Looking to Save Power through Sensors

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  Some Human on 03/07/2023 - 12:52

  I don't think this would save power as you're letting the temperature vary and requiring the AC to do more work to get it back to the desired temperature.

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    mskeggs on 03/07/2023 - 12:54

    If the temp reaches ambient after turn off, all the time after until it turns back on is a saving.

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    jrchurvnjef on 03/07/2023 - 14:07

    The idea is to turn it off completely, rather than maintain temperature.
    For instance, we often forget to turn AC off when leaving the bedroom in the morning. If like to fix that.

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  TimmyTims on 03/07/2023 - 13:02

  Look more into it but I'm pretty sure google home has added sensor-triggered routines.
  This means you could have a motion sensor and an IR blaster (that replicated signals from remote controls) work together

  Walk into JB Hi Fi or similar and explain what you want and they should be able to point out the parts you need.
  That all being said, you have to save so much power to offset the cost of buying the sensors and powering them

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  tsunamisurfer on 03/07/2023 - 13:41

  +1

  anything more comprehensive or better out there?

  Yes. I refuse to have any heating in the house when I am WFH.

  I wear warm clothes, warm socks. It is cheaper.

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    jrchurvnjef on 03/07/2023 - 14:08

    Same here, but I have a 5-months-old in the house

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  boomramada on 03/07/2023 - 14:08

  +1

  Having good house insulation also helps with power saving.

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    jrchurvnjef on 03/07/2023 - 14:08

    I'm working on that too!

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      boomramada on 03/07/2023 - 17:30

      I run multiple aircons in different rooms, and over time running them gets quite expensive. I am looking to improve the situation through use of sensors (motion or heat? human sensors?), i.e., when there is no movement for a while in the room then turn off the AC. Ideally I would also have the AC in the living automatically turn on when I am walking into the hallway from the bedroom during the night.

      Keep in mind, this thing not going to work, when the sensor to AC itself is only within the control unit (usually in the hallway), usually, the system cut off when temp reaches what it is set to.

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  sumyungguy on 03/07/2023 - 16:04

  I'm using Cygnett hubs for my split systems but they're a bit flaky. I don't have Sensibo (yet) but if you get the Homekit version the sensor can be in a different room to the controller. For that morning problem, why not just use the timers on your a/c remotes?

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    jrchurvnjef on 03/07/2023 - 18:40

    Because the timer sucks. You can't set a proper schedule, just in how many hours it should turn off/on. It's not the worst solution, but I will have to remember to set it up every day.

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  KanTakahashi on 03/07/2023 - 16:16

  +2

  You could look into tuya-based temp and humidity sensor and presence sensor, then ir sensor to turn on/off.
  Or if you prefer local connection then use HomeAssistant instead of tuya

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    Chandler on 04/07/2023 - 12:11

    Yeah I use Home Assistant myself, with Broadlink controllers doing by the IR controls for the AC unit and the temperature/humidity monitoring.

    I am looking to improve the situation through use of sensors (motion or heat? human sensors?), i.e., when there is no movement for a while in the room then turn off the AC.

    Depends. If it's because no one is home, then certainly. If it's because someone has just left the room but will be coming back, waste of time and electricity. As others have said: switching the AC on and off is less energy efficient than just leaving it on.

    Ideally I would also have the AC in the living automatically turn on when I am walking into the hallway from the bedroom during the night.

    In the same vein as above - why are you turning the AC on just because you're passing through in the night?

    I myself have a few automations in Home Assistant to control the AC:

    • If no one is home, turn the AC off
    • In the morning, if it's cold turn the AC on heat ~15min before my alarm
    • In the evening/overnight, if it's cold turn the AC on heat. If it's hot, turn the AC on (cool)

    For this it also checks what the AC was last used for (heating/cooling) via the last_on_operation attribute. i.e. if it has been used for heating, it won't run it for cooling: the assumption being that it's just unusually hot/cold, so don't bother running the AC: we can start it manually if need be.

    I've also got it sending notifications for any AC unit being switched on or off, with the setting (heat/cold + temperature) and buttons for switching it back off/on. Means if something goes haywire while I'm not home (or while I'm home) I get notified and can correct it.

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  JIMB0 on 03/07/2023 - 20:05

  What exactly are you trying to achieve. Why do you want the living room Ac to turn on in the middle of the night when you walk into the hall way?

  Are they all inverter models? Non inverter models consume a lot of power, especially if they are cycling on and off. Inverter models will also use a lot of power if they have to cycle on/off (could be the case as you have several running). They run most efficient when they are ramped right down just keeping a room warm.

  Kmart sell a wifi IR blaster that you can set to turn off the bedroom unit in the morning.

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    jrchurvnjef on 03/07/2023 - 22:21

    Essentially I am trying to turn off AC when no one is in the room.

    At night we often wake up to feed the baby and do it in the living room. I would like the living room to be warm when we do. Ideally, when I walk into the hallway to pick up the baby for a feed, the sensor would detect my movement /presence and turn on the AC in the living room so it's warm. And then when the feed is done and I go to sleep, I'd like the AC to turn off after a bit.

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      lgacb08 on 04/07/2023 - 14:45

      +1

      You're overthinking it. I'm not sure of your living arrangements but it's very odd to take the baby into other space for a night feed. Also that'd take half an hour max, you're already waiting half the amount of time to get the aircon crank up and get the room to temp so why bother? Unless you times your baby and wake him at certain hour for a feed which won't be happening.

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    lgacb08 on 04/07/2023 - 14:40

    Depending on the model and insulation, for a poorly insulated room or 5-7kw system on a living room you'll likely to consume 1kwh every hour if no one is around and the bill stack up very quickly.

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  Euphemistic on 05/07/2023 - 06:26

  Air cons are usually hard wired in. Any sensors would need to be compatible with the AC and also hard wired in.

  Maybe use the timer/sleep setting for the AC. Most modern ACs will have a timer setting from the remote.

  Whenever I turn on our family room AC in the morning i always set it to sleep after 1-2hours so it takes off the morning chill, then turns off before everyone leaves the house. I only use it a couple of times a year though so it’s not hard to remember.