Automation to turn on switch based on Sun UV Index for Pool Heater

SmartApps & Automations
1

I have a solar panel to heat up my pool water. It is attached to a pump in the pool which I have plugged into a Jasco Z-Wave Outdoor Smart Plug.
I only want to run the pump when it is sunny so the water gets heated. I was thinking of using the UV index. What makes sense is when the UV Index is 5 or greater then turn on the pump.
Does that make sense? Are there any automatons that would work here? Or is this a IFTTT thing?

2

I think you want to use Solar Radiation, not UV. UV can be high when it’s cloudy, and when it’s cool outside…solar radiation is a much better indicator of the amount of sun-power that is hitting your solar panel.

You may need to try a few different SmartThings Weather Station implementations to find one that includes Solar Radiation. If you have your own weather station that is equipped with SolRad sensors, then you could use a Meteobridge gateway and my MeteoWeather weather station. Otherwise there’s the SmartThings TWC-based weather, as well as an AccuWeather and I think a Dark Sky implementation that might work for you.

3

Thanks - I didnt even know I could access solar radiation - that makes sense. I do not have a weather station. I will check out a few of the apps.

4

Dose smartthings have it own app for this or do we only have option of community ones?

5

Search for “SmartWeather Station Tile” for the SmartThings supplied-and-supported weather station.

Unfortunately, this particular implementation does not provide Solar Radiation (I don’t think TWC provides it in the API subset that SmartThings is providing for free).