My Daikin air-con comes with the RC on the left. I have four of them. IIRC, they have light illuminating function, but it illuminates from one side only and becomes ineffective as the LCD darkens. One spoilt completely, so I have three left. This is the last to darken.
When the first RC failed, I went to TaoBao to buy a replacement. Most have Chinese labels, but there are English ones. I was not able to find the exact model, the closest I could find was the second from the left. It worked.
Later, I bought another unit to replace the ones with darkened display. I was not able to find the same replacement model, so I bought a similar one. Obviously the extra functions do nothing on my air-con. The clock drifts off very quickly on this model.
The RC on the right is from my Mitsubishi Electric Starmex air-con. Some differences:
Both brands can only use absolute time for timers. I wish they allow relative time, e.g. off in 2 hours.
The ME air-con manual recommends setting to Fan mode after Cool mode. This is to allow its inside to dry out. As such, it would be nice if the remote has such a quick setting: Fan mode at medium speed for 30 mins.
I bought a replacement RC for its backlight. I was tricked! The image shows even backlit illumination, the actual one is a single LED on one side!
The buttons are also stiffer and the up/down buttons are not glow-in-the-dark. There are also only 3 fan speeds instead of 4, but I knew that upfront. It is a waste of 26 yuan (S$4.65).
I'll continue to look for my ideal RC. It is not much:
Why do I want illuminated display? So that I can see the settings in the dark.
There is another way this can be done: by making the FCU beep differently at default settings. For example, the FCU can sound a different beep at these settings: cool mode, 24°C, auto-fan speed, auto-swing vane. The user can then use counting to get to the setting he wants. But UX designers today dislike this kind of 'advanced' usage. They are overwhelmingly visual oriented.
If you are an American citizen and you participate, you are either stupid or you are paid.
Regardless, you are someone's useful idiot.
Who? We'll know when they crawl out to speak out after the event.
You take the blame, they reap the benefits.
Peaceful protests will be met with peaceful response. Just saying.
Missus bought an instant hot water dispenser with 3L water tank, but she threw it away after the kids refilled the tank endlessly and it irritated her.
I found it very convenient, so I bought the same model (though different brand) from TaoBao for 158 yuan (~S$30 then), excluding shipping.
It is fast to use. Press 'Unlock', choose the temperature (room, 45°C, 55°C, 85°C, boiling) — it remembers your last choice — then select volume (160 ml, 260 ml). That's it.
Unfortunately, it spoiled in less than 8 months.
I noticed it could not dispense water out easily a few weeks ago and I could hear air bubbling sound (meaning the tube has air). It only dispensed half the volume compared to the past. I also saw a pool of water below the appliance once, but I chalked it up to my son overfilling his cup.
Finally, one day it could not draw any water at all but my son kept trying — it used to recover, he said. White smoke emitted from it with burnt plastic smell.
Upon opening it (long after it has cooled down, of course), I saw the plastic covering for the boiler had melted. Some screws were heavily rusted, meaning there had been water leakage for some time.
I feel this water dispenser failed because my son has a habit of dispensing until the tank is empty.
Instant hot water dispenser is super convenient. With it, I hardly boil water anymore. There is one downside to anything with a water tank though: alage grows in the tank after a couple of weeks.
After a few days without the water dispenser, Missus bought a Cornell 2.7L Instant Water Dispenser. She hardly used the water dispenser, but the kids used it all the time.
This one is harder to use, need to press 3s to unlock, one button each for temperature and volume to cycle through the options, then press 'Start'.
While the UI is slower to use, the hardware is better designed:
Cons: it has metallic and glossy surface, prone to fingerprints.
Nice touch: at higher temperatures (e.g. 65°C), it heats up the water for a short while before dispensing.
It is sold online for S$119, but this is an OEM model, so probably can be gotten cheaper on TaoBao.
This is small and has an attractive display. It measures 8 things (though some of them may be derived). I got it at ~S$42, now it is closer to S$55.
Would I buy it again?
Probably not.
First, it can only last ~4 hours on battery. This means it has to be connected to a USB charger all the time. But in general, such monitors don't last over a day on battery.
But the most critical thing is, it is not built to last. I have four units. In just a year, only one is still fully working.
| Unit | Battery | CO2 Sensor |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Y | Y |
| 2 | Y | N |
| 3 | N | N |
| 4 | N | Y |
The battery has spoilt on two units. They power off the moment they are disconnected from power.
The CO2 sensor has spoilt on two units. They always show max reading.
I read that CO2 sensor has a lifespan of a couple of years, but this is too short. CO2 reading is important in small enclosed rooms.
Unit 2 is currently overheating, it will go up to 38°C in ambient temperature. I don't dare to use it unattended for now. This has happened before and it went away on its own.
I need 4 measurements in a sensor:
(PM1.0 and PM10 are bonus.)
There are other monitors, but they are bigger and uglier.
At the other extreme are battery-powered sensors that only measure temperature and humidity.
This sensor is very small, it measures only 5.5 x 5.5 cm and is powered by two AAA batteries. Each set lasts 2 to 6 weeks, depending on its update frequency. There is another model without LCD display, it should last even longer.
I put one in the master bathroom (which suffers from poor ventilation) and one in the fridge! It works in the fridge, no problem. The only thing to watch out for is removing it from the fridge — taking it out for a short time is fine. Condensation will kill the circuit board. To prevent condensation, put it in a sealed bag before removing it and wait for it to reach ambient temperature.
This is a push-only device. You cannot query its status locally, can only query through Tuya Cloud. It makes sense as it is in power-off mode most of the time to conserve battery.
This sensor measures temperature to one decimal place — it is more precise than the 8-in-1 Air Quality Monitor.
At the minimum, the water heater needs to be on its own 20A circuit. Water heater needs 20A, no doubt about it. This may be easy to do cos there is already a 20A circuit to the master room water heater switch — it is near the water heater and is unused. It may be possible to reuse this wire.
Next, the dryer and 2nd air-con should be on their own 20A circuits. Will need to pull new circuits from the Circuit Breaker. It won't be cheap.
If I were to go wild, I'll create new zones for finer control. Instead of one 'left-side' power point circuit:
Instead of one 'right-side' power point circuit:
But there is no need to do so because ultimately, the whole flat is limited to 40A. It is dicey to run several high-current appliances together even if they are on separate circuits.
Also, I want to find answers to these:
There are three light switches in the kitchen I want to fix as well. They were installed when the kitchen was renovated and were connected to LED light strips. Two are not working at all. One has a loose connection and makes a cracking sound when turned on.
I just found there is 20A Tuya Smart Control meant for high current appliances such as water heater. I should be able to use it to monitor power usage for the water heater and existing air-con (need one each). The air-con isolator switch is at an extreme corner of the flat. Luckily the WiFi reception there still seems okay.
Lastly, it would be nice to conceal the fiber optic cable in the false ceiling.
