Is there a way to control ac units better?

Life Technology
1

I notice one thing about ac units here, if you set it to 25 it runs its compressor until it reaches 25, but then it keeps blowing the fan. What it does is fill the room with humidity and make it miserable to be anywhere near the unit, especially when outside air is at 26 and that means the unit spends a majority of the time blowing warm, moist air around. Is there a way to disable this so the unit just shuts off when it reaches the target temperature, including the blower? Because normally this means I have to keep lowering the ac temperature which ends up making the room too cold, wastes electricity because I really just wanted to remove moisture, not necessarily heat.

The ac units in the states do this, when set temperature is reached it shuts off completely.

2

Buy a heat pump.

j/k

Most higher end units have three modes you can mix and match. Cooling, dehumidifying and heating. You can use the remote to turn off the cooling once it’s cool enough and just leave on the dehumidifier,but the cooking won’t turn back on automatically. With a Raspberry Pi, an Ir repeater, some sensors and some ingenuity you could probably automate it.

3

The ones with inverter have variable motor compressor speeds.

4

Sorry but I’m not paying 10,000nt extra to have inverter that have questionable electricity saving. I just need a more automated way to control my current ac units better, and I think a new controller can do it. All it has is on, off, and blower. That is plenty. I just need it off, no blower when target temp is reached.

5

Couldn’t you just buy a thermostatted plug socket thing? Something like this - I assume you could find something similar on Shopee or Ruten.

6

Why would it “fill the room with humidity”? Where is the moisture coming from? Do you have a window type and have the outside air slat open or just a relatively poorly sealed room?

7

It’s a split, there are no air slats. The moisture comes from the coil itself. When the blower is turning it’s returning moisture the coils just captured. You ever wonder why ac unit blowing air feels very humid when the compressor isn’t running?

Actually I seen smart Wi-Fi enabled ac controller on Amazon, like sensibo or something. Does anyone have one and how does it work out for you?

8

There should be a drain that allows condensed water to leave the system. There will be very little moisture remaining on the coils, certainly can’t make the room more humid than it was before as it cannot create moisture.

A normally functioning system in a reasonably sealed room won’t. It will obviously feel different than when the compressor is running but it’s certainly not putting any significant amount of moisture back into the room. Buy a humidity gauge and confirm.

2 Likes
9

I keep one in my room.

When the AC is blowing only air (no compressor) I can see humidity rising by at least 10% (it takes that much out while the compressor runs).

There is a dehumidifier as the goal is to keep humidity in the room less than 50%, and that’s actually very hard to do here in Taiwan. It’s easier in the summer but in the winter it will never go below 60% no matter what.

Have you ever used Sensibo?

10

Sounds like a malfunction to me

11

I beg to differ…

Every location I been to it’s always like this, when the compressor runs it’s fine even if it’s a little too cold, when it’s blowing air it’s humid as hell.

Everyone must have malfunctioning AC then…

12

Assuming you don’t have the humidity gauge directly in the airflow from the aircon, that’s physically impossible in a reasonably well sealed room. Either the gauge is poorly positioned or it is not a reasonably well sealed room.

If you know the dimensions of the room, the humidity and the humidity change it’s not difficult to work out how much moisture must be added to give a 10% rise in humidity at the same temperature. I think you’ll find it’s pretty much impossible unless there is a significant inflow of humid air or a problem with the gauge.

Depends on the type of dehumidifier you are using. Typically compressor units sold in Taiwan are going to have a hard time dropped humidity as temperature drops, you can read the spec.'s on the unit, unless it’s fairly high end it’s not going to be of much use in the low 20’s C. For winter a Desiccant Dehumidifier is generally a better choice.

13

I use an aircon control device “Smart AC Control” by a company called Tado. I understand that it’s more advanced than Sensibo (and more expensive), although the basic principle is the same: controlling a “dumb” aircon unit with a phone app so it’s more “intelligent” and customised to your preferences, and can save electricity.

The Tado has 2 modes for controlling aircons:

The first is Standard mode, where it follows time schedule that you program, and turns the aircon off and on (setting your chosen temperature or mode) based on the time and day. This mode lets the aircon unit itself maintain the temperature of the room through it’s own thermostat - on my Daikin split units, this means the aircon fan is running whenever the unit is on, whether or not it is actually cooling.

The second mode is “Thermostat”, which lets the Tado device control the room temperature using it’s own built-in sensors, by turning the aircon on and off as needed with Infrared commands (so as far as the aircon unit is concerned, it appears you are turning it on and off with the remote control). This works quite well, and can save more electricity because it means when the room temp is comfortable, the aircon is completely turned off.

Tado also has geofencing, so it can automatically turn the aircon on or off when you are coming home or going out (and there is an “away mode” to which can be set to maintain a minimum or maximum temperature if you are out). You can also setup other phones so it will work for any other family member arriving or leaving.

It supports Siri/Homekit, Alexa and Google Assistant, so you can automate even more with voice control (so far I haven’t felt the need to configure these functions as it’s been operating pretty well without).

Overall it’s pretty flexible and works quite well once you’ve figured out a good setup. One downside is that some aircon units make a loud beep each time they are switched on or off. This means that using the Tado Thermostat mode in the bedroom could cause you to be woken up in the night each time the aircon is turned on or off by the Tado device. It’s not really Tado’s problem as it’s a feature of the aircon unit. Not much to be done about this unless you can muffle or disable the beeper in the aircon unit.

I got several Tado units in my flat for different rooms, and once I got them setup properly (which did take a week or so of experimentation and adjustment), I basically don’t have to touch the aircon remotes any more, and they will keep everything comfortable, and I dont have to remember to turn off the aircons when I go out as everything is handled automatically.

The main adjustment I need to make twice a year is to change the settings when the season changes. For winter, it can be set to use the aircon’s heat function to warm up rooms to your preferred temperature too.

Here’s the Tado webpage:
https://www.tado.com/all-en/