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by deadmutex 965 days ago
> My air conditioner just died, would be great if a matter compatible one became available.

What would you want the API to look like here?

I would be very conservative about opening up an API if I was a manufacturer. The reason being that there may be misuses by amateur coders that may increase wear on the product, and leading to increase in warranty claims.

I, as a manufacturer, would much rather prefer customers buy something like a Nest/Ecobee, etc. and manage that. Nest (and likely Ecobee) likely have smarts to not turn the AC on/off 30 times within 10 minutes, etc. Also, you benefit from other algorithms like "Time-to-Temp" (Nest), malfunctioning equipment alerts (Nest), etc. If you're in the US, many electricity utilities will give you a discount if you buy a smart thermostat, and then you can further gain $$ by enrolling in demand-response programs.

1 comments

I want to be able to turn it on/off and set the temperature from Homekit. I can't imagine any fancy automation that would matter beyond that.

Saving money on this is not a priority for me. Ecobee already works with Homekit, I would gladly buy an ecobee AC that did the same.