With the planet continuing to experience a power crisis that has sent electricity bills soaring, it makes sense to look at the some of the worst offenders when it comes to inefficient power consumption. Swimming pool owners might be waving their arms around at this point but they are few compared to the almost-one-billion global households and offices that rely upon air conditioning (AC). Aircon can account for 30 – 40% of electricity bills even when efficient, ‘eco-friendly’ models are used. But there is a way to reduce costs, improve comfort and save power – two words: Smart AC.
What is Smart AC?
Smart AC is air conditioning that automatically manages temperature and humidity in the most cost-effective and efficient way by intelligently balancing electricity usage, indoor temperatures, local weather plus human comfort preferences. Smart AC’s IoT ‘smart home’ compatibility means it can be managed remotely or by autonomous AI.
Unlike traditional aircon smarts, Smart AC doesn’t just turn an aircon unit on and off at set times.
How can Smart AC help?
Smart AC can help in numerous ways, from cost savings and power reduction through remote maintenance management and pet care to general comfort control:
A Smart AC controller already knows (or can learn) the infra-red signals that your AC unit uses to receive and execute commands. It can then either action them using its built-in Artificial Intelligence or through a user connecting to it over Wi-Fi (or remotely from across the internet).
Smart AC can be connected to virtual assistants like Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant, in smart homes and act accordingly when given basic commands like, “A tell B I’m hot.”
Smart Home enthusiasts will like the fact that that Smart AC can be factored into existing IoT (Internet of Things) environments using popular automation tools like IFTTT (If This Then That), Home Bridge and Home Assistant.
Smart AC will learn individual preferences for comfort at different times of the day and adjust the temperature accordingly. If the resulting personal profile is a little off, you can use a phone app or voice app to tweak the settings and the AI will know better for next time.
The AI within a Smart AC controller will build a personal profile for individuals’ temperature preferences and map it against other environmental factors such as, Weather, Metabolism, Indoor Humidity, Indoor Temperature and Luminosity. After a while, it will predict what AC temperature and humidity settings you prefer before you yourself know, based on external factors.
Some Smart AC features will offer special modes for when you’re away and your premises are empty. This is useful for people in hot and humid countries who want to prevent mold developing or people in very cold countries, trying to prevent freezing issues like broken pipes.
If you leave a pet at home all day, it’s naturally important to ensure they’re comfortable and not trapped and distressed in hostile conditions. Smart AC affords you the ability to care for your pet remotely in this regard.
Smart AC can help keep your pets comfortable (and safe) while they're home alone.
A Smart AC will log your usage information and display behavioral statistics to provide detail and insight into your aircon (and subsequent electricity) usage.
A Smart AC controller can recognize multiple, individual users and balance their collective comfort.
Sometimes you will want to take control and Smart AC will know when to get out of the way. So, if you want to set the temperature because you’re coming home at an unexpected time, you can do so remotely on your phone, ensuring that everything is perfect when you walk in the door. You can also simply set more-elaborate, useful timers than a regular AC unit normally allows.
Because Smart AC knows where it is located and also where you (via your phone) are located, it can automatically turned the aircon on when you approach your home or office. This involves setting up a Geofence – which means how far away you are before the system activates.
The same geolocation features can be used to automatically turn-off the AC when the last person has left for the day – a major energy saver!
There are many ways that AC can operate, but even large, expensive, ‘green’ models are prone to major inefficiencies that cause unnecessary power consumption and comfort issues. A prime example is how, on activation, a huge power surge rapidly builds up a supply of cold air – that’s 15 to 20 degrees cooler than the target temperature – before dumping it into a room and then adjusting it on a similar basis until the AC unit’s thermostat tells it to stop because a basic temperature target has been reached. Conversely, a Smart AC will adjust temperature by making incremental adjustments that are based upon personalized requirements... rather than an on-and-off cycle that ham-fistedly lurches from hot-to-cold extremes.
Do you want to know more about Smart AC controllers?
If any of the above rings any bells or sounds like something you could benefit from, check out the Ambi Climate Smart AC controllers. Their ability to add AI smarts to almost any Not-So-Smart AC unit means, for just a small outlay, you could be simply saving serious money on your power bills – consistently – while conveniently improving your comfort levels at the same time.
