Adding IR universal remote control to control Houghton heatpump

[meassick]

We have a Houghton AC3400 heatpump in our 5.0. This heatpump is basically controlled with an IR remote (which has terrible range). However, there are several drawbacks with only using this control:

1. The heatpump circulating fan is always running on low speed unless it is modified so that the fan does not run on low speed as I did. This modification is not hard, takes maybe an hour. The added benefit of this modification is that when in AC mode and the compressor is not running the fan is off and moisture is not being re-evaporated from the cooling coil and put back into the trailer. See post #104 of this link: Houghton AC unit - Page 6 - Airstream Forums for information about the modification.
2. Without the modification described above, the always on heatpump circulating fan draws about 50W, which is substantial for a off-grid setup relying only on solar. Even with the fan modification, there is still about 10W of standby power being drawn.
3. There is no good way of turning the heatpump on and off depending on a temperature setpoint, or a humidity setpoint. I want to use the AC to dehumidify the trailer.

If one wants to control the heatpump remotely and there is internet access available, a IR blaster can be used to control the heatpump. I used one with built in temperature and humidity sensors: Amazon.com others would probably also work.

To use it, one needs to have the Smart Life installed on a cell phone. To program the IR blaster:

1. Install the IR blaster into Smart Life as described, an icon within Smart Life for the IR blaster will be displayed.
2. Set the Houghton remote to the mode, temperature, fan speed that you want and turn off the AC with the remote.
3. Go to the Smart Life app, open the IR blaster iron and then add device and follow directions to add the Houghton AC (I had to use the DIY option as the Houghton was not a supported device)
4. One the Houghton is added, go into that and do an 'Edit', then 'Copy Button' You will then need to point the Houghton remote directly at the IR blaster and press the on button of the remote. It may take a couple of tries but eventually works. Name this whatever you like.
5. Do another 'Edit' and 'Copy Button', but in this case have the Houghton AC on and hit the 'off' button to program that.

You now should have an icon in the Smart Life App and a number of buttons programmed within the Smart Life App as shown:

To turn on and off the heatpump due to either temperature or humidity, create a scene within Smart Life to do that: