I went with Nest, not my best decision. I like the batteries in the pearl versus running a fake c-wire to a wall outlet. So I'm considering changing it out but this time I'm going to research a little more!
Does anyone know if you can trick the pearl or change it's settings so that it thinks there is an AC when there isn't? I would then set up rules so that when the AC is on at the thermostat it controls an outlet with a window AC.
I don't know if that is possible. IIRC, when I installed my Pearl it auto-detected the type of HVAC system I have. A suggestion...If you want to control an
window AC unit with a smart outlet, you could use some sort of temperature sensor mapped to a virtual thermostat and run rules from that. I believe I've seen several members here doing that.
Definitely a good suggestion. And I've had that setup before and works well. Just nice to control the ac traditionally thru the thermostat. I have it working with the nest to think there is an ac but Im not a fan of the setup. Was hoping the pearl would have some better way without being a hack!
I've have to guess the Pearl looks at what is connected to the terminals to determine what the systems might be. If that is the case, a simple relay on the AC controller wire and perhaps the AC fan should fool the thermostat into thinking there is an A/C connected.
You might also be able to fool it with a few resistors or maybe an optocoupler.
I just got a pearl and installed it.
The good news, it is dumb enough (unlike the nest) to believe me if I say there is an AC. It comes defaulted assuming there is one. You can also change the setting on the device.
So it looks like I will be able to use it to control the window AC.
It didn't work at first linked to google home with the generic driver. But I found that either the Zen or the Lux Zigbee drivers worked. The generic controlled the device, but wouldn't accept commands from google home.
Suggestion for others - I went with white, as it would match switches etc, but it looks a little weird. With no C wire, the screen is fully black inside a white frame (I heard it might show temperature with a c wire). I'm not a huge fan of the look, but for $80 I'm ok with it - plus couldn't find a black one. The nest was definitely prettier.
EDIT: I take it back, those 2 drivers (zen and luz) work to control the device from google home, but apparently don't report back the correct battery level or status (heating/cooling/idle). So I changed back to the generic, and now it is working with google home. Hopefully it stays working - best guess maybe when I resynced devices with the other drivers google home figured it out, then switching the driver back works? Or maybe I just got it all wrong in the first place!
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