It’s a nightmare for some – you wake up sweating right through your clothes. The fan is on, but it is much hotter than when you went to bed. You rub your weary eyes and ask, “Alexa, what is the temperature inside?” She replies, “It’s 98 degrees Fahrenheit.” Time to troubleshoot.
Each general category of problems has numerous possible root causes requiring specific troubleshooting procedures. Each one will be addressed in this article along with the recommended fixes, so read on to get the air conditioning back to a state of coolness.
Start With the Thermostat
If there’s no snowflake, check the Alexa app on your phone or tablet to find the thermostat’s settings. You may see a snowflake on the app as well. If not, you should check the app for the thermostat’s settings. Anything other than “cool only” or “heat / cool” will lead to the device never calling for cool. You might even notice that it’s not connected to WiFi at this point.
Once the mode has been verified, check the setpoint that the air conditioning should be turned on. Most of the time, the setpoint for heat and cool are not the same, so you will have to verify that not only is the cool setpoint set correctly (typically higher than the heat setpoint), but that the current temperature in the room is above that setpoint.
Completing all of these steps assumes that connectivity to WiFi has been previously established, the Alexa app has been installed on a smartphone or other device, and connectivity and communication are not an issue. Assuming all of these factors have been verified, it is time to move on to the next most likely cause.
After having completed the above steps, it can be ruled out that the thermostat is the cause of the problem. When the thermostat is calling for cool, that means that it is sending a signal to the cooling unit, whether it is a heat pump or a traditional air conditioner, that the room needs to be cooled down.
The next step is to ensure the signal is correctly transmitted to the cooling system. If the system is a brand new system that was just recently installed, you should continue with this step. If the cooling system has worked before, move to the next troubleshooting item.
Reset Everything
We have walked through the thermostat setup and verified that the wiring has been installed correctly and is sending the correct signal to the cooling device. After that, if the air conditioning still will not kick on correctly, you want to try one last attempt before digging into the cooling system itself.
Starting with the HVAC system, reset the air conditioner. That can usually be accomplished by cycling the breaker associated with the air conditioning unit. Turn it off, wait about 30 seconds, then turn it back on.
Next, reset the device that has the Alexa app that is being used to control the thermostat. Don’t just log off and log back in – perform a hard reset of the device itself.
