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Ambi Climate gives your air conditioner a brain

Ambi Climate gives your air conditioner a brain
Ambi Climate takes advantage of a Wi-Fi connection to evaluate climate and optimize the performance of your existing air conditioner
Ambi Climate takes advantage of a Wi-Fi connection to evaluate climate and optimize the performance of your existing air conditioner
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The desktop device measures 4.10 x 2.05 x 3.46 in (105 x 52 x 88 mm)
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The desktop device measures 4.10 x 2.05 x 3.46 in (105 x 52 x 88 mm)
The device works in conjunction with an app on your iPhone or Android device
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The device works in conjunction with an app on your iPhone or Android device
Ambi Climate takes advantage of a Wi-Fi connection to evaluate climate and optimize the performance of your existing air conditioner
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Ambi Climate takes advantage of a Wi-Fi connection to evaluate climate and optimize the performance of your existing air conditioner
Ambi Climate sensor diagram
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Ambi Climate sensor diagram
Ambi Climate talks to your AC through IR just like a regular remote control
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Ambi Climate talks to your AC through IR just like a regular remote control
Ambi Climate founding Team – Timothy Chang, Paul Sykes, Julian Lee
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Ambi Climate founding Team – Timothy Chang, Paul Sykes, Julian Lee
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Your typical air conditioning unit in an apartment or home is a stupid creature, failing to work intelligently to create the most comfortable temperature environment for you in the most efficient way. Start up Ambi Climate thinks it has built the better brain to solve this issue in the form of a new standalone device and smartphone app that is seeing strong success as a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign.

The Ambi Climate device, say those behind it, works in a simple three step process. You download the app to your smartphone. You place the desktop product in the room you would like comfort to be optimized. The app and the device then communicate with your air conditioner and, based upon specialized profiling, create the preferred climate you’ll enjoy.

In practice this boils down to adaptive settings and learning technology. There are a range of data points this gadget considers as it tells your AC when and how to operate. Some of this information comes manually from the app on your iPhone or Android device, which includes a range of settings to let you program your ideal comfort zone.

Where the Ambi Climate really is designed to shine though is in its automatic considerations of the world around it. In part through being connected to WiFi, it evaluates the factors of weather, humidity, sunlight, occupancy in the room and activity levels in determining what temperature to set things to in conjunction with what you are comfortable with.

Ambi Climate sensor diagram
Ambi Climate sensor diagram

Once all of this data has been crunched it talks to your AC through IR just like a regular remote control. You need to have first paired the two of them together, which is done during the initial setup process. You can then control it remotely if you wish through your smartphone app, and it will even make use of geolocation sensing through your phone to turn on as you are heading home.

As for energy efficiency, it comes into play in a variety of ways, including the Ambi Climate estimating how your AC usage will impact your energy bill. This information, presented through the app, helps guide you into making better energy consumption level decisions. This could mean, for example, suggesting when to close your curtains.

Ambi Climate, while innovative, certainly isn’t the only product/platform we’ve seen try its hand intelligently managing your home climate. Smart air conditioners are being built from the ground up, while Tado is another taking the smartphone app and standalone device approach – the two different offerings overlap in many regards in terms of feature and function. Either offer improvements over the lonely and basic AC unit you have stuck in your apartment’s window, though.

The device works in conjunction with an app on your iPhone or Android device
The device works in conjunction with an app on your iPhone or Android device

Like Tado, Ambi Climate has turned to Kickstarter for help in getting funding off the ground. It's already tripled its initial funding goal and is well on the way to meeting some stretch goals. Some beta units are slated for delivery by the end of November and if all goes to plan, the Ambi Climate will hit full production in June next year with a retail price of US$149.

Ambi Labs CEO Julian Lee explains how the device works in the pitch video below.

Source: Ambi Climate

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3 comments
3 comments
Dmitry Sinelov
All this phone-operated, smart ACs are great. Wish manufacturers will, instead, focus on making reliable units like they used to. Kinda sucks to have a super intelligent AC that doesn't work due to cheap materials and crappy quality...
Intellcity
If you really want an efficient high SEER AC operation you need a variable speed unit. Simple on/off operation is a waste of energy that is not helped much by using fancy controls.
Paul Anthony
Is therea way to sense outside air temp and draw cool air from out side?