Using AP9619 Network Management Card EM relays to control air conditioning

[BillP]

Hi! I don't know much about electronics and I would like to have some help.

We have a small server room being cooled by an air conditioning system that can be programmed and turned on/off by a remote control. After some inspection to the device, it seems that there are some relay contacts so probably I can wire some sort of switch to turn the air conditioning on and off.

My question is this: how can I use the relay contacts on my AP9619 card to act as a switch to the air conditioning?

Usually everything works ok, but if there is a power loss after business hours, the air conditioning does not power on by itself and so the server room gets too hot. We use the temperature sensor to trigger an alert and send an SMS, but it is a pain to drive to the office in the midle of the night just because there was a power loss and the air conditioing did not recover properly.

The air conditioning is a Mitsubishi MSH-18NV and a service manual can be downloaded here [Mitsubishi MSH-18NV Service Manual|http://www.pcug.org.au/training/training-rm-instructions/TD25%20-%20AirConditionerServiceManual.pdf]

Please let me know any possible hints/tips that can help me to find a solution for this problem.

Thanks and regards!

[voidstar_apc · Accepted solution]

Section 9.5 of the service manual mentions an auto-restart feature that restarts the air conditioner after a power outage. Enabling that feature might solve your problem. The manual also mentions attempting to avoid an inrush current surge when all the compressors auto-restart after an outage, but I'm not clear on how they suggest staggering the turn-on times.