Window Air Conditioners

[Wadenut]

I'm looking at replacing an older, noisy, window air conditioner which had a simple knob for fan speed and temperature setting.
The problem is that most larger units I've seen use electronic control with a remote. This would be nice except for the fact I've been used to automating the A/C by having HS turn on/off the power to the unit and I'm wondering what's going to happen if I do this with one of these newer units. IE. Will it revert to some startup value for temperature selection and fan speed or will it remember my settings?
Perhaps all this is model specific in which case I could use some recomendations. I'm looking for a 12K to 15K BTU unit.
I thought I'd put this to the board before I go around to the stores and ask to have the units plugged in for me while I experiment.
While central air conditioning would be nice, it's hard to justify here where we only need cooling about two months of the year.

Thanks.

[buvens]

I went through that about a year ago. Unfortunately I couldn't find an old manual type control new one.
Wound up with a Samsung all electronic.
Fortunately I had an old Stargate and the IR control that went with it.
Taught it the ir codes and ran the emitter controls over some coax that we had added to the house to the bedroom. Added an emitter with the proper adapters so now each night it turns the power on and then lowers the tem to the lowest point on the AC.
We go to bed and it is just right.
That was our solution, I'm sur there are a bunch of others.

Good Luck...sonny

[sckoman]

I like the buvens idea ... but I have to wait until I can get an IR distribution/controller set up.

As an alternate, I will take the air conditioner IR remote and carefully solder small wires acrosss the on/off switch contacts. There are any number of relay controllers out there. Just use the relay with its appropriate HS "plugin". I plan to use the simplehomenet EZIO relay (Insteon). Not at all elegant, but a solution.

[tmcgowan]

I like the buvens idea ... but I have to wait until I can get an IR distribution/controller set up.

As an alternate, I will take the air conditioner IR remote and carefully solder small wires acrosss the on/off switch contacts. There are any number of relay controllers out there. Just use the relay with its appropriate HS "plugin". I plan to use the simplehomenet EZIO relay (Insteon). Not at all elegant, but a solution.

Have you considered the Insteon IR Emitter?

http://www.smarthome.com/2411T/IRLin...smitter/p.aspx

[buvens]

Thanks Todd, hadn't seen that one. Might try that on another project.

[mnsandler]

my window air unit solution

i have a frigidaire unit with ir remote. it saves all the settings (temp, fan speed, and cooling mode) when turned off (off is like off on your tv or stereo)

i did two things to monitor the unit:
1. ran an ir to it
2. tapped into the internal wiring and connected a ds10a so i could truly know when the compressor was on and off (to monitor actual cooling time vs when the fan is just running)

my automation is acts more like a programmable tstat with hs events: i have a day program, an evening program and a night program which change the temp and fan settings. Thus i do not turn the unit on/off to manage the temperature (the unit does that itself). The unit beeps every time it recvs an ir cmd which can be annoying at night.

the fan speed range is from 10 to 99. the only thing i don't like about the unit is there is no 'fan max' btn so i have to send 89 'fan up' ir cmds to get it to its top fan speed. you can image what that sounds like

also note: the newer units have protection circuits built-in to keep the compressor from bounding on and off to quickly. thus cutting power is not a good way to control the newer units.

good luck

[Wadenut]

I'm glad I thought of this before buying then. I have no IR set up yet (it's on the list). Looks like I'll be keeping the old 8000 BTU unit for a while.

[zoomkat]

If you don't mind tinkering you might could put relays on the power to the fan and the compressor and operate the relays via the usual timer setup. You would have to remove the housing on the air conditioner to get to the wires to install the relays, then replace the housing.

[bdhall]

I have a Whirlpool window unit with electronic controls. I tried unplugging it while it was running, left it off for two or three minutes and then plugged it back in. It came back on running and set to the same temperature that it was when it was unplugged. I have not tried it for an expended period of time (overnight for example) to see if it still does the same thing.

Of course, I can't say what other models might do but I would expect that you would have some unhappy homeowners if they had their AC units running, left the house for a while, and a brief power failure resulted in them returning home to a hot house.

As far as making sure the pressure has time to equalize before restarting the unit, I would think you should be able to build in safeguards for that with your controlling program.

[Wadenut]

Now there's a ray of hope. Coincidentally, it was a Whirlpool I was looking at, specifically model ACQ128PV. That wouldn't happen to be the model you have?

[zoomkat]

If the unit uses a small memory backup battery or something similar, you might increase the size of this so it can handle longer power off times.

[mnsandler]

I'm glad I thought of this before buying then. I have no IR set up yet (it's on the list). Looks like I'll be keeping the old 8000 BTU unit for a while.

Buy both! the ac unit and an ir system. you will save enough money with the new ac unit to cover the cost of the ir system.

[bdhall]

Now there's a ray of hope. Coincidentally, it was a Whirlpool I was looking at, specifically model ACQ128PV. That wouldn't happen to be the model you have?

Mine looks like a ACQ068MP0. (not sure if 0 or O).

[Wadenut]

Well, question answered. I downloaded the manual for the model I'm looking at. From it... "In the event of a power failure, your air conditioner will operate at the previous settings when the power is restored." This is good news. HA lives on despite new technology.

[buvens]

I'll have to remember that about Whirlpool because when my Samsung looses power, it doesn't come back on till tou hit it with an IR power signal. Then it may be at what you set it and it may revert back to the 74 deegree setting. Doesn't seem to be any ryme or reason to the temp setting.