I’m looking for a portable air conditioner (the kind with 1 or 2 hoses that go to outside air). The problem I’m running into is that every single one I find has some kind of “smart” controller built in. The ones with no WiFi connectivity still have buttons to start/stop the AC, meaning that a simple Zigbee outlet switch won’t work. I could switch the AC off, but it would require a button-press to switch it back on. The ones with WiFi connectivity all require “cloud” access; my IoT devices all connect to a VLAN with no internet access, and I plan to keep it that way.
I suppose I could hack a relay in place of the “start” button, but I’d really rather just have something I can plug in and use.
I can’t use a window AC; the room has no windows. I’ll need to route intake/exhaust through the wall. So far, I can’t find any “portable” AC that will work for me.
What I’m looking for is a portable AC that either:
- Connects to WiFi and integrates with HA locally.
- Has no connectivity but uses “dumb” controls so I can switch it with a Zigbee outlet switch.
Any ideas?
This is looking more and more like my best option. I guess I can just buy an AC and run it with thr on-board temperature control until I have time to build and integrate an ESP board.