Energy Freak Show

Our central heating system is a ductless minisplit cold climate heat pump. That’s a fancy way of saying “air conditioner that runs in reverse.” Li Ling expounded on the principles in a previous post but I wanted to mention one neat feature of the system. The unit is controlled by a programmable thermostat from Honeywell. This thermostat has a network option so it can be monitored and controlled from anywhere on the internet (via secure login of course!)

The Control Panel (via internet browser)

On my recent trip to Barbados I got an automatic email alert that the temperature in the house was down to 60F. I panicked for a minute, assuming something must be terribly wrong. The average outside temperature that day was 14F and I was over 2000 miles away.  We usually keep the indoor temperature set to least 65. One night in January the front door blew open sometime in the middle of the night and minisplit ran hard to keep the temperature at 65 degrees in the core of the house but it was able to, even with outside temperatures in the single digits that night.

So when I got the email alert, I panicked, then I logged on to the heating system control panel via my smartphone app. I found that the minisplit had been turned off for some reason. I turned it back on, sent Li Ling an email, and then went about my business (eating coconut and surfing.) When I skyped Li Ling later in the day, she said she had turned it off because she was using the wood stove instead. No damage done and the house warmed up quickly enough. If anything, it was a nice, reassuring feeling to know that the smart thermostat actually worked. The robot controlling our indoor climate was keeping track of things for me while I was away.