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A view of a pink exterior wall with a portable air conditioner attached to the window.
Photo: Kara Knight/iStock

How I Made My Ragtag Band of Window ACs Smarter Than Central Air

It is a timeworn custom of mine that, after enduring a few weeks of the inferno that is high summer in New York City, when the scorched streets shimmer with heat and a funky reek blankets the air, I tear my hair and rage at myself for not living in a place with central air conditioning. Like many other city dwellers, I depend instead on a ragtag band of window air conditioners, but running from room to room turning them on and off all day and night in hopes of not being bankrupted by the power company is a full-time job. As with many other modern conveniences, however, it turns out that you can use a few easy smart-home tricks—automated actions like Routines and Schedules—to make these machines more efficiently and comfortably cool your home by mimicking a whole-home system. (And yes, you can enlist Alexa’s help, too.)

If, like me, you already own several window units, the quickest path to smartening them up is simply to buy a smart plug-in outlet (also called a smart plug or smart switch) for each unit. You can find tons of models to choose from, but be sure to buy only the kind that is capable of handling the often high amperage draw of an AC unit—we like Wemo smart plugs for that reason (and a lot of other reasons; you can see them all in our guide to the best plug-in smart outlets). Once you set your smart switches up with your smartphone, you plug your ACs in and turn them on—and then the smart-home magic begins. At the most basic level, you can turn any or all of your ACs on and off, from anywhere you like, using a smartphone app. In fact, you can also use your voice to do that, via your phone or any smart speaker—Amazon Echo, Apple HomePod, or Google Nest. You can’t adjust the temperature or change the cooling modes this way, but you can preset your ACs to a specific setting so that they cool each room to its own temperature. (That’s usually impossible with central air, but a mini-split system can pull it off.)

A Wemo smart plug used to power smart window air conditioners
The secret to making a smart system out of a ragtag band of window air conditioners? A smart plug on every unit. Photo: Sarah Kobos

You can also have all your switches react to the same command at once by going into the smartphone app and connecting them together as a Group; or you might even make a few Groups, called Upstairs and Downstairs, for instance, or Bedrooms. That way you can turn a select bunch of devices on or off all at once rather than individually.

A step up from controlling your ACs one at a time or as a Group is to automate your plug-in outlets so that each AC runs more or less on its own, without your needing to turn devices on and off at all. Using the smartphone app (or a compatible smart-home platform like Alexa, Apple’s HomeKit, or Google Assistant, among many others) you can create a Schedule, which is like the digital version of a traditional lighting timer: You set the switch to turn on and off at specific times throughout the day. That way you might have one Group of ACs turn on during the day, have the Bedroom Group of ACs turn on an hour before bed, and then have them turn off again in the middle of the night. But wait—we’re just getting started!

Two side by side screenshots of the Alexa app that show routine settings. The first has AC set to off when Jon's device leaves Home, and the second has the air conditioning set to power on when you say "Alexa, chill this house out."
Two side by side screenshots of Apple's home app. The first shows the window air conditioning turn on scene, and the second shows an automation for the air conditioning to turn off when the last person leaves home.
Using Amazon’s Alexa app (top two images) and Apple’s Home app, I was able to quickly create a few Routines and Automations so that my ACs run efficiently on autopilot.

Things get even more sophisticated if you incorporate Routines (using Alexa) or Automations (using Apple HomeKit), which are automated actions based on a host of other factors: the time of day, the temperature, motion, other smart devices, your location, and so on. Using the Alexa app or Apple Home app, in about a minute you can set things up so that your smart switches turn off when you leave the house and turn back on when you return. Using Alexa you can create custom voice commands, as well. When I walk in the house and it’s hotter than Hades, I can choose the nuclear option: I bellow “Alexa, chill this house out,” all four AC units kick on, and Alexa responds with “Keeping things cool like Fonzie.” Correctamundo!

A Midea smart window air conditioner attached to an apartment window.
With the new-for-2020 Midea smart window AC, you can save the smart plug for something else. Photo: James Austin

Smart plugs are the simplest option, but for a more permanent setup you might consider installing a smart electrical outlet, which functionally works the same but is more streamlined and less likely to get unplugged accidentally (we don’t have a pick in this category yet, but we have used an iDevices model with both Alexa and HomeKit, and it works well).

And if you haven’t already purchased a window AC or are looking to upgrade, you can now find several models that have smart capabilities built in. We especially like the Midea smart window AC, which you can fully control— including altering the temperature and cooling mode—by remote through its smartphone app but also through voice or Routines in Alexa. See our guide to the best air conditioners for a full rundown of its performance.

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