When someone in Medellín searches for "air conditioning," they're almost always solving the same problem: the living room or bedroom heats up in the afternoon, the remote gets lost, and the idea of "Wi‑Fi air conditioning" or "smart AC" sounds good… until the option is to throw out a unit that already cools well just to buy a new one with an app.

That isn't the only way out. At Domótica Medellín we work the other way around: we keep the AC you already have and give it what it's missing so it behaves like a real thermostat, integrated into the home network.

What people search for and what they actually need

In Colombia, people search for "air conditioning," not "mini-split." Either way: in most apartments and houses in the Aburrá Valley, what's on the wall is an infrared-controlled split. It cools. It obeys the remote. And it falls short in three ways:

1. It doesn't know the temperature where you are. The sensor is in the unit, up high, near the air coming out.
2. It doesn't run itself. If you're not home, nobody presses the button.
3. It doesn't confirm anything. You send a command and trust that it arrived.

A new factory Wi‑Fi unit partly solves point 2. It almost never solves 1 or 3 well, and it locks you into the brand's app. If you have two or three brands in the house, you end up with two or three apps.

Convert instead of replace

The upgrade we install is a small ESP32-based module with an infrared emitter, connected to the home network (Zigbee in the design we use most), plus temperature and light sensors where they're needed. In many cases we also use the unit's buzzer beep as an acknowledgment: the house doesn't only send the command; it knows whether the AC accepted it.

In practice that means:

• Control from your phone and from the home's scenes, without depending on the brand's cloud.
• A room thermometer that measures where you sleep or work, not next to the evaporator.
• Arrival, night, and leave routines that adjust the AC based on what's actually happening.
• Integration with blinds, presence, and the rest of the home, in a single app.

If you want the technical detail of the closed loop (IR, Zigbee, sensors, and buzzer), it's in how to turn a basic mini-split into a real thermostat. The version focused on daily comfort is in smart air conditioning without replacing your mini-split.

Why this shows up more in Medellín

The city's climate isn't extreme, but inside a single home there are big swings. High floors and west-facing windows in El Poblado, Envigado, Sabaneta, or Belén heat up hard in the afternoon. Nights cool down. In rainy season it sometimes makes more sense to dry than to cool.

A fixed schedule ("always at 22 °C from nine to six") works poorly in that scenario. What works is measuring the room and reacting. That's why a real "smart air conditioner" isn't just Wi‑Fi control: it's a closed temperature loop on your home's local network.

What day-to-day feels like

With the closed loop, the AC stops being a device you "leave at 22." The house uses it as a tool:

• Before you arrive. If you know what time you're coming back, or the house detects you're on the way, the AC can start a bit early. You walk in cool without having left it on all afternoon.
• At night. It starts colder when the room is hot and raises or turns off when the room is already fine. It's the routine people who live on floors that heat up during the day appreciate most.
• With blinds. If afternoon sun hits the window, lowering the blind saves the AC work. We also cover that in the motorized roller shades guide.
• When you leave. The leave scene or lack of presence turns off whatever was left running.

None of that asks you to keep the phone in your hand. The phone is backup; the logic lives at home.

Factory Wi‑Fi vs. home control

If the unit already has Wi‑Fi, we check it. Sometimes it can be integrated. Other times the app only works over the internet, or it doesn't talk to the rest of the house. In those cases the infrared emitter is usually more stable and keeps everything in the same system as the lights and blinds.

It also matters what happens in a power outage. When power comes back, many units start in the last state or stay off. The house has to know which of the two happened and resume the routine. Brand-cloud-only control doesn't always do that well.

Replacing an AC that cools well just to gain a brand app is rarely the best deal. Upgrading the one you already have, with a room thermostat and network control, usually is.

How we start

We visit the home, look at each unit (brand, location, control, line of sight) and where you spend time in that space. We decide where the emitter, thermometer, and confirmation sensors go if needed. We program the routines with you and fine-tune them the first few weeks.

In horizontal property, the emitter and sensors stay inside your unit: they don't touch the façade or common areas. That simplifies the conversation with building management.

Everything lives in your own app, built for your home and with no subscription, alongside whatever else gets integrated.

If you're looking for air conditioning in Medellín and you already have a unit that cools, book a visit. We'll check whether converting it to smart makes sense before you think about replacing it.