I used Home Assistant to create my very first automation today. It’s really stupid simple, but I feel as though things will only get crazier from here.
Context: i have an old dumb window AC that has 2 physical dials. One turns fan- low, fan-high, cool-low, and cool- high while the other is labeled from 1 to 8 with 1 being warm and 8 being coldest. This AC is either on or its not. Even if the compressor is not running the fan runs 24/7 until it is physically switched off.
My current automation checks once per hour, and if the temperature is above 80 degrees, it will notify me to turn on the air conditioner.
I intend to buy one of the third reality smart plugs soon and switch the action from notify to “turn on the third reality plug for 10 minutes”. Then I will just leave the unit itself on Cool High and let the plug manage the power.
Eventually, I think I will also buy a third-reality temperature sensor and set the trigger to if the temperature sensor says that the room itself is above 80 degrees instead of using the forecast.
Plus, the smart plug will actually give me a good idea of how much power the damn thing is using. I know what the power draw on the side says it is, but I don’t know if it’s actually using that much or if it’s using less.
Take a look at sonoff smart plugs. They work well as they are, but if you want to take them offline/local and feel up to the task you can flash them with custom firmware.
https://roborooter.com/post/flashing-sonoff-s31-with-esphome/
Double check that the AC unit doesn’t pull more than 15A {Amps). That’s all those smart plugs are rated for. It’s probably fine, but you don’t want to start a fire. I’ve seen pictures of smart plugs that melted when used on some refrigerators.
The thing on the side says it pulls 550 watts, which is about 5 amps. But I would definitely take a look at it while it’s running on the smart plug, and if it’s pulling anywhere near that amount, I would unplug it. But that’s a good point.
Also check that the switch is rated for motors. A lot of the switches I’ve seen have separate power ratings for resistive (lights) and inductive (motors) load, because of the power-factor or inrush spikes. https://www.getzooz.com/zooz-zen15-power-switch/ is Z-wave, but specifically for high-current motors.
I didn’t see an answer online so I decided I would email the company support just to make sure. Drawing 550 watts. It’s definitely capable of holding it while it is running. But I do not know how much power it takes to actually start it up. So that is a very good point. And I want to make absolutely certain I don’t kill the plug.