3 Smart Devices That Can Pair With Your Air Conditioner

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The summer heat is brutal, and for most people, their air conditioner is working overtime just to keep their house habitable. Naturally, staying comfortable indoors during yet another record heatwave often means running the AC around the clock, even though that can lead to sky-high energy bills and an overworked HVAC system. Fortunately, an easy way to beat the heat without draining your bank account is with some smart home upgrades. By pairing a few clever gadgets with your existing air conditioner, both you and your wallet can chill out.

Coming home to a stuffy oven of a house is miserable, but leaving the AC blasting while you're away all day is a big waste of money. Thankfully, there are plenty of useful gadgets to help you beat the summer heat. And better yet, these smart tech gadgets can anticipate your everyday cooling needs, perfectly chilling your house when you need it, then shutting down when you don't. And since it's all about working smarter, not harder, letting these gadgets help you out is a genius idea.

From smart thermostats that learn your usage routines to tiny sensors that'll turn off your AC when doors are left open, having the right devices installed can make a huge difference in the way your air conditioning unit handles the heat. All in all, these clever upgrades bring intuitive control, automation, and energy efficiency to any setup. Here are three of our favorite smart devices that can pair with your air conditioner to help you stay cool.

For homes with central air conditioning, the thermostat is the brain of the whole operation, and the Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium is a total genius. It has a slim, stylish design, and it's easy to see the current temperature and make adjustments on its large display. Ecobee's thermostat works with all the major smart home ecosystems, like Google Home, Apple HomeKit, and Amazon Alexa, bringing voice controls and deep smart home automation right to your fingertips.

One of the coolest features of the Ecobee Premium is that it comes with a SmartSensor. While thermostats can only gauge the temperature in the area near where they're mounted, a sensor allows you to measure the temperature from a second location (wherever you put it). Sensors give you the ability to set the temperature for the areas you frequent most, rather than just where the thermostat is, so you can stay nice and cool. They're great additions to bedrooms, home offices, and your living room. Sensors are also a handy way to balance out the uneven cooling that's bound to happen throughout a house, especially in those with multiple stories.

Beyond keeping your house perfectly chilled, this Ecobee smart thermostat packs a built-in air quality monitor to keep tabs on indoor pollution and humidity levels. Combining real-time info from your home's environment with smart scheduling, sensors, and a feature-rich companion mobile app means your home stays comfortable all day long without wasting a single kilowatt of power. There's a reason it's considered one of the best smart thermostats, after all.

Millions of apartments and older homes rely on window units, portable air conditioners, or ductless mini-splits to fight off the summer heat. Unfortunately, those appliances are "dumb;" lacking any handy smart features and limited to pretty basic functionality. The Sensibo Air Pro is a smart AC controller aiming to change that by turning your air conditioner into a smart AC. It's a compact Wi-Fi bridge that grabs the signal from that old plastic infrared remote and connects your AC directly to the internet.

Once it's hooked up, the Sensibo Air Pro gives you total command over your climate from its companion mobile app, even if you're out at the park. So instead of leaving your AC blasting all day just to ensure your space is cooled by the time you get home from work, now you can tell it to cool from the app right before you start your commute home. The magic, however, is the Climate React feature. This allows the system to automatically power up or shut down your air conditioner based on specific temperature and humidity thresholds, so your room never gets too hot or cold. 

Beyond basic climate control, the powerhouse Pro model comes loaded with a built-in air quality sensor that detects unhealthy components like carbon dioxide. And if your indoor air quality takes a nosedive, the Sensibo app sends you an alert to either open a window or switch the unit over to fan mode to circulate fresh air. This clever AC controller is a simple and inexpensive way to drag an older air conditioner into the smart home era without spending a ton.

Hopefully this one is obvious, but one of the easiest ways to throw money out the window during a heatwave is literally to leave that window open. Keeping a home efficiently chilled means trapping that precious cold air inside, but kids, pets, and the like make that a constant challenge. That's where a smart contact sensor, like the Eve Door & Window Contact Sensor, steps in to save the day. These tiny, unassuming gadgets attach directly to frames and can instantly detect whether an entryway or window is left open, creating a foolproof barrier against energy waste.

Because the Eve sensor runs on the universal Matter smart home standard, it plays incredibly well with a variety of smart thermostats and AC controllers. With a few taps in a smart home app, users can create an automation rule, as well, stating something like "If a patio door or bedroom window stays open for more than three minutes, then the air conditioner automatically pauses." And the moment everything is securely shut, the cooling system kicks right back online without anyone needing to touch a dial or push a button.

These helpful sensors are the ultimate hands-off solution for maintaining climate control chaos. And the automation they use helps stop your air conditioner from working overtime trying to out-cool the incoming heat, extending the life of the HVAC hardware while keeping your monthly bills in check. This wireless, battery-operated sensor is a simple investment, and an absolute must-have for maximizing the cooling power of any AC unit while bringing some extra efficiency to your home.