Multi room ducted Air Con controllers

I was wondering if anyone has a ducted Air Conditioning system that, as well as the wall controller in the lounge or landing, had an additional remote for separate bedrooms. The only one's I've seen up to now require the remote to be pointed at wall controller which defeats the object as you'd still have to get out of bed. I've also looked at WiFi which could work but the internet is not available in the property.

The problem with ducted systems is that the air is cooled, or heated, by a central compressor unit and distributed around the property. Any controls are simply instructing the one compressor unit what temperature to use.
If you had two bedrooms, each with remote or wired controls then a change made in one bedroom affects the other bedroom (and the whole of the house), so different people could be unwittingly ‘fighting’ against each other by keep changing the settings.
Also, if you have a thermostat in a hallway and have the bedroom door closed then the thermostat doesn’t know what is happening to the temperature in that bedroom. If your body heat and whatever antics you get up to behind the closed bedroom door causes it to get hot and steamy in there, the thermostat in the hallway will be unaffected by this.

Some ducted systems allow the ducts to be opened and closed - either manually or automatically - to change the amount of air circulated to each room to be altered, but once again if there’s isn’t a thermostat in each room then proper meaningful climate control isn’t possible.

Some Wi-Fi controlled aircon units may work with a local Wi-Fi setup that isn’t connected to the internet. This would just need a router that both the controller and the aircon unit are able to connect to, to give a private Wi-Fi setup. That might help the situation to a degree, but wouldn’t overcome all of the problems associated with the thermostat being situated in the hallway.

Other option is an infrared repeater that allow the remote to be used in the bedroom and the signal transmitted to the receiver (presumably located alongside the thermostat). This might be a bit messy to set up, and still has the problem that the thermostat isn’t in the room that you’re trying to control.

If you went for a full ‘Smart home’ system then you could have thermostats in a each room that control the vents on the ducted system to give zoned climate control, but I’m guessing that isn’t the way you wat to go.

It might be easier to have separate aircon units in the bedroom(s) and living room.

Pete.

Thanks Peter, it's pre installed ducted but now you mention it I think it would be possible to have a separate split and block off the ducts to the bedroom. I'm going to have to start reading up on these smart home controls...... Are they called The Hive back in the UK?

linkwater wrote:I'm going to have to start reading up on these smart home controls...... Are they called The Hive back in the UK?

Yes, Hive is one make of smart home thermostat. I have to admit that I don’t know much about the commercial products that are on the market - my focus is on making my own smart home devices for my own personal situation, so I don’t really follow what’s happening in the rest of the marketplace.

Pete.