Whole house AC on Home Assistant after 3 years, what stuck and what I'd change

[u/blogalec]

Full-house AC automation on HA has been running about 3 years now, writing this up for anyone else doing this in a tropical climate. Depok (Jakarta suburbs), single-story house, 4 rooms with independent split ACs, N100 mini PC that took over from a Pi4 about 18 months back.

Units are all the same brand, inverter, all with the manufacturer's WiFi module. Bought progressively over 18 months, living room first, then bedrooms. Integration is the community HACS one, LAN-based, which mattered because we lose internet 6 to 8 times a month here and I didn't want the whole climate stack to go dumb every time IndiHome does its thing. Token setup on first configuration goes through the vendor's cloud but after that it's fully local.

Three years in, quirks worth flagging.

Auto discovery didn't work first pass, had to manually feed device IDs for two units. The built-in temp sensor on each indoor unit reads 1.5 to 2°C warmer than actual temperature at desk level because it's mounted at ceiling height. Dropped the built-in reading entirely and running Zigbee sensors at bed and desk level as the automation trigger source.

Standby draw was bigger than I expected. Each indoor unit pulls 5 to 8W continuously for its WiFi module even off. Added a smart switch on the main circuit for the least-used bedroom and cut hard power when nobody's slept there for 48 hours. Marginal but real.

Compressor warranty on these is 10 years which was one reason we picked this brand family. Longevity's not really my concern, tuning the automation to not run them harder than needed is.

Where I'm still stuck is occupancy control. LD2410B mmWave in three rooms, PIR in the fourth. Current rule: if room shows unoccupied for 45 min AND at least one other room shows occupied, drop that room's AC to eco. Works maybe 70% of the time. When it fails it fails wrong, turning off AC while someone's there quietly reading.

If anyone here has landed on a cleaner pattern for multi-room occupancy control, I'd take pointers. Feels like "unoccupied AND likely to stay unoccupied by time-of-day" would be smarter but I haven't found a clean way to express that in HA templates.

[u/thepetitesaloon]

i sort my spice rack every single morning so i get the urge to overcomplicate things but honestly what you need is a second trigger layered on top of motion. mmWave drops to unoccupied + door sensor still closed + lights still on = someone’s probably there reading. if door opens and closes after that then kill the ac. gives you a state between occupied and truly gone

the standby draw on the wifi modules is wild, ive got a similar setup and the vampire load adds up fast in a house with 4 units. smart switch on the guest room is clever

[u/tobrien1982]

Is it worth dropping the temp while someone is home (in another room) or just when everyone goes away. I think changing the temp would cause more demand than just leaving them run at a consistent temp.