to do with Electric Air.

Re the sizing question - this is a part of the site that needs improvement. 12kbtu is 1 ton. The 48kbtu system is a 4ton system, but rated at 5F, if you're in a more temperate climate, two of these will likely have plenty of capacity for you. It's also likely that your current system is oversized.

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Re:Launch HN: Electric Air (YC W23) – Heat pump sold directl... by StrangeATractor on Monday March 13, 2023 @04:27PM (#35142020)
As someone about to be in the market for something like this, propriety lockout is a complete deal breaker for me.

/2¢

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Re:Launch HN: Electric Air (YC W23) – Heat pump sold directl... by pkulak on Monday March 13, 2023 @05:09PM (#35142704)
The good news, at least, is that almost anything will work. You don't need full Matter support for Home Assistant folks to be happy. The bare-minimum, local REST api built on a Monday by an intern will do it. Someone will write the Python code to fully integrate it. I get that there would be some security concerns there, but you get my drift.
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Re:Launch HN: Electric Air (YC W23) – Heat pump sold directl... by briHass on Monday March 13, 2023 @09:12PM (#35145935)
If worried about security concerns, just provide a common port interface (RJ-45/RJ-11) on the unit with a simple, well-documented, serial-based protocol on RS485/RS232. You can sell an add-on device to bridge that to Ethernet/simple API, and easily replace/recall that inexpensive module if there are issues.

The hackers will do what they want to anyway, and they'll implement cool interfaces/HA plugins/controllers on RPis or ESP32s for free. Someone will get enterprising and package a pre-built/programmed ESP32 unit that makes it plug-and-play for nerdy, but less capable users, and your company can avoid any liability from users using an 'unsupported' add-on.

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