HELP! It is going to be hotter than - well, you know - the next few days into next week and I won't be home and have animals. I went to Home Depot to purchase a timer for my window air conditioner, only to be told, when I asked where timers were and what I was going to be using it for, that a timer wouldn't work on my A/C because when the cooling turns OFF, I would have to PHYSICALLY BE THERE to turn it back on - a timer wouldn't turn it back on? I was confused - and still am. The A/C has it's own timer but it's just to set hours of running in ONE cycle, not for days. If I leave the unit ON, just ON - not blowing cool air - and plug it into a timer that plugs into the wall - why would a timer not work? He again tried to explain that once the cooling "shuts off", I would still have to BE THERE to turn it back on myself.....?? Am I missing something? I asked, then why does a timer work for lamps? They are in the ON position and plugged into a timer....?

 

Might depend on your AC unit, (digital or manual) but should be easy to figure out if it will work or not. Turn your AC on to cool... then unplug it. Wait a few minutes... then plug it back in. Is it running on cool or not? If not, your timer won't work.

 

Why do you want to turn it off if animals are in the space? Set the setpoint and leave it run.

 

It has a digital display. Ok, will try what you have suggested and see if it remains in COOLING mode when unplugged and plugged back in. Thanks for the tip - appreciate it!

 

Not necessary to run it 24/7 which is what it will do without a timer. Want to be able to begin cool down mid morning for a few hours then shut off early evening. Also, the set point only works for ONE cycle not continuous/daily. I can only set it once to run for # of hours.

 

It doesn't have a thermostat? Set it to 78 or 80F and forget it! It wont run 24/7... only when it gets hot.

???

 

Depending on humidity levels in your area on average it takes about 1/2 of an air conditioner's capacity to lower humidity.
If you set the temperature and leave the unit run continuously the operating cost is not as much as you would think.
Also, if left to run continuously it should lower humidity and then have more capacity to lower temperature.

IOW, set temperature and let it do it's job.

 

I don’t think your description is how the unit actually works.
Set it and forget it.