I saw Retire@60's AC post, so I figured that I'd add this info.


The house that I'm renting has a Honeywell CT3600 (or CT3697) programmable thermostat. It has a function called 'Smart Response' technology. And there are plenty of other Honeywell thermostats with the same technology.

OK, I set my thermostat for four different temps daily.
After 830AM, I let the temp run as high as it can (I've got it set for 94 degrees) and use ceiling fans. And then I hop in the pool if it gets too hot in the house.
At 430PM, I have it set to go to 80 degrees.

Now, here's the rub. The 'Smart Response' technology starts cooling the house at ~230PM to get the temp down to 80 degrees BY 430PM instead of starting to cool down the house at 430PM. I finally figured out how to turn it off the other day.

Here's the text on it:

Quote:

SMART RESPONSE™ TECHNOLOGY
Your CT3600/CT3697 is actually a small computer. The Smart Response technology calculates the correct time of day to turn on your heating or cooling system. Smart Response technology considers the following information.
• Air temperature.
• Wall temperature.
• The time of day when you want the comfort temperature established.
When the thermostat activates Smart Response technology, the thermostat
displays In Recovery, changes the setpoint, and turns on the system. • Your CT3600/CT3697 Thermostat learns from experience. Each day it checks how closely it hit the recovery target and then adjusts the next day’s recovery start time accordingly. • It takes a few days after installation for the thermostat to adjust to the local weather, your lifestyle, the construction of your home, and your heating/cooling system. • You can turn off Smart Response
technology by selecting Conventional Recovery. See Step 8. Customize Your
Thermostat.

I figure that there are a lot of TFers out there who adjust their thermostats so that while your house is empty, you don't heat/cool the house. Careful. If you've got a Honeywell thermostat, you need to disable the 'Smart Response' technology. And I imagine that other thermostat manufacturers have the same junk with their thermostats.

Some of those Honeywells are very good at learning the response curve of your HVAC plant and optimizing it. This sort of "smart response" simply means you need to set the thermostat's change time to when you want to arrive home to that temperature. I would not disable it - the algorythm is in fact quite good at optimizing response of the system to minimize utility use given the parameters you tell the thermostat to operate under.

My a/c posts from last year? Wow, glad to see they were of some use.

Frankly all this green technology **** does not impress me much. The only thing that I like so far are ECM motors which allow for variable speed air flow. ECM is a more efficient motor in general compared to PSC, but they allow a little more functionality in where you set your speed settings.

But in your example, stuff like this is overrated. All people will feel comfortable at a certain temperature, period. They have a decent idea within a couple degrees of where this is and they want their system to maintain that temp. It really is that simple. All this add-on green computing smart tech algorithmic junk is just fluff to me. My simple 5-2 day thermostat does exactly what I need it to at the times I need it. But hey, if you get off on all the latest bells and whistles, go for it.

Here's the CT3600/CT3697 manual: http://customer.honeywell.com/techlit/pd....

Here's the general link to Honeywell thermostat manuals: http://yourhome.honeywell.com/home/Appli....

You should be able to find your thermostat's manual on the web.

Retire, yeah, right until that ECM motor pukes, as mine did on the 3rd of July.

And yes, it sucked - of course with the supply houses closed NOBODY had one of them ****ers on their truck.

It's all good now, but it blows big fat monkey dicks when you have ZERO airflow capacity in the unit as a consequence of a blower failure.

Quote:

Some of those Honeywells are very good at learning the response curve of your HVAC plant and optimizing it. This sort of "smart response" simply means you need to set the thermostat's change time to when you want to arrive home to that temperature. I would not disable it - the algorythm is in fact quite good at optimizing response of the system to minimize utility use given the parameters you tell the thermostat to operate under.

I understand that if you want your home to be AT the temperature, the Smart Response is good for that. However, even if the temperature in our house is above the target, as long as the air conditioner is operating and blowing cool air in the house, it seems cool enough for both my wife and me. I simply want the house to START cooling off at 430PM. I could game the system by changing the time to cool the house to 6PM but that's not my objective.
Bottom line is that our house, at 85 degrees and the A/C running feels to us at least as cool as when the temp reads 80 degrees without the A/C running.

Motor failure can always happen, no matter if it's an ECM or PSC or belt-driven. I always have spare parts on-hand in my garage in case of some of the more common failures. 99% of people never do something like that. That's the best advice I can give you.

Ifly, I understand - then shut it off.....

Retire, yeah true in the general sense. I was rather surprised actually, but in this case the damn motor was under warranty. Keeping another one around isn't my idea of cost-effective in a situation like this, but what 'ya gonna do..... no airflow means no cool.

... just to add a bit to the conversation, I'm looking at this in terms of saving energy. Currently, our air conditioner unit is in the sun from 815AM to 315PM. I don't want to run the A/C while it's in the sun, as it's my understanding that the unit consumes more energy when the sun is shining on the unit.

When my wife's out of town, I will sometimes not turn on the A/C until 630PM or later. My wife was in town all last month and we had some of her relatives here. It was hot, but the extra A/C usage really shot up our electricity bill ... $215.01 (Jun) vs $110.88 in the previous month. Keep in mind that our house is 1812sf; I can't imagine how expensive it is to cool a McMansion here. Granted, it was a lot hotter but I was surprised to see the bill rise that much.
For the last bill, 3 Jun to 6 Jul, we used 1860 kWh.
I just read our electric meter and we've used 990 kWh since the 6th, but my wife's relatives (who wanted the house much cooler than I'd like) just left last weekend. I'd like to at least keep the usage this next month under 1800 kWh.

Final note: Tucson is very dry. If you live in a humid part of the country, you may want your A/C to run more often than I do.

Ifly, best suggestion I can give you there is to find somehow to put the condenser in the shade. When I was in Tucson a lot of homes had theirs on the roof...is that your case as well?

I don't know what the local vegetation and plant life is like out there, but if you can plan a small tree that will grow over the years to shade that spot, that's a good option. Or maybe install an awning. I will emphasize that even if it were in the shade, you should not expect a drastic reduction in your electric bill or a miraculous boost of performance in cooling your home...only that it does help a little.

The condenser is on the southeast side of the house and there is a wall to the southeast of the condenser that blocks out the early morning sun so I'm happy with the amount of shade it gets.

The way I look at it, there's no need to run the A/C prior to 430PM or so anyway (kind of futile with this heat) so I don't see a need to add any additional shading.

I know that shade doesn't add a huge amount of energy savings but every little bit helps.
Another big consumer of energy at our house is the pool filter; I run the filter several hours every day.

I have a Honeywell. My house is 1800"^2, 57 years old. My AC runs most efficiently with lowest cost if I just leave it at 79 degrees all day long with no change. Otherwise it has to run too long continuously cooling the house down again. It is still 94 degrees here at 8pm.

My bill was $250 for electricity last month (1960KWH). The average daily high temp over that time was 100 degrees.
http://www.wunderground.com/history/airp....

If you get a blower failure, divorce her.

Yep. They're worthless at that point.

i have a honeywell that turns the AC on/off AT the desired time.

However, it's not much different than just flipping the switch off before i leave for work.


Although with the 4 temp setting, I'm able to shut off the AC while I'm asleep too.

80* is nuts. I have my house set at 74. ****ing cold, baby.

Quote:

80* is nuts.

Tucson. It's a dry heat.

that's like saying dry humping is better than beating off.

Well, it feels cold in the house when the temperature goes below 75. So it may be the thermostat reading.

Anyone have one of these:

http://www.homedepot.com/buy/electrical-....


Good/bad/other?

Genesis wrote..

Keeping another one around isn't my idea of cost-effective in a situation like this, but what 'ya gonna do..... no airflow means no cool.

If I owned the house I am living in instead of renting it I'd replace all the motors in the HVAC system with these: http://ab.rockwellautomation.com/Motors/..... Then I'd step up to 480V and power them from PowerFlex 70 drives.

It would be slightly overkill and not at all cost effective but it'd be bulletproof, not to mention all the tinkering possibilities you get when all your motors are controlled by a programmable VFD.