Holiday Rental Air Conditioning Controls
A problem faced by many holiday rental owners is huge electric from air conditioning
units been left on 24 hours by guests. We have great experience in this field and would
like to share some of the solutions we have come up with.
Coin/card operated timers
By far the most popular method to limit control is by the use of coin timers or card meters.
Guests will be much more likely to limit there use of the air conditioning units if they are
paying for the privilege. The coin meters work by only allowing the air conditioning to
run whilst there is available credit in the meter. An amount is preset into the meter for
one hours use. This can be any amount you like and can be changed at any time. For example,
if the rate is set to 1€ per hour, then when a 1€ coin is put into the meter the air
conditioning is given 1 hour of operation. The credit can be held, so if the unit is
run for half an hour and then the credit held, the guest can use the other half an hour at
another time. The problem with the coin timers is they don not monitor power consumption, so
if 5 units are fed from 1 meter than the guests pay the same amount for 1 hour using only
1 units as they would with 1 hour using all 5 units. The solution is the card timers, which
are much more advanced. They monitor power consumption and charge accordingly. The payment
to these meters is via a pre-paid paper card, which has a one time use. This means that using
one unit for 1 hour will cost 20% of using 5 units for an hour.
Infa-red Sensors
An idea based on the Daikin Intelligent Eye system. A Infa-red movement sensor (like what
is used for burglar alarm systems) is fitted into the conditioned room. The air conditioning
can only be used whilst there are people in that room. There is a time delay on the sensor
which allows the air conditioning to keep running for a short time after the room is vacated.
This prevents the unit from starting/stopping too much during times when people are moving
around the house. This is a cheap and easy fix, but can cause problems where people would
like to run the air conditioning for a short while before going to bed. This can not be done
without someone being in the room.
One button Control
Another cheap and easy option is the removal of the remote controls for the air conditioning
and replaced with a switch. Most units can be programmed to auto-restart with the last
settings set on the remote control. The unit is preset to an appropriate temperature, Fan
speed and mode. The guests can only switch the unit on or off and have no control over
temperature control. This option can prevent people setting the units down 16°C cooling or
30°C heating, which will use more power to achieve. By limiting the temperature, the unit
will not run as long, hence consumes less electric. The units can still be left on 24 hours
a day, but will not consume electric the whole time, as they reach their temperature set point
much quicker, reducing running costs.
