Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid>
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design
Subject: Re: A research team has managed to coordinate 100 domestic air
 conditioners to stabilise the power grid in real time, as if they were a
 flexible power plant.
Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2025 08:07:58 -0700
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
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On 6/16/2025 4:03 AM, Carlos E.R. wrote:
>>> My AC doesn't have a thermostat, 
>>
>> Then how does it know when to run and not run?
> 
> It is not an ON/OFF thermostat, it is more likely a PID controller, probably 
> implemented in software.
> 
> The result is that the compressor, once the target temp is reached, runs at low 
> speed, matching the exact heat/cold wasted and maintaining a constant 
> temperature. There is an inverter controlling the speed of the compressor.

Then, if you were to have been included in the survey, they would have
designed a different "controller" -- one that "lied" to the temperature
sensor in your unit to coerce it to use less (or more) power.  (They
effectively disconnected the thermostats in the buildings that participated
in the trial)

I posted a link to the actual paper, elsewhere this thread.

>>> it is continuously adjusted in tiny power adjustments with an inverter. 
>>> Switching a thermostat on/off would destroy it.
>>
>> So, in winter, it still cools?
> 
> No, if powered the air would flow, but the compressor would be stopped. 
> Actually, the user would push a button in the remote, and the unit would 
> generate heat instead.
>