Introduction

We recently installed a Panasonic ducted HVAC system, referred to as a “heat pump” in New Zealand. We had a lot of problems getting the WiFi connected and working. It eventually took about four visits and help from Panasonic New Zealand (thanks Mark!) who got help from Panasonic Japan. This blog posts provides some things we learned along the way.

Panasonic Comfort Cloud Setup Tips

These tips came from our experience and via Panasonic NZ.

• The installer needs to ensure the WiFi unit has been “wired back to the wall controller”. I don’t know the details of what this means, but it’s something to do with having it installed correctly.
• Have the system in fan mode, but turned off.
• Ensure location services on the phone are turned on.
• When going through the comfort cloud app and you see a “register” button, wait 5 minutes before you hit that button. The theory is there may be a sync process happening in the background. This one is pretty important. If in doubt wait 5 minutes between every screen.
• Try the initial setup on a different phone if the first doesn’t work. The initial HVAC setup is the tricky bit, once that’s done you can log into the account on any phone easily.
• Try creating a WiFi hotspot using mobile data on a second phone, to prove the home network you’re using is working fine. Currently only 2.4GHz networks are supported.
• If you get the message “This device has been set up before” the module will need to be defaulted back to factory settings.
• (Advanced) Work out the IP address of the WiFi unit using your router. You can check against the MAC address either on the WiFi unit cord, on the back of the unit, or possibly inside it to help find the IP address. Ping the heat pump using “ping (ip address)” from a DOS command prompt. If it replies to ping once, then doesn’t reply as expected, it’s faulty and needs to be replaced.
• If the link light is off after things have been setup you can turn the HVAC off at the switchboard to reset it.
• If all else fails turn the HVAC off at the switchboard, reset the WiFi unit using the hard reset process in the manual, then try again.

HVAC Noise Reduction Tips

The following assumes your HVAC and ducts are in your ceiling, which is most common in New Zealand.

• Make sure your flexible ducts are as short and straight as possible, with any bends sweeping rather than sharp. Any bends should be as far from the diffuser as possible, to allow turbulent air time to settle before it reaches the diffuser. Beware that different duct lengths can impact the amount of air going into a room, keeping duct lengths roughly equal can help balance airflow
• Ensure your diffusers are wound out, to reduce diffuser noise. In winter taking the center of the diffuser out to allow the warm air to go down rather than out can help ensure the heat reaches the ground rather than being warm up high and cold down low.
• Where the duct connects to the diffuser try to have the duct running straight down for 0.5 – 1m if possible. This ensures even distribution of air out the duct, otherwise you can get more air going out one side of the duct than the other. For example if your diffuser is in the corner of a room it might send most of the air towards the corner rather than the body of the room.