Air Conditioning – Gree AC and HomeKit
July 10, 2021
A cikk magyar változatáért kattints ide.
Why? ❔
After smart lighting, upgrading the air conditioner for smart features is one of the most comfort-enhancing projects, especially if it allows us to use remote control, voice commands, and automation protocols with the AC as well.
For example, I love that I can just say at home, “Hey Siri, turn on the AC to 22 degrees,” and the air conditioner kicks on, cooling the room immediately. During these hot 37–40°C days, I don’t need to keep it running all night. Instead, I can set it to turn off early in the morning once the temperature drops to a comfortable level. It’s fantastic to turn it on from hundreds of kilometres away so that it’s already nice and cool when I get home.
But you can control it remotely with its own app! 🎛️
This is partly true, but let’s just say that aside from the Panasonic ACs, most apps have terrible user interfaces and lack voice control and automation features. By integrating the device into the ecosystem of your choice (whether Alexa, Google Home, or HomeKit), you not only gain these two major extra features but also a decent user interface.
Anyone who has tried controlling the popular Gree ACs via their own app understands the issue: the interface is unattractive and limited in functionality, but its stability leaves much to be desired. For instance, my app regularly fails to connect to the AC, even though it’s clearly powered and online, as I can still control it without issue through HomeKit.
What Do You Need? Wi-Fi vs Infrared 🆚
To my knowledge, no air conditioner comes out of the box with HomeKit compatibility, so we need to be creative.
We need to consider several factors when adding smart features to air conditioners. First, check if the device can connect to the internet. If yes, great; if not, it’s not a deal-breaker. Most modern ACs come with Wi-Fi support. In this case, you’ll need to use its own app to set up the network connection and find the device’s internal IP address. This can be done from the router’s control panel, which is necessary for configuring the HomeBridge/Hoobs plugin, regardless of the AC model (assuming a plugin is available).
If the AC doesn’t have Wi-Fi support, there is still a workable solution for HomeKit integration.
Almost all air conditioners can be controlled by infrared remote, and several HomeKit-enabled devices support this. Examples include the tado° Smart AC Control V3+ and the Sensibo Smart AC.
However, this approach isn’t as seamless as HomeBridge/Hoobs integration. These devices work with HomeKit out of the box, with minimal setup (just identifying your AC model and scanning the HomeKit code), but the communication is one-way.
Why is that an issue? Infrared signals can sometimes fail to reach the device. This isn’t a big deal when using the remote at home, as you can press the button again. However, if you’re attempting to control it remotely, say from 500 kilometres away, you might activate the command in the Home app, but it may or may not reach the AC.
You won’t receive feedback on whether it worked, as the gadget updates its status to “off” in the Home app, but your AC could still be running if interference blocked the signal. Naturally, you’ll want to place the gadget in a location with a clear line of sight to the AC for optimal signal transmission, but these signal issues aren’t uncommon.
In short, with infrared remote controls, you won’t have state synchronization, so if you turn on the AC via the app and someone else turns it off with the remote (or changes the temperature), it will still show as “on” in your app since you sent the last command.
In contrast, HomeBridge/Hoobs integrations—since they operate over the network—receive status updates, so regardless of whether someone is using the remote, the correct status will always appear in the Home app.
I can write about Gree ACs in this article since I have one at home (I chose it because I checked the plugin quality beforehand).
Gree -> HomeKit à la Hoobs 🏠
As mentioned earlier, connect the device to your home Wi-Fi network. Unfortunately, this means using the Gree app initially, but once it’s on the network, you can safely stop using it.
Follow the app’s instructions, then check on your router’s control panel to ensure it’s connected. If so, assign a fixed IP address to the AC, as it’s inconvenient if this changes after each restart, given that the plugin setup requires this IP.
I use the “Gree Heatercooler” plugin, although I see two others available as I write this. This one works for me.
An interesting note: Hungarian software developer Tamás Kárpáti (tomikaa87) reverse-engineered the communication protocol for Gree ACs!
Once the plugin is installed, enter the device details into the configuration interface as follows:
{
"accessory": "GreeHeaterCooler",
"host": "192.168.XXX.YYY", // Write the IP address here
"name": "AC Name", // This would be the name of the AC in the Home app
"acModel": "AC Model", // You can also write the model number here if you want
"updateInterval": 10000
}If the AC doesn’t have an internal temperature sensor, or the plugin fails to read it correctly (mine consistently showed -40°C), add this line to the configuration file:
"useTargetTempAsCurrent": true,This setting adjusts the Home app to display the temperature you set on the AC.
If it can read the value but, for some reason, displays a fixed temperature offset (for example, showing 40 degrees lower in the Home app), then add the following line to the configuration:
"acTempSensorShift": 40, The “40” represents the offset needed to display the actual temperature. You can enter a negative value here if the reading is too high rather than too low.
Once configured, save the settings, and the AC will appear in the Home app; just place it in the appropriate Home room.
From here, you can use Siri voice commands, automate settings, control cooling/heating mode, fan speed, etc.
Here’s how it appears in the Home app:
Summary 📄
Integrating a Gree AC with HomeKit isn’t too challenging. As mentioned, boxed solutions are available (though with some compromises), but integrating with HomeBridge/Hoobs is also reasonably straightforward.
Since ACs vary in type, functionality may differ, but this setup is generally feasible.
