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Old 03-04-2013, 10:52 AM   #10
Dragonslayer140
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Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Camano Island, WA
Posts: 163
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Using a wall mounted switch to kill the power to the entire unit would be a simple way to get the job done if you are just looking to turn off the unit from bed. Plus you do not have to run any extra wires. Just be sure you use a 20 amp motor rated switch, a standard light switch is only rated at 15 amps and the startup surge from the motor will destroy the contacts rapidly.

It should also be possible to add a relay up in the ac unit (line voltage coil) to control the fan from the built in compressor thermostat. Connect the relay coil to common and the output from the thermostat, and break the hot wire feeding the fan switch, and run it through the relay contacts. The the fan will shut off with the compressor.

As far as controlling fan speed with my wall mount stat conversion, if you use an RV stat it has a built in switch for manually selecting fan speed. With a standard battery operated thermostat you will only have one speed. you could install a single pole double throw switch adjacent to the stat, and that would let you select the speed the same as the rv stat, but still us a programmable stat. There are also programmable stats (Honeywell makes some) that have up to three fan speeds built in. The thermostat uses the difference in temperature from actual temp to programmed temp to decide what speed to run the fan, high speed when it is much warmer than what you want, and slows it down once it has caught up.

When I modified mine I removed the wiring from the internal controls disabling them. It might be possible to leave them in place and wire a remote stat in parallel, but i did not see the need.
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