Turning Complex Heating Systems into One-Tap Comfort

The problem

Chofu makes some of the most efficient heat pumps shipped from Japan, but Nedavi Solar kept hitting the same wall when selling them across Eastern Europe. The hardware was excellent and the buying experience was not.

• Hard to set up. Commissioning a pump was a technical job that put off both installers and customers.
• No remote control. Owners had no way to check or adjust their system from a phone, so a heat pump felt like a black box on the wall.
• Thin vendor docs. Sparse technical material from Chofu slowed every integration decision.
• Real security stakes. An internet connected heating system has to protect the home it sits in, which raised the bar for the whole build.

Together these created a sales barrier. A great pump was losing deals because the experience around it felt complicated.

The solution

Life Value built Smart Nedavi as one product made of two parts: a custom IoT module that talks to the pump, and a mobile app that puts the whole system in the owner's hand. The module connects straight to a home WiFi router, so setup is plug and play rather than a wiring project.

What we built:

• Custom IoT module. Engineered from scratch to bridge the pump's Modbus RS485 interface to the internet, solving the connectivity limit that blocked any app before it.
• One app for iOS and Android. A single Flutter codebase gives owners temperature control, schedules, heating and cooling modes, and live monitoring on whichever phone they carry.
• Realtime link. A Node JS backend with Socket.IO keeps the app and the pump in sync, so a change on screen reaches the hardware right away.
• Secure by design. Device pairing and data handling were built to protect the home the system sits in, not bolted on at the end.
• Over the air updates. Modules improve in the field without a service call, so the fleet gets better over time.

The results

Smart Nedavi turned the pump from a fixed appliance into something an owner actually interacts with, and gave Nedavi Solar a clear reason for buyers to choose Chofu.

• A simpler sale. The app makes ownership easy to demo and easy to live with, which gives the sales team a strong story at the point of decision.
• Faster commissioning. Technicians no longer wrestle with low level Modbus setup, so getting a pump online takes far less time on site.
• Happier owners. Control over temperature, schedules, and monitoring from a phone removed the day to day friction of living with the system.
• Room to grow. The platform was built to support a large fleet of pumps as the product line expands.

How it works

The IoT module sits next to the heat pump and reads it over Modbus RS485, the protocol Chofu uses for control. It connects to the home WiFi router and keeps a secure realtime channel open to the Smart Nedavi backend. When an owner taps a setting in the app, the change travels through that channel to the module and onto the pump, and live readings travel back the same way. Because the link runs both directions, the app always shows the real state of the system rather than a guess.

FAQ

Does the IoT module need a technician to install?

No. It is built to pair with a standard home WiFi router, so most owners can get running without an on site visit.

Which phones does the app support?

Both iOS and Android, from one Flutter codebase, so features land on both at the same time.

What can owners control from the app?

Temperature, heating and cooling modes, schedules, and live monitoring of the pump and connected zones.

How was the connection to the pump solved?

The custom module bridges the pump's Modbus RS485 interface to the internet, which is what made a mobile app possible in the first place.

Conclusion

Smart Nedavi shows what Life Value does well: taking a piece of hardware with a hard edge and wrapping it in software people are glad to use. By solving the Modbus connection, shipping one app to both app stores, and keeping the whole system secure, we helped Nedavi Solar remove a sales barrier and give Chofu owners simple control over their comfort at home.