“Internet of Things” seems to be the trending term in the technology scene in 2015. Technologists and innovators are trying to integrate technology and internet together with things that we use everyday, making them “smarter” and essentially, improve our lives. However, it may seemed that these ideas are overhyped and we fail to really understand what more good they can bring to us.
Today, we are going focus our efforts on Ambi Climate, the Smart Add-On to your home/office Air Controller. How does Ambi Climate change the way we control our Air Conditioner at home? What benefits will it bring?
Introduction
The Ambi Climate controller is a simple device that is powered via the usual USB standard. The device is connected by a MicroUSB port. Thankfully, it also has a USB output which we can use to connect to other USB powered devices. Next to it is a reset button that put the device back to its default factory settings.
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| Light Notifications |
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| Light Notifications(Night) |
The Ambi Climate sensor is equipped with a temperature and a humidity sensors. These are the main sensors where the control gets its feedback from, and coupled with user feedback, recommends the best settings for the air conditioner. It also has a built in beep that notifies the user whenever there is a change in air conditioner settings. Also, the light indicators at the front effectively tells the user the status of the controller. We also appreciate the thoughts that Ambi Labs have put into the design of the notification lights, as we found that the lights were not glaring and comfortable to the eyes when it is placed in the dark.
Setting up
We had to connect the device to our home wireless network next. It was noted that Ambi Climate does not support the 5GHz channel on routers, but it was not a huge issue, as most routers out in the market will have a 2.4GHz channel.
Next, the device has to understand the brand and make of your air conditioner controller. With the long list of compatible products, we thought that it would be tough not to find any mainstream models on the list. We had a Mitsubishi Electric in our room, and choosing the right controller model within the application was done in seconds.
With that, the setting up process is almost completed. Now, the Ambi Climate just has to understand your comfort level and create the air conditioner settings accordingly.
What it does
For a start, as the device has yet to understand the user, a “Comfort” mode is yet to be available. To kickstart the learning process, we had to set the Mode to “Temperature”, which targets the room to be maintained at a certain temperature. The temperature and humidity sensor will record the room’s temperature and humidity, and log these information down. If you are feeling too hot or too cold, you simply have to tell the application that you are feeling so, and the controller will instruct the air conditioner to change its settings to suit your needs. This logging of essential data allows the hardware to know the user’s preferred settings of the air conditioner based on the physical factors of the room. This measure of comfort level is practical and makes much more sense than just relying data within the thermostat in the air conditioner.
Once Ambi Climate understands your comfort level, you will unlock the “Comfort” mode, which is a personalized mode based on your previous inputs. There will not be a need to change the air conditioner settings from the remote control ever again.
Pros and Cons
Due to the short period of testing of the Ambi Climate device, we will not be able to see the actual long term advantages that the device brings. It is understood that with such a dedicated smart controller for the air conditioner, we will ultimately save quite an amount of money. The controller can actually help to turn up the settings of the air conditioner when it has reached the optimal physical settings in the room, and thus reducing the electrical power it utilizes. Also, as the fan speed decreases, there will also be less a need to maintain the air conditioner unit as frequently.
However, there weren’t all advantages on the Ambi Climate controller. During our review, we realised that it was quite painful to get the machine to start learning your comfort level. As expected, Ambi Climate controller will change the settings of the air conditioner at night to provide a more comfortable sleep and reduce acoustic levels. At times, this change in setting can be too drastic for user. This has woke me up from my sleep several times throughout the night to tell the Ambi Climate device through the phone app that I was feeling too hot or too cold, and spoilt quality sleep time. As the device slowly understood my comfort level, it was able to adapt well enough and the settings were adequate, after the introduction of “Comfort” mode.
Conclusion
Ambi Climate is now available for S$279.00 at the Challenger Christmas event in ION Orchard, Basement Atrium from December 7th until January 3rd. Opening hours are from 11 am to 9 pm daily. Ambi Climate will also be available at selected retail partners starting from mid Dec 2015.
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