I’m looking for some hardware recommendations for my Home Assistant setup. I have four Midea split air conditioners that are not “smart” and I need a way to monitor their power consumption and be able to completely cut the power to them when needed.
I’ve already found some Zigbee IR remotes to handle the remote control aspect (turning on/off, changing temperature, etc.), but I’m struggling to find a solution for the power monitoring and power cut part.
I’m looking for a device that is compatible with Home Assistant and can handle these specifications (220V, 11A, phase-to-phase). Does anyone have experience with a similar setup or can recommend a specific Zigbee device that would work?
I have a Third Reality Zigbee plug on mine that has power monitoring. The Midea I have always comes back on after the power is cut if they were on before.
I manage them with humidity sensors.
I have a max runtime on them (2 hours).
They cannot be run if the day’s electrical consumption is over a certain level
They cannot be run if the outdoor humidity is lower than the indoor
My setup is a little different—I don’t have a plug, the AC unit is hardwired directly to the electrical panel. So I can’t use a smart plug.
I’m looking for a Zigbee smart switch that I can install directly on the wires. It needs to handle 220V and 11A (phase-to-phase) to be compatible with my system. I need a device that can be installed inline, allowing me to cut the wires and place the switch in the middle.
Besides the fact that cutting off mains power to a running AC might cause issues to the compressor, you need to look into inrush current.
Most motors will pull up to 3x the rated current briefly on startup, so any module you choose must be rated for that or it’ll release the magic smoke (or worse).
You say your ACs aren’t smart, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t be integrated into HA.
There’s a massive thread here on using a cheap ESP with Midea. I suggest you search the forum and read up.
You might not get power monitoring if you go the Esp way, but you’ll certainly be able to do safe startups & shutdowns plus control without relying on IR.
What does it mean? Some ancient models that doesn’t offer possibility for wifi dongle?
If you are happy with IR control, go with that. Not all Midea models have energy monitor anyway.
Like ShadowFist mentioned, cutting off the power is not the correct way to control power on/off.
I suspect your Midea is inverter model?, so it likely doesn’t have 3x max rated inrush.
You could use Shelly PM Gen4 (16A), the zigbee integration might need still little bit tinkering though.
Using a current clamp is the right way to monitor power on a device like this. You can monitor power without the ability to shut off power to it (which, in this case, is a good thing). It could be done in the circuit breaker panel or at the device itself if there is room.
Here’s a Shelly with a current clamp that would work:
My AC is compatible with the wifi dongle, and I’m checking this possibility as well. Thanks.
Regarding using a current clamp to monitor power on the device, since my AC is a line-to-line unit, does this mean I’ll need two clamps, one for each power line?
What do you think about replacing the AC circuit breaker with a device for this purpose?
That’s a great point. I’ve already checked and it seems the specific model I purchased has this feature. One of my AC units came with the Wi-Fi dongle included, and I was able to set it up perfectly using the Midea SmartHome app.
From there, I integrated it into my Home Assistant using the “Midea AC LAN” add-on from HACS. It exposed the “total_energy_consumption” attribute, which is exactly what I needed.
To enhance security, I then used iptables rules on my router to block the AC’s internet access. Now, I have full local control and energy consumption monitoring, with no security concerns. Everything is working perfectly.
