Why is there a flashing red light on my american freedom 80 air conditioner/heating unit?

SOURCE: HEAT PUMP/AIR CONDITIONER UNIT SMELLS ONLY WHEN AIR IS ON

Not sure what the smell...smells like.  My guess is dirt or dust near the heating elements.  These will cause a burning smell.  Sometimes insects even get into the act..building webs.
You will have to clean that area out...sometimes a large blower or vac can dislodge the dust.

SOURCE: red light came on and air conditioner will not turn back on

I had a similar problem on a B&Q air conditioner and all it needed was the drain plug removing and the water draining out - then it started back up straight away

SOURCE: American Standard blower will not run

Sounds like motor has failed. If the red light is blinking it may be telling you what is wrong by the number of blinks. It maybe locked out for some reason or loose wire. Try turning off breakers to inside unit for 5 mins and try again, this may reset unit. But it sounds like a bad motor or circut board. Try running with stat in on position instead of auto in cooling mode.

SOURCE: I have HAIER HPAC 99ER Portable air conditioner

Make sure your filter & the coils (area under the filter) are clean or that the evaporated water is not overfilled by draining it manually by pulling the plug on the lower rear of the unit (into a bucket of course.) I'm hoping you had gotten an answer sooner...

SOURCE: Air Conditioner cannot be turned on when power-light is flashing

The flashing light is a delay timer, usually activated when changing from heating to cooling and visa versa. The fact that the unit can only run from certain times shows that the timer is activated. You need to cancel the timer function on the remote.