Arduino Powered Central Air Conditioner Controller
As you can see from the above power usage chart, AC cycles quite frequently. My current thermostat does not allow to set cooling cycle duration. After researching my options, I decided to build my own thermostat.
The cycle duration is important, as having AC frequently going On/Off:
Chart below shows power usage with Arduino thermostat controlling the AC. Thermostat logic:
- causes excessive wear on AC compressor
- causes excessive wear on furnace fan
- does not efficiently remove humidity from air
- puts unnecessary load on the grid
Chart below shows power usage with Arduino thermostat controlling the AC. Thermostat logic:
- Have AC OFF for X amount of minutes
- Wait until the temperature is higher than allowed
- Have AC ON for Y amount of minutes
- Repeat
Having such control allowed to me better regulate temperature in my house, lower my energy bill, and extend the life of my old faithful AC.
This project is currently not an open source one, sorry.
This project is currently not an open source one, sorry.
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Additional built-in feature of this thermostat is the hard to use user interface, only I can control the temperature, LOL.
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