Hi Everyone,
Would like to ask for your help, please? I have a Frigidaire in wall A/C unit (I rent) with a 250 VAC 15A plug. I believe it’s => 10K BTU.
I’ve been looking for a smart plug to use with this so that I can control it with Rule Machine. I’ve attached photo’s of the plug. As a side note; I know about Tado but, looking for a cheaper route at the moment.
I also have a portable A/C unit. The Iris Plug turns the power on but, in order to activate the A/C part, I need to be home. Which defeats my purpose for using a smart plug on this.
As far as the air-conditioner controls, does it have a current remote? If it does and it uses IR, you can probably also use a harmony hub to control it and then it’s pretty easy to integrate with smart things. If it doesn’t have a remote, or the remote is not IR, then you have to look at something like the tado or one of its competitors.
Not to keen on replacing the receptacle. Not sure how long I will be living here.
It does have an IR remote. I didn’t realize that harmony hub would do this. I’ve been thinking about getting harmony hub but, couldn’t fully justify the need or cost. But, if I can get the A/C to trigger on with rule machine when the temp inside hits a certain level using harmony, this might be my Holiday weekend project. I’ve been wanting to set up “lazy TV commands”, too - lol.
Because it’s IR, you will have to have an IR blaster with direct line of sight to the air-conditioner, which should be the same way you use your current remote. But I just wanted to mention that because it’s not like you can put the harmony hub in one room for IR control of your television and then have it also control the air-conditioner in another room. So it all comes down to the exact layout.
I don’t think there are any zwave 250 VAC pocket sockets for the US. So let me just verify that you are in the US? There are 250 VAC wired receptacles or inwall relays, but both would require doing some wiring which would probably require your landlord’s approval.
Yea, I’m in NJ. I looked on line for a zwave 250 before I posted but, couldn’t find any.
Yea, I didn’t consider the line of sight for the IR blaster. The A/C is in the same area as the TV but, it’s mounted in wall up by the ceiling (about 6ft from the floor). I just tried playing with the A/C remote over by the TV and it’s a no go. Even at 5ft high from that far.
Would the harmony hub work with the portable a/c? It also has an IR remote. I can move this a/c where I need.
The Harmony home hub comes with 2 Mini IR blasters and the hub itself is an IR blaster so as long as everything is in the same room you may be able to get it to work. IIRC, The IR blasters ( which are tiny, about the size of a quarter) are on 6 foot cords.
There are different models and prices vary quite a bit, so you may want to shop around. Best Buy sometimes has the same model shown here for about 10 bucks less. ( note that although it says “eight devices” in the product description, that’s eight of what harmony calls “entertainment devices” like a TV, Xbox, sound bar, etc. You can have way more “home control” devices. However, it is important, anything which is controlled by IR currently counts as an “entertainment device.” So the two air-conditioners would count against the 8 count.)
Another plus to keep in mind - the IR output of the Harmony hub is quite high (power) and you can often get a good bounce off a flat surface (e.g the side of a coffee table near the couch) to hit a receiver (such as a TV or, in this case, AC unit). So you don’t always need to have a direct line of sight between the IR emitter (be it hub or blaster) and the device to be controlled.
My hub sits inside the AV cabinet pointing out towards the coffee table which sits between the couch and the TV. It easily controls everything inside the cabinet, on multiple shelves, plus items sitting on top of the cabinet, even when the (IR transparent) frosted glass door on the cabinet is closed. I’ve not needed to use either of the included blasters yet.
A final last resort is that you can configure, on a device by device basis, whether the IR should come from the hub, one (or more) of the blasters and/or from the remote itself. So, you could tell it to transmit IR from the remote and just ensure the remote is left in sight of the AC unit.
I might be mistaken, but I think the lightweight all plastic “Home companion” remote at the link I included doesn’t itself do IR. It just communicates with the hub via Wi-Fi.
I believe It’s the more expensive remotes with a glass screen that have the IR feature in the remote.
If so, that would be a good reason to consider getting the more expensive remote for a set up like the one we’ve been discussing, so you’d be able to point the remote at the air-conditioner. Just going to depend on the specific room layout.
So I bought the Harmony Home Control today. I’m in the process of configuring ST to it now. The only device I added to the HHC was the LR A/C. I taught the Hub the a/c remote and it works just perfectly. I did have to move the hub and IR blaster very close to the a/c. It’s not pretty looking right now but, it works! I’ll pretty it up later. Tonight I’ll add my TV, ROKU, PS3, Echo, etc… And then i’ll work on activities and ST control.
Thank you both!!
