Aircon

[zorro1]

my 2 air con units a are 2 powerful for my condo. They keep hunting for the auto temp going ice cold/ warm ice cold etc.

is it possible to throw out the remote and have a wall dial set up old fashioned style?

[zorro1]

:D I dont understand. I want to manually set the A/C unit so it stops chasing a temperature.

its a 2 year old unit and blows like crazy on auto setting.

Im not sure how moving the handset away from the unit will effect it?

Edited May 8, 2010 by zorro1

[JetsetBkk]

:D I dont understand. I want to manually set the A/C unit so it stops chasing a temperature.

its a new unit and blows like crazy on auto setting.

Im not sure how moving the handset away from the unit will effect it?

- because, according to Transam, the temperature sensor is in his aircon's handset and sends a signal back to the wall unit to tell it to start/stop cooling.

I don't think this is normal for cheap aircons. Mine is somewhere in the wall unit itself - probably on the air intake side.

Try setting the aircon's fan speed to slow, set it to blow horizontally (i.e. not straight down where it'll get sucked back in past the temperature sensor) and maybe use another separate fan to blow the air around the room.

[zorro1]

Have all that. vents set to blow at ceiling level and also set it to low But i can never get a good setting.

Also I noticed that if its to cold say 26c and i set it to 27c..... sometimes the temp display ( on the wall not the handset) starts to drift to 28c

I prefer the 20 year old a/c units at the nana hotel, just turn the dial and the temp stays there without the hunting

[TheKingfisher]

RTFM.

[Crossy]

RTFM.

Nah, he threw that away (like I always do).

It certainly sounds like he's got too much cooling power.

Try running just one unit if two is too much, maybe a small fan to distribute the air more evenly.

Manually set the fan to low.

If you're feeling enthusiastic pop the lid off the indoor unit and check the sensor is in the incoming airflow not tucked in a corner.

[zorro1]

whats RTFM? second air con in the bedroom. have been running that and a fan at the door pointing to tv room but thats a band aid really. Will check out unit when I get back from Phi Phi where the little wall mounted unit in my room runs like a gem

[Crossy]

whats RTFM? second air con in the bedroom. have been running that and a fan at the door pointing to tv room but thats a band aid really. Will check out unit when I get back from Phi Phi where the little wall mounted unit in my room runs like a gem

Sorry mate, RTFM - Read The F*****g Manual, although in this case I suspect it's not going to help.

I find my single unit (at the end of a long room) produces warm and cool areas, a floor fan moves the air around for better distribution.

[galvheim]

I replaced my old wall-dial / thermostat with a remote one. I don't see how your reasoning would be thet a wall-dial would be any better. Seems like you not fully understand how the aircon works. Using a dial will definently do exactly the same as the remote.

The aircondition unit only have two settings - namley on and off, and its the thermostat, whether its in the aircon itself, the wall or in the remote (never seen that bbefore, but ok) that tells when the aircon should change between on or off. There is also a certain time that it has to run to avoid tuning on and off every minute, thus making it very cold for a moment and then letting the temperature rise. If it was going to hold an exact temperature of say 25 C*, then it would have had to turn on for a few seconds every few seconds. I think that would be a lot more annoying and very little cost effective.

My suggestion would be to try insulating your room a whole lot better. Yes it is expencive, but it will save you a lot of electricity and also reduce the amount of times the aircon have to kick in to drive out the heat.

If you strategically place the thermostat somwhere else you might get a more even on/off cycle. But you will never find a aircon that will just blow in exactly the temperature that you have set. At least not the ones I have seen. Again insulate your house using rockwool, ceramic fiber, Glava or something similar. I don't know where to get this in Thailand, but in my case I did my best building my bedroom from lightweight, white porous concrete that contains small bubbles of air, and then using two layers of gypsum in my roof, underneeth the asbestos roof. Now I am able too cool down the room, and letting the cold seep out much slower, thus less need for the aircon themrostat to tell the aircon to switch on to cold.

If anyone know where to get glass-fiber or some kind of similar insulation, please speak out! :-)

[jombom]

Change the battery in the handset, or borrow a handset from a neighbour and try again.

[doctormann]

Read this - it may help.

I have 3 A/C units in my place, two of which are relatively new Daikin and never give any trouble. The 3rd unit is an older (7-years) Saisho-Denki and every few weeks will exhibit exactly the symptoms that the OP is describing, i.e switches on/off in a short cycle as though 'hunting' for the set temperature. The behaviour can be monitored by observing the temperature display built into the wall unit. If the set point is 25 deg C the display can be observed cycling fairly rapidly between 24 deg C and whatever ambient temp happens to be, maybe 28 deg C.

I found out, more by luck than anything else, that the temperature sensor on the Saisho-Denki unit is very prone to collecting dirt / fluff, so that it doesn't see an unrestricted airflow. The air in its immediate vicinity cools very rapidly and the fan turns off, followed by the compressor. The sensor then warms back up, equally quickly, and the compressor and fan turn back on. The cycle time is only about one minute!

The solution is just to make sure that the sensor and its environs are clean. On my unit the air that the sensor sees is not filtered very effectively - poor design - so it is necessary, when doing the normal periodic filter clean, to clean around it separately. I have had no further trouble since I discovered this.

This may not help in your case but it's an easy thing to try.

DM

[stgrhe]

All convention air conditioners will hunt to some degree as they are fitted with the simplest of control loop, on - off control. Hence, there will always be a hysteresis between switch on cooling and switch off. In some units these settings are adjustable but in the end of the day the quality of the on - off control will depend on the accuracy of the pressure switch and the temperature sensor, but variations in temperature will always be there.

In OP's case I suggest he checks whether the settings can be adjusted.

To keep the temperature constant one would minimum need a PI-control (P=Proportional; I=Integration) unit and I do not know of any air conditioners having that.

[Pushit]

Keep your airconditioning systems clean and serviced, dirt builds up (rapidly in metropolitan areas) and seriously affects performance.

[zorro1]

Keep your airconditioning systems clean and serviced, dirt builds up (rapidly in metropolitan areas) and seriously affects performance.

Could be the simple answer. How often should they be serviced?

[Jdietz]

Inside unit, filters - clean them yourself at least monthly, when in heavy use or dusty environment bi-weekly. Full service (outside unit cleaning, system checkup) once or twice a year.

[lopburi3]

The temperature sensor is normally located on top area of the cooling fins just under the removable filter. If you are unlucky it can get pushed into the fins and will then immediately get shut off cool when compressor starts and quickly get hot when it stops. Look for a probe/loop above (or pushed into) the cooling fins on the control side of the air conditioner and get a space between the probe and the fins.

[oldgit]

The temperature sensor is normally located on top area of the cooling fins just under the removable filter. If you are unlucky it can get pushed into the fins and will then immediately get shut off cool when compressor starts and quickly get hot when it stops. Look for a probe/loop above (or pushed into) the cooling fins on the control side of the air conditioner and get a space between the probe and the fins.

When the OP was complaining of erratic temperature readings and conditions in the areas with the units,my thoughts turned to a faulty return air temperaure sensor as well,Lop. I find it hard to believe that an owner of a condo would foot the added expense of installing oversized air cond. units to a rented accommodation........it's usually the other way round!