How do you bypass the SSR thermostats?

[veenstra56]

I read a while ago (with passing interest, as I had no immediate plans to stay at SSR) that the thermostats at SSR are motion detected, and that guests were coming 'home' to hot rooms because the thermostats were shutting the A/C off when no one was present. I also read that there is a way to bypass the motion-detection feature to prevent this problem. Trouble is, now we have an SSR reservation, and I have forgotten the bypass trick.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Dis13]

Had these in my notes from a previous thread...

"on the thermostat push the power button and the down arrow (that adjusts the temp) at the exact same time. If you do this correctly there will be the letters "bp" where the temp numbers usually are. You are now bypassing the sensors in the room. You can set the temp to whatever you want and it keeps the room that cold whether you are in it or not. The maintenance man said that you might have to do this once a day as the thermostat tends to go back to sensor mode ofter 24 hours."
For us, the bypass lasted for 3 days, but you may want to reset it occasionally just to be sure. "

Have a great trip!

 

[Psychometrika]

How totally cool. (No pun intended). What a great trick. Those sensors are a pain in a warthog's backside. They have them in several other resorts as well. Great info!

 

[jgus]

Does this mean the A/C shuts off at night???

 

[Sammie]

We have not had any problems with staying cool at night or day at SSR or BCV or any of the others with the sensors.

I would hate to see the utilities bills of some of those that constantly complain about this, if they keep their personal homes that cold.

 

[Psychometrika]

Does it shut off at night - sometimes! I've had it both ways. Somtimes I'll go to sleep at 76 degrees and wake up at 80. Other times, it remains where I've set it for the night.

As for the utility bills, well .. you've got a point. However, as a former Floridian, setting the AC at a reasonable 78 ish keeps the room reasonably cool and costs less than letting it heat way up and then cooling it all the way down again. We've got a programmable at home and generally practice conservative practices. It's the summer months at Disney that make their thermostats so problematic. But hey... I'm usually having too much fun to worry about the AC.

What I REALLY wish is that someone would come up with a hotel AC system that wouldn't be freezing or hot. Set it at 74 and I freeze, at 80 and I bake. Seems harder to control the in-room unit than a regular whole house system. The nature of the beast I guess.

 

[BigMama]

it does not take long for the room to cool off

 

[Sammie]

it does not take long for the room to cool off

That has been our experience. We always go to Disney during July or August, and we have never come back to our rooms and felt they were uncomfortable. As Psychometrika said we set ours on 78 and its fine day and night.

 

[daisyduck123]

subscribing....

 

[Entropy]

Building owners have to dance a fine line between occupant comfort and energy conservation. The rule of thumb is that you don't sacrifice comfort for economy, that the energy savings comes from schemes that won't cause discomfort. That's why there are things like motion detectors, door switches and systems tied-in to the reservation computer.

The very smart systems (like the one that my company installs) will watch the reservation system and when a tenant checks in, the system will goto "Occupied" mode. It will still take some time to cool the room as soon and the tenant might make it to the room before then but that's hard to get around. The system then watches the room throughout the day. If there's a door switch cycle then no motion in the room, the system switches to unoccupied mode and the room will use less energy until another switch cycle and motion. At night the motion sensor is disables and the room stays in occupied mode. I can't say that Disney does exactly this but it's possible.

Property management companies do this to reduce the utility bills the best that they can and it's to your benefit as owners to let the system work to keep our annual fees down. Keep in mind that it's impossible, repeat, IMPOSSIBLE to satisfy everyone's comfort demands. Some people are going to experience a little discomfort along the way.

If you keep bypassing the system, they might disable that function then the housekeepers will be annoyed because that's the maintenance bypass function that they use. It's also possible that the owner may decide to assess a surcharge when the tenant bypasses the normal program. They know when you do it as it is logged into the central computer.

If you have a problem wiith the heating and cooling system, it's better that you complain about it. That way the complaint gets logged and if enough people have the same complaint, they can adjust the program or set points to make it a little more comfortable albeit a little less energy efficient.

That happens to be my business. I install and program these systems.

 

[barlitz]

I used a hammer

 

[dwelty]

I could care less if I come back to a hot room, The system cools it down rather quickly. I do however have a problem with the A/C shutting down when I sleep! This happened to us in December when we stayed at SSR. I think from 10:00pm to 7:00am the system should stay activated. What is there to do at 3:00am at WDW that would keep you out of the room that time anyway?

 

[tubtruck]

If everyone here does this watch the maintence fee rise!, if everyone in the world cranks their aircon or heating up watch the environmental effects take hold even faster.

 

[veenstra56]

For those who cry foul over the idea of bypassing the thermostat motions sensors, it has been proven though studies that it takes much more energy to get a home from 80 to 76 degrees than it does to keep the thermostat at a constant 76 degrees (unless, of course, the house or hotel room is going to be vacant for an extended period of time). Under normal conditions it makes little sense to allow the A/C to shut down for a few hours and have it strain to recover to it's programmed temperature.

When I am home I keep my thermostat at a constant 76 degrees throughout the summer. Since DVC is my 'home away from home' I have every intention of doing the same there, too. I see no reason to be uncomfortable when doing so saves absolutely no energy whatsoever.