How does Flair control "modes" on my multi-zone mini split unit?
Answered
Hi,
I have a question about operating modes.
We operate a bed and breakfast in an old, renovated home. I just had multi-zone mini-split ductless heat pumps installed. I like the Flair for its apparently very simple functionality. I've bought one as a test but have not yet installed it.
I have two bedroom rooms that each have an indoor unit that are connected to the same outdoor unit (Mitsubishi). A 2 to 1 configuration. Our goal is to make it very easy for a guest to choose a temperature and have the room eventually reach that temp. I don't want the guest to have to have to learn to put the unit in the heating or cooling mode - just set a temp and relax. Also, we need for the system to respond appropriately if one guest asks for a cold temp in one room and a guest in the other room asks for a warmer temp.
I realized that the multi-zone units cannot cool and heat at the same time (installed a multi-zone system for cost reasons instead of single zone). My expectation was that the system would be smart enough to reach the setpoint in one room, and then switch modes and pursue the setpoint in the other room. I know that the guest may need to be patient.
My question - When I select a temperature using the Flair Puck, does the Flair tell the unit to go into either "heat" or "cool" mode, or does it tell the unit to go into "Auto" mode? After installation, I see that the manual says to not put these units in "auto" mode when connected to a multi-zone system. That seems bad. But I'm wondering if the Flair will just be smart enough to tell one unit to, for example, cool one room to 65 when a guest asks for it, and the heat the other room to 75 when the guest in the other room asks for it (yes, we have guests that want wildly different temps) after the first room reaches 65.
You're probably saying that we should have installed single zone systems. And you're right. But we didn't. I'm new to ductless mini-splits. Lesson learned.
Thank you,
Brian
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Official comment
Hi Brian,
Great questions and definitely something that can be setup in a few different results - the differences on the Flair side are subtle but important!
We have a few customers that are inn keepers/run bed and breakfast outfits and there is a recommended suggestion. I'll run through a few of the more general suggestions in case other people find themselves here and then address your set up specifically.
Ideal Bed and Breakfast / Inns
From what we have seen, at a single Inn, as you mentioned, its not uncommon for one guest to want to heat a room and another to want to cool. What we generally recommend is that each minisplit is single zone (one outdoor unit per indoor unit) and then each room is set up as a separate home in the flair App. The main reason is that the 'Mode', at least as of today, is set on a home level. This allows for completely independent control right from the Puck as well as the ability for guests to control their room from their phone as an added benefit!
Your Specific Scenario
As you mentioned, this is a bit trickier if you have a multizone minisplit (1 outdoor unit with multiple indoor units). The first thing I'd recommend is in this case, only creating a single home since we want these to be in the same mode. In terms of what the flair app does, I checked with engineering and they said that if you put the Flair Heat/Cool Mode to auto, Flair will set the indoor units to heat or cool specifically rather than auto however this is under the assumption that they are not multizone so unfortunately, you could end up with heat on one indoor and unit and cool on another which wont work of course. Unfortunately, in this case they best outcome would be to have the system in heat only or cool only mode. This is a compromise for your guests but will avoid sending heat to one unit and cool on another. Hope that answers your question and feel free to shoot us a note if you have any other questions!Comment actions
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