SMART AIR-CONDITIONING CONTROL

A Project Report

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of

DIPLOMA IN ELECTRICAL POWER

Presented To
University of Technology and Applied Sciences - Salalah
Department of Engineering
Electrical Engineering Section

Supervised By:
Engr. Leah Belaya
Lecturer

Engr. Crescente Tadeo

Support Staff

Submitted By:
Nasser Obaid Ghasib Alharsoosi
42J184

July 2022
 Sultanate of Oman
University of Technology and Applied Sciences - Salalah
Engineering Department

This Project entitled “Smart Air-Conditioning Control” prepared and submitted

by Nasser Obaid Ghasib Alharsoosi in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree
of Diploma in Electrical Power Engineering has been examined and hereby recommended for
approval and acceptance.

___________________________________________________________________________

Approved by the COMMITTEE ON EXAMINATION

and

Accepted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree

Higher Diploma in Electrical Power Engineering

Engr. Leah Belaya Engr. Crescente Tadeo

Project Supervisor Project Supervisor

Page I
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We wish to express our immense gratitude to the Almighty ALLAH for His protection,
journey mercy, wisdom, and understanding that has kept us throughout this project. Our sincere
gratitude also goes to Engr. Leah Belaya and Engr. Crescente Tadeo for their keen supervision
in making this work a success. We also wish to express our warm heartfelt thanks to all staff of
the Electrical & Electronics Engineering section for their time and support.

Sincere appreciation also goes to our immediate family and the extended family for
their understanding and encouragement.

Page II
 ABSTRACT

In this project, the researchers apply a smart air-conditioning control system. The
project is a fusion of the traditional electrical appliance controls and electronic control
systems. This project aims to control the air conditioning system using a microcontroller,
temperature sensors, and ultrasonic sensors to increase the efficiency of the system,
enhance its performance, and reduce power consumption through a smooth control of
the air conditioning temperature level. The smart home appliance control and monitoring
system are developed fulfilling three specific objectives: user comfort, cost-
effectiveness, and real-life implementation. A miniature prototype has been built with
the proposed system to prove the idea and show its feasibility.

Keyword: Air conditioning control, microcontroller, ultrasonic sensor, motion

sensor, relay

Page III
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Certificate I

Acknowledgment II

Abstract III

Table of Contents IV

List of Tables V

List of Figures VI

Abbreviations and Nomenclature VII

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Overview 1

1.2 Aims and Objectives 2

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEWS

2.1 Related Literature 3-4

CHAPTER 3: DESIGN METHODOLOGY

3.1 Conceptual Design 5

3.2 Detailed Design and Specifications 6

3.3 Implementation 7

3.4 Program Code Listing 9

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS and DISCUSSIONS

4.1 Results 11

4.2 Discussions 11

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION and FUTURE STUDY

5.1 Conclusion 12

5.2 Recommendations for future work 13

References 14

Page IV
 LIST OF TABLES

Table Title Page

4.1 Testing the DH11 sensors and relays 11
4.2 Testing the PIR and Ultrasonic sensors and relays 11

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Title Page

3.1 Block Diagram 6
3.2 Schematic Diagram 6
3.3 Actual Circuit Connection 7
3.4 Connection of relays to microcontroller 7

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 ABBREVIATIONS

AC Air conditioner
IR Infrared
DHT Temperature & Humidity Sensor
LCD Liquid Crystal Display

NOMENCLATURE

kΩ Kilo Ohm
kW Kilo Watt
A Ampere
mA Milliampere
V Volte
µF Microfarad
Wh Watt per Hours

Page VI
 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Overview

2 Smart air conditioners are air conditioner units that connect to the other smart appliances in
your home to better control your home's comfort level. These devices look similar to standard
room air conditioners.

Air conditioning systems in residential houses consume big amounts of electricity and is usually

accompanied with peak demand issues. Because of this, the residential sector has enormous potential to be a

key player in the future of grid management . Thus, optimizing the use of air conditioning systems is a topic

that earned global interest.

Different modeling techniques have been implemented through the years to study the effect of optimizing the

electricity consumption through air conditioning systems . Passive thermal energy storage might not be

enough to achieve the purpose of cost reduction and peak shifting under variable energy prices, thus,

incorporating an energy storage system (e.g. a battery) is something that needs to be studied.

This paper presents a simple model for optimizing the cooling energy cost in residential houses through

dynamic real-time optimization (D-RTO) incorporating a battery energy storage system under two different

electricity pricing structures; time-of-use (TOU), and real-time pricing (RTP). The work demonstrates that

dynamic optimization with a battery storage system can decrease the energy cost and shift the peak energy

consumption periods towards off-peak price hours better than optimization without an energy storage system.

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2.1 Aims and Objectives

The aim of this project is to design a device that monitors and controls the temperature
and humidity of a space or room in real-time and at any time and is controlled by a
programmable microcontroller, relays, and sensors.

This project has the following specific objectives:

 Design a smart air-conditioning control system that monitors the humidity, room
temperature, and ventilation level of a room.
 Interface the sensors and transmitter to the microcontroller to monitor the environment
in a specific space or room to a desirable in-home temperature.
 Test and evaluate the efficiency of the design.

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 CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Related Literature

Cardillo, E., Li, C., & Caddemi, A. (2021). Embedded heating, ventilation, and air-
conditioning control systems: From traditional technologies toward radar advanced
sensing. Review of Scientific Instruments, 92(6), 061501.

The topic has broad impacts on society, by affecting energy consumption, Earth’s
climate, and the environmental health. Great effort was taken by researchers to study and test
new technologies and methodologies for improving HVAC energy efficiency, but this large
amount of works is often fragmentary, and a complete and recent review paper does not yet
exist. This paper aims at filling this gap by clarifying the key points of HVAC sensing, the
main technologies, and their pros and cons. [1]

Wang, S., & Tang, R. (2017). Supply-based feedback control strategy of air-
conditioning systems for direct load control of buildings responding to urgent
requests of smart grids. Applied Energy, 201, 419-432.

Power demand response (DR) of buildings is considered as one of most promising

solutions to power imbalance and reliability issues in smart grids while demand response
control of air-conditioning systems is a most effective means. A fast demand response control
strategy, direct load control by shutting down part of operating chillers, has received great
attention in recent DR researches and applications. This method, however, would lead to
uneven indoor air temperature rises among individual air-conditioned spaces due to the failure
of proper distribution of limited cooling supply by the conventional demand-based feedback
control strategy commonly used today. A novel supply-based feedback control strategy is
therefore proposed to effectively solve the problems caused by the fast demand response and
power limiting control strategy. This proposed strategy employs global and local cooling
distributors based on adaptive utility function to reset the set-points of chilled water flow and
air flow for each zone and space online. Simplified offline and online identification methods,
for the two parameters respectively, ensure the convenience and robustness of the adaptive
utility function in applications. Case studies are conducted on a simulated air-conditioning
system to test and validate the proposed control strategy [2]

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 Özkan, H. A., & Aybar, A. (2016, June). A smart air conditioner in smart home. In 2016
IEEE 16th International Conference on Environment and Electrical Engineering
(EEEIC) (pp. 1-6). IEEE.

In this work, a smart Air Conditioner scheme is proposed and its adaptation to a Smart
Home system is presented. Firstly, working principles of conventional Air Conditioner and
the proposed smart Air Conditioner are explained and compared. Then, Petri net model of the
smart Air Conditioner is developed in order to enable a good general view of the operation of
the smart-Air Conditioner and its adaptation to Smart Home. Moreover, for monitoring and
controlling the smart Air Conditioner, a program is prepared by using Keysight VEE 9.3
software. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme provides a significant
savings in electricity bills as well as improving user comfort. [3]

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 CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

3.1 Conceptual Design

In this project, we connect all the components in the breadboard transistor, resistors ,relay and
temperature sensor, ultrasonic sensor, and PIR(motion) sensors to sense the real-time temperature
and presence of people or space inside a room. The microcontroller understands this digital input
from the different sensors. The potential difference for the change should not be higher than 5V or
under 0V.

The block diagram is shown in figure 3.1 in which Arduino UNO works as a central
unit that processes all the inputs and outputs. The input elements are a DC battery for the
power supply which powers up the 3-channel relays, sensor, and Arduino UNO. In this
project, a smart air-conditioner control circuit could minimize the electricity chargers by
varying the AC temperature automatically based on the temperature of the room. By varying
the set temperature periodically, we can avoid making the AC work for lower temperature
values for a long time and thus making it consume less power.

This project uses a Temperature sensor (DHT22) which reads the present temperature
of the room and based on that value will send commands to the AC through an IR blaster
similar to the AC’s Remote through the NPN transistors and relay. The AC will react to these
commands as if it is reacting to its remote and thus adjust the temperature. As the room’s
temperature changes, the Arduino will also adjust the air conditioner set the temperature to
maintain the predetermined temperature.

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 Figure 3.1 Block Diagram

3.2 Detailed Design and Specifications:

We used a breadboard in this project to group all the parts together as shown in figure
3.2 and the actual connection shown in figure 3.3:

Figure 3.2 Schematic Diagram

We use the DHT11 temperature sensor to read the Temperature and Humidity and display it
on the LCD. Once we determine the current temperature of the room, we just have to compare it with
the desired value. This desired value is a constant value that is set as 20°C (Degree Celsius) in the
program. So based on this comparison we set a corresponding AC temperature.

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 Figure 3.3 Actual Circuit Connection

After completing the connection of the electrical circuit, we observe how the DHT11
sensor provides the temperature and humidity level. Moreover, the triggering of the relay
module. In this project, we use three (3) relays one for ON/OFF the air conditioner, another
for increased temperature, and lastly for decreased temperature.

Figure 3.4 Connection of Relay to Microcontroller

Page 7
3.3 Implementation

These are essential components that we use in the Smart AC control.

3.3.1 DHT11 Temperature and Humidity Sensor
It is a basic, ultra low-cost digital temperature and humidity sensor. It uses a capacitive humidity

sensor and a thermistor to measure the surrounding air, and spits out a digital signal on the data pin

(no analog input pins needed). Its fairly simple to use, but requires careful timing to grab data.

3.3.2 PIR Motion Sensor

A passive infrared sensor (PIR sensor) is an electronic sensor that measures infrared (IR) light radiating from

objects in its field of view. They are most often used in PIR-based motion detectors. PIR sensors are

commonly used in security alarms and automatic lighting applications.

3.3.2 Ultrasonic Sensor

is an electronic device that measures the distance of a target object by emitting ultrasonic sound

waves, and converts the reflected sound into an electrical signal. Ultrasonic waves travel faster than

the speed of audible sound.

3.3.3 Relay
is an electrically operated switch. It consists of a set of input terminals for a single or multiple

control signals, and a set of operating contact terminals. The switch may have any number of

contacts in multiple contact forms, such as make contacts, break contacts, or combinations thereof.

A relay is a programmable electrical switch, which can be controlled by Arduino or any micro-
controller.
It is used to programmatically control on/off the devices, which use the high voltage and/or high
current.
Pins in the high voltage group are connected to the high voltage device, including three pins:
COM pin: common pin. It is used in both normally open mode and normally closed mode.
NO pin: normally open pin. It is used in the normally open mode.
NC pin: normally closed pin. It is used in the normally closed mode.
In this project, we use relay operations in Normally Closed Mode. We connect the transistor to the
COM pin and NC pin to the remote control.

Page 8
If the IN pin is connected to LOW (0V), the switch is closed. The air conditioner device is ON (or
active). If the IN pin is connected to HIGH (+5V), the switch is open. The air conditioner device
is OFF (or inactive).

Page 9
3.4 Program Code Listing

#include <LiquidCrystal.h>
LiquidCrystal lcd(2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7);
// LiquidCrystal lcd(RS, EN, D4, D5, D6, D7);
int tempValue = 0;
byte degree[] = { 7, 5, 7, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 };
#define sensorTMP36 A1
//---------------------------------------------setup
void setup() {
lcd.begin(16, 2);
lcd.setCursor(0, 0); lcd.print("Liquid Crystal");
lcd.setCursor(0, 1); lcd.print("Display w LM35");
delay(200);
lcd.clear();
lcd.createChar(0, degree);
lcd.print("Temperature");

delay(500);
delline(1);
Serial.begin(9600);
}
String msg;
void Temperature ( int v ) {
msg = "";
if (v >= 56 && v <= 125) {
msg = " HOT ";
}
else if (v >= 40 && v <= 55) {
msg = " WARM ";
}
else if (v >= 25 && v <= 39) {
msg = " NORMAL ";
}
else if (v >= 10 && v <= 24) {
msg = " COOL ";
}
else if (v >= 0 && v <= 9) {
msg = " COLD ";
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 }
else if (v >= -40 && v <= -1) {
msg = " FREEZE ";
}
}
float fmap(long x, long in_min, long in_max, long out_min, long out_max) {
return (float)(x - in_min) * (out_max - out_min) / (float)(in_max - in_min) + out_min;
}
void delline(int line) {
lcd.setCursor(0, line);
lcd.print(" ");
lcd.setCursor(0, line);
}
int Select = 0;
//---------------------------------------------loop
void loop() {
float C = fmap(((analogRead(sensorTMP36) - 20 ) * 3.04), 0, 1023, -40, 125);
// float C = map(((analogRead(sensorTMP36) - 20 ) * 3.04), 0, 1023, -40, 125);
Temperature(C);
float Celsius = C;
// Temperature conversions from Celsius Temperature conversions to Celsius
float Fahrenheit = C * 9 / 5 + 32; // C = (F - 32) * 5 / 9
switch (Select) {
case 0:
lcd.setCursor(4, 0); lcd.print("Celsius");
delay(500); delline(1);
lcd.print(Celsius);
lcd.write((byte)0); lcd.print("C ");
break;
case 1:
lcd.setCursor(3, 0); lcd.print("Fahrenheit");
delay(500); delline(1);
lcd.print(Fahrenheit);
lcd.write((byte)0); lcd.print("F ");
break;
}
lcd.setCursor(9, 1); lcd.print(msg);
}

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 CHAPTER 4
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
4.1 Results
Table 4.1 Testing the DH11 sensors and relays
Trials Temperature Humidity Relay Switch Relay Up Temp Relay Down Temp

1 34℃ 80% ON None Decrease to 20℃

2 30℃ 76% ON None Decrease to 20℃

3 32℃ 78% ON None Decrease to 20℃

Table 4.1 shows as the temperature increases and the humidity (%) increase, the relay
switch triggers the control circuit to decrease the temperature to 20℃.

Table 4.2 Testing the PIR and Ultrasonic sensors and relays
Trials No. of People Relay Switch Up Relay Switch Down Relay Switch ON/OFF

1 0 None None OFF

2 1 None Decrease to 20℃ ON

3 5 None Decrease to 20℃ ON

Table 4.2 shows as the number of people increases, the relay switch triggers the
control circuit to decrease the temperature to 20℃.

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 CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

5.1 Conclusions
In conclusion, we were design Smart A.C Control, because our society need this product
in the homes and in public places.

Climate change is one massive issue that just cannot be ignored. 87% of US homes are equipped

with air conditioners, and as a result, 117 million metric tons of carbon dioxide are released into

the air yearly. This number is only growing rather than the other way around. We all need to play our

part in reducing our carbon footprint to slow the effects of climate change.

Although smart ACs do contribute towards energy use and carbon emissions, they help save much

more than conventional air conditioners. Cielo Breez devices, that make any conventional AC smart,

claim to help save up to 25% of energy. This greatly reduces the burden on our environment and

can help slow down climate change.

You can save 120 pounds of CO2 emissions for every degree above 72F on your thermostat

settings. Moreover, they can be programmed to run only when needed and at the lowest possible fan

and cooling setting.

This project is a collective work that we have done throughout this academic semester, hoping that

this project will provide the college and its students with service to benefit from in the future.

5.2 Recommendations for future work

In our project, we have some advantages And disadvantages like: Unavailability of places
when it’s crashes. When some part is not working, another parts will not .working Smart
A.C will save power more than A.C controlled by remote. It is working automatically to
controlling the temperature with humidity and the weather up to no. of persons.

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 REFERENCES

1) Cardillo, E., Li, C., & Caddemi, A. (2021). Embedded heating, ventilation, and air-
conditioning control systems: From traditional technologies toward radar advanced
sensing. Review of Scientific Instruments, 92(6), 061501.

2) Wang, S., & Tang, R. (2017). Supply-based feedback control strategy of air-conditioning
systems for direct load control of buildings responding to urgent requests of smart
grids. Applied Energy, 201, 419-432.

3) Özkan, H. A., & Aybar, A. (2016, June). A smart air conditioner in smart home. In 2016
IEEE 16th International Conference on Environment and Electrical Engineering
(EEEIC) (pp. 1-6). IEEE.

Page 14