$250 hotel incidental charge for "unauthorized" tampering with HVAC controls

[Kimstu]

@Crafter_Man

It is unclear to me how “hacking” a thermostat could possibly damage it.

It’s unclear to me too, but I’m no thermostat expert: I was just quoting the article I linked that mentioned hotel management complaining about damage caused by thermostat hackers.

While I don’t discount the possibility that hotel management may well be lying about that, I also found this explanation of potential hazards of setting a thermostat too low in an AC system:

If you set the room temperature abnormally low, which 64.4°F certainly is, you run two risks that I can think of.

1 - The AC will work a little too well and drop the evaporator coil to a temperature well below freezing. Water vapor will then condense on it and freeze (frost) slowly build up and choke off the air flow. I have seen this happen several times.

2 - The AC will not be able to keep up with demand and will run excessively. Usually the condenser fan will go out first, then the compressor.

If you set the room temperature abnormally high, ~80°F or higher, the AC can run under loaded out of range of proper operation for the freon pressure/temperature curves.

[ETA: Oh, Johnny_Bravo and filmore already mentioned these issues.]