Motion sensor air conditioners?

[maryj11]

I was watching YouTube and noticed a lot of resorts now have motion sensor air conditioners.
Has anyone had any problems with it shutting off while sleeping or anytime?
I’m not sure I like the idea of the air shutting off if there’s no motion.

 

[Wandering Oaken]

I was watching YouTube and noticed a lot of resorts now have motion sensor air conditioners.
Has anyone had any problems with it shutting off while sleeping or anytime?
I’m not sure I like the idea of the air shutting off if there’s no motion.

Try this.

https://buzz2k1.wixsite.com/coronado/ac-override

 

[maryj11]

Try this.

https://buzz2k1.wixsite.com/coronado/ac-override

Oh good, thank you!

 

[_19disnA]

I think the theory behind them is to reduce power usage when the room is empty. I seem to recall older threads that also mention these as an issue when sleeping in the room, since with the lack of motion the sensors think the room is unoccupied.

 

[cobright]

The short answer is, yes it happens, it's annoying. The thermostat displays will also 'lie' to you about the current temp and kind of gaslight you into thinking it's cooler than it actually is. It sounds nefarious said like that but it is a bit of social engineering.

 

[_19disnA]

When we last stayed at the Contemporary, no matter how high we set the temp, the room was always too cold for us. Not sure if it was just inaccurate or needed adjustment. I don't recall if it had the feature the OP is asking about or if that is only an issue at certain properties.

 

[MinnieMSue]

In all of our stays at various Disney and universal hotels we never had an issue keeping the room cool. I don’t know if we move in our sleep a lot or what but we have not once had an issue with the thermostats. Lucky I guess

 

[nascargirl]

When we were at the BC end of May I kept looking for ways to make the room cooler especially during the night. At one point I actually lowered the temp to 66 and that seemed to work. I really miss having the ceiling fans in the room. That made such a difference.

 

[kwdw]

This is the one thing I dislike about Disney hotels. Three times, yes, THREE, there have been significant HVAC issues in my room. Twice, Disney had to replace the a significant piece of the unit and once they replaced the thermostat. Luckily, they did actually fix the problem each time, but only after a miserable night.

The motion sensor thermostats are especially bad if you are in an AOA family suite with no one sleeping in the main room. Bedroom got hot in the middle of the night.

 

[Mamabun]

I’ve also heard of a tip of dangling a balloon near the sensor to keep it tricked into thinking there is motion, but have not ever tried that out myself.

 

[DisLiss]

I really miss having the ceiling fans in the room. That made such a difference.

I totally agree! I like it to be very cool when I'm sleeping and those fans really helped me.

 

[penel3]

Where exactly is the “sensor”, is it on the thermostat, or elsewhere in the room? The balloon sounds like a brilliant idea if it gets put in the right place! Thank you for that suggestion

 

[Wandering Oaken]

I’ve also heard of a tip of dangling a balloon near the sensor to keep it tricked into thinking there is motion, but have not ever tried that out myself.

https://buzz2k1.wixsite.com/coronado/ac-override

 

[penel3]

https://buzz2k1.wixsite.com/coronado/ac-override

I emailed myself both of these and saved it to my Disney folder! Thank you!!

 

[cobright]

Where exactly is the “sensor”, is it on the thermostat, or elsewhere in the room? The balloon sounds like a brilliant idea if it gets put in the right place! Thank you for that suggestion

The motion sensor is on the thermostat unit itself and is a Passive Infra-Red (PIR) type sensor. I'm entirely dubious of a balloon's ability to trigger the sensor as the balloon would be at about the same temp as the ambient air and emitting the same amount of IR as the rest of the room.

If you have trouble with it, google the specific thermostat model and get the operation/installation manual (easily available). The manual will tell you how to put it into VIP mode. Calling the front desk will get someone sent over to do the same thing.

I found that under the hood there is an input for an external motion sensor, and, depending on the model, jumping that connection to ground or to 12VDC makes it think there is constant movement in the room.

 

[Wandering Oaken]

If you have trouble with it, google the specific thermostat model and get the operation/installation manual (easily available). The manual will tell you how to put it into VIP mode. Calling the front desk will get someone sent over to do the same thing.

Or simply follow the directions I posted instead of searching all over the place.

 

[evilqueenmindy]

most of the issues I’ve had with motion sensor AC has been at the villas. For the most part, the resort rooms have been fine. (Just stayed at BWI this past weekend and the room stayed nice and chilly the whole time) we have used the balloon trick in the past and it worked okay, you just have to anchor your balloon with a shoe or something so it doesn’t float out of sensor range.

 

[cobright]

Or simply follow the directions I posted instead of searching all over the place.

In addition to the three(?) you've written up, there are at least 3 additional models of thermostats used in WDW resorts. I've even seen several different models used at the same property.

Most of us don't see typing a term into Google and looking for a PDF in the results as particularly taxing, and the upshot of using the operation/installation manual is that you get a professionally prepared set of instructions, photos, and illustrations.

 

[Haley R]

I emailed myself both of these and saved it to my Disney folder! Thank you!!

Haha I did the same! I emailed them to myself. We’re staying at an AoA family suite in September and I don’t wanna buy a balloon unless I have to