MONOLYTH: Smart device for window & wall AC units

[frenky]

My friend is in the team of guys developing device that turns regular AC unit into a smart one.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/monolyth-smart-device-for-window-wall-ac-units

Please back them if you could use a smart AC unit.

[frenky]

I'm not involved with the project so I have no idea.
I'll show this thread to a friend who developed firmware.

[Monolyth]

Some questions:

- How did you calculate the 40% energy saving figure?

- Have you written the app, or did you plan to develop it after funding?

- How much energy does the device itself use?

Hi,
I was notifyed about this discussion, so I will do my best to provide you with any question you might have. Feel free to post them to Indiegogo as well.

- the device itself runs on a ARM cortex M3, so the power consumption should be minimum (<5W). Of course we'll do the mesurements when we get the final PCBs from the production.

- the app is, let's say, in development. First we have to finish the HW part (pcb+firmware), then we plan to wrap up the app. It's the easy part.
We've been in SmartHome business for quite some years now, we have our own brand, so we have a lot of experience in this "device-cloud-app" field.

- the "40%" figure comes from various studies, that you can reduce your energy bill if using "smart" management. Of course the figure will vary on how much diligence you allready have, but the "average user" will, for example, turn on the A/C and just leave it running... with a combination presence and geofencing we can detect you went to (let's say) a store for an hour and therefor turn off the A/C automaticaly.

Regars,
Peter

[Monolyth]

So quite a lot of power used 24/7...

Maybe I should make the answer more clear: <5W was related to max power output (thought you were interested in that, sory). Of course you won't be using 5W 24/7, but until I do some more measurements I can't say about Idle power usage as the firmware is stil being developed. (using sleep cicle routines for mcu and sensors will drop the power usage significantly, but the optimisation is still to be done)

Just as a discussion, what would (for you) be an acceptable power usage for a "gadget" that you plug in and leave it powered on? For example at 0,1€/kWh constant 1W would cost you 0,88€ per year.

Okay, but the amount of money you are asking for doesn't seem like enough to pay someone to develop and high quality app on top of all the hardware stuff and actually building the things.

Point taken. 
Of course it's not enough to "pay" someone to develop the app, backend and build the circuit. We ourselves have made huge investments allready (webpage, promo video, first few prototypes, lots of sensors,...) and are planing to do so in the future. The point of us going to a crowdfunding platform is to get some funds to start a production. We plan to keep the Monolyth as a product and put it on the market to make some real money.
If we get the funding, the app will of course be available when we'll be shipping the packages.

I don't know anyone who just leaves the AC running all the time... Maybe in America where power is insanely cheap, but most places have things like thermostats and timers. Even basic Japanese models have multiple energy saving features.

Can you cite any of these studies? How do they relate to your specific product? To be honest it sounds like you just pulled the number out of your arse. With a reasonably modern air-con system it seems like this device would actually waste power.

It is true, that even a cheap PRC air conditioner will have some basic options. Many allready have timers. Some even support scheduling. But if you do some polls, an average user won't use it, or at least, not to it's potential. In the era of smartphones and tablets you "should" have an easy-to-use app and some algorithms to automate the process of setting the right temperatures. The point of our "device" is to optimise your a/c behaviour, using the features that it allready supports naturaly. So I don't know, why would it waste power, in case you would disable all the Monolyth's smart features, you would still gain remote control and graphs, which is a cool feature, don't you think?
Will get back to you with the studies quotes.


Regards,
Peter

[nowlan]

Daikan have some clever ideas.

Intelligent Eye
This is an infrared sensor with the ability to sense movement. When in the room, the air conditioner operates normally, but should you leave for more than 20 minutes the air conditioner automatically changes to an energy efficient operation.

Then there is Nest thermostats. Im not sure if they only control furnaces for heating, rather than aircon.

The last thing you might want to investigate is if the other companies have patents, etc.

[Psi]

Just getting the IR codes to control all types of AC/heatpump units out there and verifying they actually work is a massive undertaking.

So many devices have annoying quirks when trying to control them without any feedback as to the devices current state.
Some units even use a RF 2way link instead of IR so that the remote can know what the AC/heatpump is actually doing.

[tjb1]

Seems the new trend is running a Kickstarter with nothing done...

I predict in the future that I may revolutionize someones life, better get that started on Kickstarter now and I'll worry about the details later.

[CanadianAvenger]

Then there is Nest thermostats. Im not sure if they only control furnaces for heating, rather than aircon.

The last thing you might want to investigate is if the other companies have patents, etc.

Nest can control both heating and central AC. It cannot control window AC units. It may be able to control some wall mount [permanent] ones, that support a traditional thermostat interface. The Monolyth appears to be aimed more at the retro-fit window and wall mount AC units that are not tied to the household heating controls. It also appears that these units require an IR remote control interface to work with the Monolyth -- something that most permanent units don't have.

[CanadianAvenger]

Most permanent units have IR control here, maybe it's different in Canada.

Sorry to be clear by permanent [in the last sentence] I meant the central air type where the evaporator coil/heat exchanger is in a forced air furnace, this type typically does not have an IR interface. The wall mount and window units, on the other-hand quite often do have an IR interface.

[Monolyth]

Just some thoughts...

Each manufacturer has diferent IR codes, even different regarding diferent models. We know, this was actualy one of our first chalanges, so we've been building a database (scanning remotes) of those for various A/C's for more than 10 months now. Couple of hundred and counting...

There various types of heating/cooling units available on the market. We are targeting the Air conditioners, that can be controller via IR remote control, which is, by our data the majority of cooling units available.

As for the comparison with Nest: it is ment as a replacement of existing (wall mounted) thermostats. So, it's a solutoin for wired systems - it can be used for cooling with fancoils, let's say, but not for IR controlled A/C units.

Regards,
Peter

[Skimask]

Guess what I can do for $0?

Turn up the A/C when I leave...

Turn down the A/C when I come back...

Material required:  1 finger.
Time required:  Milliseconds.
Effort required:  Minimal to none.
Intelligence required:  Minimal to none.

That should be crowd fund-able by the moronic masses...

[edavid]

Can I set a target temperature and time, and let the "Monolyth" figure out the AC settings to get there?

(Not that I'm going to order one for January delivery... I'd say that was poor planning.)

[CarrieCooper]

Is this work for all AC in the market like http://www.thegoodgears.com/Window-Air-Conditioner/ or just specify model that support to this technology.