How to beat the energy vandals!

[Robin4]

Power wastage is a never ending problem with guests.

Although we produce most of our own energy on the property, whatever gets used on the property is energy I can’t export back to the grid and get paid for! So whichever way it goes, guests wasting power is costing me money.

You can ask guests not to run appliances like air conditioning when they are not present but, they just ignore you, so, not wishing to upset them, I gave up trying.

To this point automatic air conditioning off controls are activated by motion sensors within the property, and that can be an issue at times when the guest is there but there is no movement. The guest gets annoyed having to turn the a/c back on again all the time, I know, I have tried that approach!

My first step at control was to use a master a/c controller that would not allow the temperature to be increased above 23c (73f) on heating, or below 20c (68f) on cooling, and that overcame the problem of those guests that will leave the cottage for the afternoon and evening on a cold afternoon, after winding the temp up to 30c so it would be toasty warm to come back to......they figure they are paying for it so, they might as well put it to good use!

This control is available in the US for less than $50 and is a really good investment!

Sometimes they will ask why we do this, and I just say with the price of electricity being what it is here, for my listing amount of $90 per night we have to set the limit somewhere….and they accept that. Well none have marked me down for it yet!

But, they still steadfastly refused to turn the a/c off when they were not there.

Oh joy of joys, I have at last got them beaten, and my solution was really cheap to make up, and install!

I purchased a cheap frequency transmitter which is on the cottage keyring........

I then bought a motion/receiver relay which I have installed on the front gate...........

This relay is hooked up to the air conditioning power circuit and as soon as the guest leaves the property the air/con system will turn off, and as soon as they come in from the street, the air/con will start again and within 5 minutes will have the cottage up to temperature again!  

If the guest just wants to get something from the car, the air/con will stop as soon as they leave the driveway but, turns on again as soon as they re-enter the property and as far as they are concerned there has been no interuption to the a/c operation.

The only major challenge I could not solve myself was the situation where the guest would actually turn the a/c off before leaving the premises. I didn't want the situation where their leaving would actually activate the unit so I had a local electronics guy install a sensor circuit that would detect when current was not being used by the a/c on leaving or entering the property, and bypass the gate sensor!

So far it is working like a gem and will pay for itself within a couple of months.

Available equipment may vary from country to country but, everything I used is wisely available off the shelf products  so, where possible, if anyone wants the details of how this has been accomplished I will gladly supply to interested hosts!

Cheers......Rob

[Mona-Meng0]

Consider Google assistant n link ac 

Attach motion camera to trigger 

U can manually dial av or call Google 

2 cents idea

[Ana1971]

@Robin4 

Great work, mate! I was just thinking through this very problem myself so I was very glad to find this. You said "Available equipment may vary from country to country but, everything I used is wisely available off the shelf products  so, where possible, if anyone wants the details of how this has been accomplished I will gladly supply to interested hosts!" I would VERY much like the details of the equipment you used and how you hooked it all together if you would be so kind as to share it. Much appreciated! (PS South Australia rules! Spent some time in Mount Barker at a friend's house when I was growing up in Adelaide).