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Sensibo adds smarts and connectivity to your ancient air conditioner

Who says you have to buy a brand-new air conditioner to get a smart air conditioner? After all, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Helping you abide by that mentality is Sensibo, a company dedicated to making your old air conditioner work like new — or at the very least, work like it’s smart. This Sensibo Sky isn’t an AC unit in and of itself, but it does promise to make “your existing air conditioner smart and connected” by way of internet connectivity and a companion app. And ultimately, the company says, this will allow you to save a “significant amount of energy,” and by extension, a significant amount of cash.

As the earth continues to warm, and summers continue to get hotter, it comes as little surprise that we’re in a mad rush to buy AC units to save us from the brutal heat of the summer. And in the 21st century, there are no shortage of smart thermostats to help connect us to those units. The problem, however, arises when our air conditioners fail to connect with those thermostats. How are you supposed to control your home if it’s not entirely connected to your smartphone? Luckily, that’s where

Sensibo

comes into play.

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Claiming to work with window ACs, split ACs, portable ACs, and more, the Sensibo is effectively the one device to rule them all (where “them” refers to AC units). Moreover, the company notes that the Sensibo is also compatible with different kinds of heat pumps, helping you save money and energy in both the winter and the summer. Better still, this particular smart home device is compatible with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, IFTTT, and more, making operation a breeze.

With the Sensibo, users can set a variety of schedules — for example, you can program your AC to turn on the heat when you wake up in the morning, or cool the house down as you arrive home from work. It doesn’t matter whether or not your unit is inherently smart or dumb — just let Sensibo do the work.

“Sensibo is the building block of smart connectivity,” said Jim DiSanto, managing director of Motus Ventures, Sensibo’s parent company. “It immediately and inexpensively turns any appliance into a smart, connected device.”

Lulu Chang
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