Cooling
A modern air conditioning system is only as clever as the way you run it. Plenty of people leave theirs on a basic handset, switch it on when the room is already uncomfortable and off again when they leave, and never touch the rest. That works, but it leaves a lot on the table. Smart controls let the system do the thinking for you, so the room is comfortable when you want it and the unit is not running when nobody is there.
We fit and set up smart controls on systems right across the North-East and once people get used to them they rarely go back. Here is what they actually do and how to get the most out of them without needing to be technical.
Do not be put off by the word smart. None of this requires you to be good with gadgets. The clever part happens once, when the system is set up to suit your routine, and after that it mostly looks after itself. If you can use the basic functions of a phone you can use everything here, and the features you do not fancy you can simply leave alone. The aim is a system that fits around your life rather than one more thing you have to manage.
Wifi and app control
The headline feature most people want is control from their phone. A wifi module, either built in or added to the unit, connects your air con to your home network and then to an app. From there you can turn the system on or off, change the temperature, switch modes and set the fan speed from anywhere, whether you are in the next room or on your way home from work. You are no longer tied to finding the handset, which in most homes has usually slipped down the back of the sofa anyway.
The practical benefit is simple. You can set the bedroom cooling going before you get home on a hot day, so you walk into a comfortable room rather than a stuffy one. You can also check from the office that you did not leave it running, and switch it off if you did. For a lot of people that peace of mind alone is worth having.
It comes into its own when life does not go to plan. A day out runs late, the weather turns hotter than forecast or you decide to head home early, and in each case you can adjust the system from wherever you are rather than coming back to a room that is wrong. For holiday homes, rental properties or a business with more than one site, being able to see and control everything from one app on your phone is genuinely useful. You are never guessing about what is switched on and you are never driving back to flick a switch.
Scheduling and weekly timers
This is where the real savings come from. Instead of reacting to the weather, you tell the system your routine once and it follows it. A weekly timer lets you set different programmes for different days, so a working week and a weekend can be handled completely differently.
- Morning. Have the bedroom cool for an hour before you wake, then switch off.
- Daytime. Keep the system off while the house is empty rather than cooling nobody.
- Evening. Bring the lounge to a comfortable temperature just before you sit down.
- Weekends. A different pattern for the days you are home.
The point is that the system is only working when it needs to be. Cooling an empty house all afternoon is money out of the window, and a good schedule quietly puts a stop to it without you having to remember anything.
Scheduling is especially powerful for businesses. A shop, an office or a salon can have the system bring the space to a comfortable temperature just before opening, hold it through trading hours and switch off shortly after closing, every day without a member of staff touching it. There is no more arriving to a cold or stifling room, and no more leaving it running all weekend because the last person out forgot. Set the week once and it simply happens, which over a year of trading adds up to a real saving and a far more consistent environment for staff and customers alike.
Geofencing
Geofencing takes scheduling a step further by using your phone location. You set a boundary around your home and the system reacts when your phone crosses it. Leave for work and the air con eases off or switches to a standby setpoint. Head back towards home and it starts cooling again so the room is ready as you walk in.
It suits people whose hours are not fixed, where a rigid timer would either cool an empty house or leave you walking into a warm one. It works quietly in the background and is one of those features that, once set up, you simply forget about while it keeps doing its job.
Zoning and multi-room control
If you have more than one indoor unit, smart control really comes into its own. Rather than running every room the same, you treat each one as its own zone. Cool the bedrooms at night and leave the living areas off. Cool the home office through the working day and nothing else. You only pay to cool the rooms that are in use at the time.
From a single app you can see every unit, set each one independently and build schedules per room. For a family home or a business with several areas this is a far more sensible and economical way to run things than one blanket setting across the whole building.
Zoning also keeps the peace. In a household where one person likes it cool and another feels the cold, running each room to its own setting is far better than arguing over a single thermostat. The bedroom can be cooler for sleeping while the lounge stays milder, and nobody has to compromise. In a workplace it means the server room or a sunny south-facing office can have the cooling it needs without freezing the rest of the floor that does not.
Energy monitoring
You cannot manage what you cannot see, and many smart systems now show you roughly how much energy each unit is using and when. That information is genuinely useful. It shows you which room is the hungry one, whether a schedule change actually cut your usage and whether the setpoint you have chosen is costing more than it needs to.
In practice people use it to fine-tune. You might notice one unit running far longer than expected, which could flag a draughty room, a unit left too low or even a filter that needs cleaning. Used sensibly, energy monitoring turns running your air con from guesswork into something you can actually see and improve.
Voice assistants
Many systems link up with the common voice assistants, so you can change temperature or switch the unit on and off with a spoken command. It is a convenience rather than a money-saver, but it is a genuinely handy one, especially last thing at night or when your hands are full. For some of our customers, particularly those who find a handset fiddly, voice control makes the system far easier to live with day to day. If you already have a smart speaker in the room, linking the air con to it is usually a simple step and well worth doing.
How smart use cuts running costs
It is worth being clear about where the savings actually come from, because it is not magic. Smart controls save you money by making sure the system runs only when and where it is needed and no harder than it has to. A few habits do most of the work.
- No cooling empty rooms. Schedules and geofencing stop the system working when nobody is there.
- Right room, right time. Zoning means you are not cooling the whole house to suit one room.
- Sensible setpoints. Monitoring helps you avoid overcooling, which is one of the biggest wasters.
- Short targeted bursts. A quick pre-cool before you need the room beats leaving it running all day.
None of that needs you to think about it once it is set up, which is the whole point. The system quietly runs to your life rather than you running after it.
It is worth being realistic about the scale of the saving. Smart controls will not halve your bill on their own, and anyone promising that is overselling. What they do is stop the steady, invisible waste, the hours of cooling an empty house, the overcooled rooms and the units left on by accident, and over a season that quiet waste is where a lot of money goes. Cut it out and the comfort is the same or better while the running cost comes down. That is a sensible, honest win rather than a gimmick.
Retrofit or built-in
If you are buying a new system, smart control is best built in from the start and specified as part of the design. If you already have air con and want to add smart features, in many cases a wifi module can be retrofitted to bring an older unit up to speed. Whether that is possible depends on the make and model, so it is worth asking rather than assuming.
Either way, the setup matters as much as the kit. A smart control that is never configured just sits there unused, so when we install or upgrade a system we make sure the schedules and app are set up to suit how you actually use the space, and we show you how to tweak them yourself.
A few sensible precautions
Smart control depends on a few ordinary things working, so it is worth being aware of them. The system needs a reliable wifi signal where the unit is fitted, which for an outbuilding or a far corner of a large house can mean extending the network. If the broadband drops, you lose the app and the remote features, though the unit itself carries on running its last settings and the handset still works as normal, so you are never left stranded.
It is also worth keeping the app and any account tidy and secure, with a sensible password, particularly if the system controls a business premises or a property you are not always at. None of this is complicated and none of it should put you off, but a few minutes getting the basics right at setup saves frustration later. We sort most of it out on installation and point out anything, such as a weak wifi signal, that is worth addressing so the smart side actually works the way it should.
Talk to Air Con North
If you want to get more comfort and less waste out of your air conditioning, smart controls are one of the easiest wins there is. We design, install and set up smart-controlled systems for homes and businesses across the North-East, from Newcastle and Gateshead to Sunderland, Durham, Carlisle and Middlesbrough, and we can often add wifi control to an existing unit too. With over 25 years in the trade we will set it up properly rather than leaving you with a feature you never use. Call us free on 0800 246 5430 for a no-obligation chat or survey.
