Airconditioning Control
Property "ProjectImage" (as page type) with input value "{{{ProjectImage}}}" contains invalid characters or is incomplete and therefore can cause unexpected results during a query or annotation process.
| Hive13 Project |
|---|
| Air conditioner control |
| Status: Inactive |
| Start Date: 06/12/2013 |
| End Date: 06/21/2013 |
The hive has seven frigidaire LRA127CT1 airconditioning units which were purchased in the summer of 2012. Of these units six are in use (one in 1A, two in 1C, one in 3A, one in 3B, one in 3C, and the one that is not in use is sitting on the floor of the dirty room in 3D). It has been briefly discussed once or twice that it would be interesting to be able to control the air conditioners. Being able to control them and apply some algorithms smarter than "turn on when above set temperature, turn off when below" is an interesting, easy project and can give the hive better temperature and humidity control and also save power by automatically adjusting them for higher temperatures at night, or even automatically turning them off completely if the temperature stays below a certain threshold for an extended time with the ACs on.
The infrared remotes that came with the units can control all of the functionality of the units and are fairly simple devices with a hopefully simple protocol that can be used to control the units with a cheap, networked device (possibly a custom board).
The remote: It uses what appears to be a far infrared LED. I can't see any color from it with my galaxy nexus' camera, but it could also be blinking far too quickly for me to see. The single IC on it is an SH67P33CX, a small 4 bit micro. Datasheet here: http://www.dycmcu.com/downloads/sinowealth/mcu/4bit/4bit_io/sh67p33c/SH67P33CV2.0.pdf No surprises here! The LED is simply low side switched with a small sot23 transistor.
Protocol: TBD, need to bring down my logic analyzer.
Plans for implementation:
Individual little board for each device? Connected over ethernet.. possibly PoE? Small boards could be made for maybe $10-15 each.
Future plans:
- Install a number of climate sensors (humidity and temperature) around the space in strategic points and do data processing to adjust each AC unit. Maybe look up the weather forecast and plan based around that? Could be interesting!
- Internet control is a must for ease of use. Would be nice to have certain ones disabled during the meetings (maybe even automatically as a scheduled event).
- Track time on and at what setting and track power use from this data.