It’s hot and I am going home? I want my room cool and comfy! For that, all I do is go through my Smartphone app and switch the room’s AC on remotely from my car! And when I enter the room, I see my cozy bed ready for me!
Turning devices on and off remotely is now what I love about smart homes! Manually going to the AC and switching it on is a matter of the past now! But how! Can I use a smart plug with an air conditioner? Let’s know!
Using Smart Plug with Air Conditioner
Now, when you ask first if you can use a smart plug with an air conditioner, the easy answer is, yes you can! Then, is it safe to use a smart plug with an air conditioner? Yes, it is! When you go out of the home and you want to switch on the AC of your home, you can do it by just voice command! Go through Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant.
All you need to do is tell it to switch on the AC and you are ready. When you reach home, you are going to enjoy fresh and cool weather! On the other hand, when it comes to saving electricity, you can do it from outside of your home too. Go through the phone and adjust the temperature of the AC. You can switch it on or switch it off remotely with the help of smart plugs.
Some homes usually have a central air conditioner to keep the whole house cool and comfortable. In that case, you can get a better deal if you settle for the Nest Thermostat. With this, you can easily control the centralized AC. The best part is, no matter you are dealing with smart speakers or any other smart devices, they will be compatible with those!
Another amazing fact is the artificial intelligence of Nest Thermostat helps you a lot. With this feature, it can know about the household easily. Along with this, it’s effortless to adopt the household settings too.
How does it work?
With the help of the smart plug, you can easily make the AC unit of your room smart. Here, the work of the smart plug is to make a connection between your AC and phone, Alexa, Google Assistant, etc. It works with an elementary law. After you have connected the home smart plugs to an end outlet, you have to add them to the AC or other devices.
To program or control the devices through the smart plug, you will need a Smartphone app. In this case, the Voice-controlled services also work. But you will need a smart virtual assistant for this. So, in short, the smart plug works as an intermediary gadget here. The job of this one is to incorporate and work as a medium.
When does it work?
As you are using a smart plug, you do not need to manually go through the switches to switch it off or switch it on. It can turn on or off automatically when you instruct it via your Smartphone app. But to make this work, the AC should be on standby mode.
In this situation, the smart plugs will work. But if you switch off the smart plug, there will be no connection to the appliances it is connected to. If you switch on the smart plug, the electricity will get in. And then, it will start functioning and connecting to the appliance.
1. Switches and Power Interruption
Now, as we already told you that smart plug works with the AC, you might think that it works with AC no matter in where state the AC is! But this is not like that! All the air conditioners are not allowed to work with the smart plug feature.
2. AC with Manual Switch
First, we will discuss air conditioners that have a manual switch. The accompanying switches might not be the perfect one to do the job. We have manually switched to switch on lights and fans. You can connect it to the smart light switch and control it remotely. The positional state of the AC that has a manual switch is an important fact here.
If a power interruption occurs, the positional state where the switch was before the interruption will stay the same way when the power restoration occurs. In that case, if you want to change it, you have to go for it manually. So, if you want the smart plug to work, the manual switch should be switched on first.
Once you have switched on and it is connected to the smart plug, the smart plug with control in. And to start with, you will control the smart plug!
3. AC with Electrical Switches
Now, let’s discuss the AC that has electrical switched. The work of the electrical switch is to store the normal state of the circuit board. If there is any power interruption, you will see that all the memory of the pas is lost. And in this case, if you want to switch it on, you have to go and switch on the air conditioner once again when the power restoration occurs.
No matter you have connected it to the smart plug or not, you have to go through the switch and switch it on if there is a power break. So, even if the smart plug is added, if there is a power interruption, you cannot command your smartphone app and switch it on again. It won’t work.
4. AC with LED Screen or Soft Buttons
Some electrical switches come in the form of LED screens or soft buttons. You have to go through these buttons or the screen to switch on or control the air conditioner. If you add smart plugs to these, it won’t work. You cannot control them with your Smartphone or voice command. Learn more about “how do smart plugs work with Alexa” here!
5. AC with Mechanical Switches
If you have an air conditioner that works with a physical toggle switch, you should understand that it works with a mechanical switch. In the cases of AC that you switch on using the dials and control it through them, they use a mechanical switch. And if you add smart plugs to these AC, they will work just fine with it!
Wrap Up
Making a smart home has become easy with smart plugs now. All you need is to add a smart plug and you can use it to switch on the air conditioner or any other device of your house. That too only by tapping on voice commanding! We have described thoroughly how and when it works! Check it out!
I’m James. The author of Electricalaffairs.com. It’s been my passion to deal with power tools and gears. This website is mainly to talk about electrical wirings, lighting, various power source tools and accessories. I want to explore tackles and help people to grow their basic knowledge about electrical things. I would also like to help people to pick the right power tool for their daily needs.