Kalkan Turkey Forum - EnjoyKalkan.com
The Owners Lounge => General Discussion => Topic started by: Martin on August 06, 2010, 01:56:34 PM
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Dear members
I have looked into how to save some costs on the running of the air con units in our villa and have followed the thread on installing immersion heater timers which has some legs!
I discovered this in an in-flight mag on the way home last week in principle looks good but not as cheap as the timer option.
visit http://www.ecosense.uk.com/ (http://www.ecosense.uk.com/) (modified to correct link)
Also has a built in smoke detector....please let me know your thoughts
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Sorry Martin,
Couldn't get on the site with this link!
Rx
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The link should be: http://www.ecosense.uk.com
I have asked them whether the unit works with Arcelik A/C units.
Mark
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Best to put in the electricity cut-off fobs so the air con is not on when people leave the property. Last winter cost about TL 250 to install.
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I have to say that we had the fob system fitted by Benli a couple of years ago and we had all sorts of problems with the the electricity supply afterwards and eventually disconnected it altogether so it actually was a waste of money. This sensor looks like a brilliant idea, I for one will be giving it a try, maybe one unit initially to test the compatability but if it works I'll put one in every room. Cheers Martyn!
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Headroom, let us know how you get on, we would be really interested in this for our apartment.
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This sounds like the answer to a prayer. I wrote to Ecosense with a few questions and thought it might be helpful to post their response. I didn't ask the Arcelik compatibility question on the basis that it had been asked already but would like to see the response Mark.
Many thanks for your enquiry. In answer to your questions, with regard to
being tamper proof, the unit is screwed to the ceiling and has the
appearance of a smoke detector. The motion detector will not be affected by
a fan/moving curtains etc., as it is only sensitive to the movement of body
heat.
The boxed units are similar in size & weight to a standard smoke detector (
very light in weight), you would have no problem carrying 4 units in one
suitcase along with clothes etc.
If anyone has actual experience of the device that would be really good to hear.
Alan
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Here is the response regarding Arcelik A/C units:
Reply-To: info@ecosense.uk.com
Dear Mark
Many thanks for your enquiry. Our units are compatible with Arcelik A/C
units. If you wish to place an order, you may do so via paypal or you
can 'phone our freephone no. and we will take your order to process via
Barclaycard.
If you have any furthur questions, please do hesitate to contact me.
Regards
Steve Hardman
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Their website has a compatibility test:
In order to test compatibility with your own equipment, switch on the A/C unit with your remote controller.
Take the remote controller out of the room, press 'power' button and then re enter the room.
If A/C unit bleeps but continues running, press 'power' button again.
If A/C unit bleeps and switches off - then 'ECOSENSE' will be compatible with your A/C unit.
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Is this the unit that was "The Dragon's Nest" tonight?
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Hi - yes it was - I got the impression that they (the Dragons, that is) just didn't get how useful it might be to a villa / apartment owner. The presenters (the owners of the company) got rather befuddled under all that scrutiny. But I don't think that was detrimental to their product... just their presentation skills!
L
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Headroom, let us know how you get on, we would be really interested in this for our apartment.
Dear Forum members I will be installing one of these units in September to test and if they work as described will install the remainder, I will post the results on the forum early October - Martin
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Dear Forumeers, just thought we'd let you know. Have only yesterday :'( returned from a two week stay in our apartment during which time we installed these units. Put in at the very beginning of our stay, so road tested pretty thoroughly, have to say we are very impressed - do exactly as described in the literature. Only too pleased to dispense with the previous (fault laden, fickle) fob system. Certainly compatible with Arcelik & LG units, neat unobtrusive and very easy to install. Hope this bit of info helps
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so pleased to read this latest post, we are taking 3 units out on Monday, I have had round wooden blocks made with metal threaded inserts to screw them onto because the only way to change the batteries is to take them off the ceiling and eventually screw threads are going to get sloppy, but to know they work is fantastic! Next time I'll take another 3 then the whole villa will be covered, Happy days! No problem with guests using A/C just object to wasteful use of electricity!
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Is it safe to assume that these will sense human body heat even in a very big room where a person may not be close to the unit?
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Hello Forum Members
As promised in my last post, I have just returned from Kalkan and installed the sensors and they work fine. Easy to install and set up and sure enough when there is nobody in the room they switch off..........brilliant for the first time in 7 years I might be able to save some money on my turkish electricity bills !!!
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Ecosense have informed me today that the Ecosense 2000 is compatible with BEKO air con units but they were unable to confirm if they worked with the Cartel or Vestel brands, which are the two types of air con units that we currently have installed. I'm taking an ecosense unit out to Kalkan so that I can test them. I'll let you know how it goes!
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Hi All,
I found these things on ebay today , they are called air conditioning energy savers, 3 for £99 delivered.
I am going to give them a try with our LG Beko units, got to be worth a shot as our bills are going up and up! >:(
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Just reminded me that I said I would post on the Ecosense 2000 compatability with my Cartel and Vestel air con units. Pleased to say that it worked on both!
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We, too, brought out an ecosense to try and found it worked with our Beko air con but only worked with one of our Baymark air cons - the latter were installed at different times and must be different models.
What we have found is that the movement sensor does not detect us if we are sitting reading or watching the TV and moving very little, so the air con is switched off when we are still in the room. In addition we wonder if the night time setting just may be a problem. The sensor detects when it is dark i.e. no light on in the room and dark outside, and then ecosense switches itself off so while you are asleep and it remains dark then the air con remains on. However we think that as soon as it becomes light, which in the summer will be much earlier than now, then ecosense starts to work again and switches the air con off after half an hour, or whatever timing you have set it for, if there is minimal movement in the room, e.g people sleeping and therefore it will switch off the air con shortly after dawn which will not be what guests will be happy with.
We would be interested to know if anyone has experience of ecosense working in the bedrooms on the night time setting and whether the sensor works satisfactorily before we invest in more units.
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Have had a word with Ecosense and it sounds as if these units are good. They do two types - one that picks up its power from the A/C unit and sits above it - and has a smoke detector as well; the other type is battery-operated and simply attaches to the ceiling in the middle of the room. I understand that the battery life is 4 - 9 months and is (perversely) worse if the room is unoccupied for long periods.
Has anybody got any experience of these and if the battery life is ok - or better to go for the mains-powered versions which are trickier to install.
Thanks
;)
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Can the Ecosense devices work on movement only so the day/night setting is turned off. Reading Anne's posts it sounds like it might be problematic for bedrooms.
Would be keen to hear more experiences.
Thanks
Simon
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Hi
Would like to know how tricky the AC ones are to install, before ordering. Also are there any downsides as Simon has asked.
Rx
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Hi All,
Has anyone tested these ecosense units yet with Beko AC units?
I see a couple of you have mentioned that you will but understand that we are all probably intending to do this on our first visits in the spring.
Would really appreciate anyone who has tested on Beko units so I know whether to buy as I am going out April 1st.
Thanks!
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Hi,
Have taken the plunge and bought 4 to take out in late April.
A friend is taking some out to his place in Spain in a few weeks, so I'll let you know how he gets on!
Rx
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Hi Jik and others
The ecosense did work with our Beko AC unit - see my earlier post. The battery one was easy to install, we have taken the batteries out over the winter so hopefully they will last through the season.
If you want to know if a unit will work with your AC unit there are instructions for testing on the ecosense website though they have said they have a new version coming out which will work with all units.
If I recall correctly you only have the option of a daytime setting or a night time setting, on the first the ecosense works all the time on movement and it is inactive on the night time setting as long as it is dark. Personally I think they will be fine in the sitting room but will be problematic in the bedrooms, if you leave them on the daytime setting the movement from a person sleeping will not, in our experience, be sufficient to stop the ecosense turning off the AC unit, hence the reason they have a night setting. On this setting the ecosense is inactive and hence the AC stays on or off, which ever mode it was operating on. The night setting only works however when it is dark, it's not on a timer, and therefore from dawn the ecosense becomes active and most probably while people are still sleeping it will turn the AC off. I think we would get some irritated guests as a result. So I am going to accept the saving from having one in the living room and live with the cost of the AC in the bedrooms.
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The 2000's (battery type) work with some A/C's but not all by a long way, the 4000's wired direct into the internal A/C unit, in our experience, did not work satisfactorily either, the idea is quite obviously brilliant, they just need to be perfected.
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TRY econoair-eu.com they are setting up an office in Kalkan. You can order in the UK and collect from them locally. This office will service the whole of the Turkish market
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Martin is it possible to buy in Kalkan when we're there or do we need to purchase online before going? Where is the shop located and will it be open in April? Thanks Charlie
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Dear all if you are Holiday lettings advertiser or even if your not you can get 10% of the sense units follow this link or cut and paste http://www.econoair-eu.com/offer/
...if you ad HL and your name away you go ......the prices quoted are the discounted prices you can check the list prices out on the home page! www.econoair-eu.com this is the company who will supply the Turkish Med area ...and have an office in Kalkan in early 2011.
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Has anyone successfully used these with older Arcelik A/Cs ?
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I have 2 old Diamond units in my villa and Ecosense can turn both of these off. I have just taken over one trial unit and not attached to the ceiling yet.
One or 2 people have mentioned on this thread that they also act as smoke detectors -I can't see this on their website (or manual) anywhere. Does anyone have a link to that information?
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Only the Econoair Sense 4000 has a smoke detector built in.
see http://www.econoair-eu.com/products.php (http://www.econoair-eu.com/products.php)
Stuart
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Last October we took out a ecosense unit and 'tested' it on our Cartel and Vestel air con units. At the time everything seemed to work fine so over winter we purchased several more units to take out and fit the following May. However, once fitted, the ecosense did not work with the Vestel units although it worked perfectly with both the Cartel and Arcelik units. Our agent mentioned to us that they had also heard of other owners having difficulties with the Vestel units so perhaps others may have had the same problem..
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If you have a problem with an EcoSense unit it is worth dropping them a mail. I had a phone call with a really helpful guy @ Ecosense who talked me through steps to get my units working.
In my case it was caused by user error :)
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I, too, have found the after-sales service excellent. Martin called me from England to talk me through the process and then when I returned to the UK, Hakan came up from the Kalamar Road to check them over.
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Hi,
We've just got back and the unit we installed in our lounge (beko a/c) works really well. I think it might be a bit problematic in bedrooms though as it continues to send an off signal every time the time period elapses. All of the a/c units in my villa beep when they receive a signal so this might wake people up every 30 mins or so. I haven't got the original manuals so have no idea if I can disable this on the a/c units themselves.
I know there is a night setting but I wouldn't appreciate it going off every 30mins from dawn though.
My recommendation would be to not use in bedrooms unless your a/c units have a quiet mode. In other rooms it wil work really well.
Vally
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for me we can always save the electricity and the money if we are using the air conditioning units only if we are home so always turned it off if you are no longer using them. air conditioning indianapolis (http://www.airconditioningindianapolisindiana.com)
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You might also like to look at this alternative unit. It is much smaller in size and costs less. It does not have a night-time mode so not useful for bedrooms. However, it has worked great in my sitting room (which has the largest A/C unit) for over a year and seems to have saved me quite a lot of money. My A/C units are Arcelik. Someone I spoke with could not get the Econosense units to work in his villa - but they do offer a money back guarantee.
http://eco-energysavers.co.uk/index.html
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We are seriously thinking about getting these motion-detector units... has anybody got any further feedback using them please?
We currently have the key-fob units, but the problem with these is that guests can simply take them off the key-ring and leave the fob in the slot in order to keep the air-con on all day!
Cheers
Martyn
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MartynE - Try putting some solder around the fob keyring as this worked for us.
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We are seriously thinking about getting these motion-detector units... has anybody got any further feedback using them please?
We currently have the key-fob units, but the problem with these is that guests can simply take them off the key-ring and leave the fob in the slot in order to keep the air-con on all day!
Cheers
Martyn
Martyn. We have one of these fitted in the lounge in our apartment and are looking at fitting one in each bedroom too.
We are out in Kalkan at the moment so will find out some more details and let you know about where to get then and the cost.
B
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MartynE - Try putting some solder around the fob keyring as this worked for us.
Yup... Solder seemed quite a cheap and easy solution for us too... And it works!
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Thanks guys - great idea about the solder! Why didn't I think of that myself? Doh! :-[
Another thing.... while I'm picking brains... anyone know where you can actually get replacements for the rectangular plastic key fobs?
Bob and Jayne - I'm still interested in the motion detector units so any fruther feedback and info will be gratefully received :)
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We thought about doing this too but if they wanted to, the guests will just take one key out and leave the other key and fob in the slot or do you just give guests one key?
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We only give them one key; the other is with the manager of the apartments, so they can call on him in an emergency.
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The motion detectors can be obtained from Ecosense Ltd. Go to the following link http://www.ecosense.uk.com/
We use the Ecosense 2000 as it is battery operated and will not fail in the event of a power cut. Installed them this year so too early to see how effective they are.
We bought them in the UK and took them out to Kalkan in our luggage. Not aware you can get them in Kalkan as you used to be able to do.
We also solder the fob onto the key ring. Installed the fobs 3 years ago.
Only give out 1 key to guests unless they request a 2nd one, with a reasonable reason (i.e. 2 separate couples).
Most guests don't try to abuse this but we have experienced the '2 key trick' !
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One key it is then!
Where can we get it soldered in Kalkan then please? Would also like to know where to buy an additional one just in case one goes missing.
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Thanks guys - great idea about the solder! Why didn't I think of that myself? Doh! :-[
Another thing.... while I'm picking brains... anyone know where you can actually get replacements for the rectangular plastic key fobs?
Bob and Jayne - I'm still interested in the motion detector units so any fruther feedback and info will be gratefully received :)
Martyn
You can get a spare fob in the smal lighting/electrical shop on the road where the market is held; opposite side and further along from Belidiye. Sorry don't know name and he doesn't speak English - just take one with you.
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Thanks all!
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Hi Martyn,
We took out 4 Ecosense 4000 units in April and fitted one in the lounge and one in each of the bedrooms. Bit of a pig installing the first one but sent an email via their website and they actually rang us in Turkey to help us install it - excellent customer service. After the installing the first one, the other 3 were relatively straightforward.
All are working fine but too early to say about savings as haven't had enough bills yet to compare with pre installation years - no complaints either so far from guests with regards them going off after a certain amount of time!! Touch wood !!!
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Their installation instructions are confusing !!!
Took us some time to work out.
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I wouldn't bother replying to Ellie Martyn - and certainly don't click on her link. She's a spammer. I didn't click the link, I just right clicked to look at the link properties and it's a loan company. Obviously borrowing at 3000% APR is an excellent way to save money!
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Ellie has been removed and banned thanks for spotting that Hellcat !
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Does anyone have any advice or comments on the use of Ecosense units to save money on air conditioning in the light of this summers experience.
What is guest feedback like on the use of these units?
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Hi Chris,
I had nightmares trying to get my ones installed ( two local sparks did not have a jar of glue )
but met a lovely fella a couple of weeks ago in Kalkan who installed his own in time for the season just gone, he said his lecky bill was under half than the year before. He has promised to install mine for me over the new year 8)
I'm also looking into solar panels for lecky.....huge savings to be had :o
Pm or email me for more info.
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Onelove I would be very interested to know about solar panels for electric so please do share what info you find about about them.
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I also fitted these in my apartment ( Not this brand though) after lots of testing & testing I took them down as they were not working. When I spoke with my neighbour who also had them, she said judging by her bills her had not done much either..
I think the idea is great if they work !
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I agree with you pat tayra, I very nearly gave up, I will let you know how I get on.
kalkanbelle, if you email me I will forward what info I have up to now ( just started to look into it so not loads yet ) and any in the future. Oh yeah, you also get back up power with the solar.
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Am I right in thinking that the electricity made has to be used straight away (and cannot be stored) like the PV units in the UK.
If that's the case they will work great with the hot sun but you will need to tell guests to use the washing machine, aircon etc during the day.
As far as I know the solar hot water stores the water for later use but the electric ones have to use the power the produce straight away, which is fantastic if electricity was only used in daylight hours.
If its a different system, I would also be interested to hear about it.
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Purchased 3 similar units called airconosense £25 online in UK , appear to work very well, simply pointed the sensor to the ac controller, turned off and on and hey presto turns ac unit off is no movement in room after a set time
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Our on site management told us that one of the things that anoyed them was guests in the apartments (all apartments on the development, not just ours) leaving the aircon on while doors and windows were open and they were by the pool or out for the day. We also had also seen units working in other apartments when we knew the guests were out for the day. Consequently we installed the ecosense units in every room (battery operated) for the 2011 season but didn't see any change in our bill and though we had wasted the money buying them.
We reinstalled them for the 2012 season and were delighted to have about 1/3 reduction in the no of electric units used and consequently our bill, despite having the same no of weeks usage in the apartment. We struggled with installation the first year and think we hadn't installed them properly, hence no savings. This year we found the installation easier (had we become wiser or did we just pay more attention to the instructions?). We have it turning off after 15 minutes with no movement in the room during the day and not switching off during the night. All our guests have reported having a great holiday with no complaints so I guess it wasn't a problem to them. To be honest if they were the sort of guests who want to run the aircon all day when they aren't in the rooms then I'm not sure I want them back anyway.
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Thats very interesting, saving a 1/3 seems to be a very good return on investment. I agree its the going out and leaving it on/doors open that is really annoying. Kalkan regular can you please confirm which model you have
Isis
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I want to try these and mailed Airconosense as not sure if they would work on my Arcelik units. Got this(quick reply) back:
'As a generalisation if you have a remote / air-con that has a display when you turn it on and then goes off when you switch off then it will more than likely have two discrete codes. This can be from the same button that toggles the code when pressed.
Unfortunately we are not able to test the unit with all A/C units. The unit does have an extensive library of codes built in and we have had a lot of success with compatibility with a vast majority of units.
We have supplied a considerable amount of sensors into Turkey and are only aware of 1 customer that has had any problems with compatibility.
If you would like to purchase your units to try we are more than happy to give you a full refund if they don’t work with your A/C units.'
Can't ask for more than that. Think I will give it a go for next season.
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Hi Isis it was the original Ecosense 2000, battery operated. I think it has now been inmproved to the Ecosense 2000 second generation.