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Home Assistant is open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first. Powered by a worldwide community of tinkerers and DIY enthusiasts. Perfect to run on a Raspberry Pi or a local server. Available for free at home-assistant.io

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What Air Conditioner would you recomend between $500 and $700 CAD? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/homeassistant

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I'm finding it really difficult to tell whether a particular air conditioner is supported by Home Assistant, since all the ones I've seen in stores don't seem compatible. I mean, I'm probably wrong in that, I'm sure that with enough work anything will work, but I didn't see any integrations with Midea air conditioners, for example.

All my windows in my house slide sideways, so most of the in-wall air-conditioners won't work, and I rent the place, so I can't make large alterations. This pretty much limits me to portable ACs, which don't tend to have much smart home functionality.

Any help would be appreciated, as I'm pretty new to using Home Assistant in general, and I'm still trying to figure out how things work. I only bought my Home Assistant Yellow last year, and I don't yet have any smart appliances to connect it to.

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[–] toiletobserver 15 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Anything with a variable speed compressor and two tubes to the window. The variable speed is quieter. The two tubes mean it doesn't steal cool air from inside and exhaust it outside.

I still think they are all loud trash, but that's the best you'll get for your situation.

[+] aksdb -8 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Two tubes still means it pulls in hot air from the outside that it then needs to cool down first. The split ACs are basically the only sane ones (but expensive).

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

While it does pull in hot air from outside, it is not cooled, but rather heated. AC units are divided with a cool side that lowers temp in a room and a hot side that extracts heat.

Warm air is used by the condenser (a radiator that collects the heat from the room) and sent back outside hotter than it sucked in.

The air on the cold side of the AC unit is recirculated into the room.

[–] aksdb 1 points 4 months ago (2 children)

So they have two airflows? Then I assume in contrast to the ones with just one exhaust they need two fans? One for circulating (and cooling) the air from the room and one to circulate the air from (and to) the outside?

Then I assume that would make them even noisier then the single exhaust ones, right? (More moving parts.)

[–] Hamknight 5 points 4 months ago

Yup, two fans. The increased noise is compensated by them not needing to run as much due to the increased efficiency.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Yup! Even units with one exhaust need 2 fans. Many standalone models even have a small 3rd fan near the condensate reservoir to re-introduce moisture, collected when chilling air, back into the exhaust so they don't have to be drained as much.

The nice thing about inverter units is they only run the pump and fans as hard as it needs to obtain its objective. Once there, it can spin down and get much quieter. I used to have floor units and hated sleeping with those. All through the night you would get fan noise and a huge CLUNK as the compressor kicks on or off. We upgraded this year and the ramp-up is so much easier to sleep through. There is still fan noise, but much quieter and becomes white noise after a while.

[–] aksdb 2 points 4 months ago

Thanks for filling that gap of knowledge!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

That's not how air conditioners work

[–] SkunkWorkz 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

No the outside air is used to cool down the coolant. It won’t be released indoors. The high pressure coolant is hotter than the outside air and thus the air is able to absorb the heat out of the pipes.

Then the coolant goes to the radiator where it expands and turns cold. This is where the inside air moves trough the radiator to cool the room. The two airflows won’t interact. This is why ACs with two pipes are better than ACs with only an exhaust. Since in those the AC sucks air out of the room to cool the coolant and dumps it outside. And thus the pressure will drop in the room and air from outside the room will be sucked inside.