What exactly do the range of numbers (1 to 7) mean on the temperature knob/dial on a basic window air conditioning unit?

Question

I just purchased a new, very nice and basic (5,000BTU) in-window air conditioner and it does the job for my basic needs. But I have a question I probably have had for years but never had a proper venue to ask it: What the heck do the seemingly arbitrary numbers on the temperature dial mean? See picture below.

I completely understand how a value of “1” is the lowest (warmer) setting and “7” is the highest (cooler) setting, but what relative temperatures do these values relate to? And heck, why does the dial go from 1 to 7 instead of something more seemingly commonsense like 1 to 10?

Harper - Reinstate Monica · Accepted Answer

The numbers are completely arbitrary, and are whatever the product manager or artist at the manufacturer decided they should be.  They might be standardized within a company's product line.  If these are private-label units, all bets are off.

Numbers instead of real degrees means they used a thermostat too cheap to be consistent from unit to unit, so they couldn't print degrees and have that be meaningful.

Alternate explanation: they market the identical unit in several countries, and one of them uses Fahrenheit, so rather than have 2 scales, they have none.

Ли Ишуай · Answer

From GE Appliances Customer Service:

There is no specific correlating temperature for each number setting.  The TEMP control determines the compressor run time.  The higher the number, the more the compressor will run to create a cooler room temperature.

What exactly do the range of numbers (1 to 7) mean on the temperature knob/dial on a basic window air conditioning unit?

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