@tonesto7 @WB70 @E_Sch I just tried again and it’s working perfectly. Not sure if it was something one of you did on the backend or a ST issue that magically fixed itself? Just a heads up
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So I’ve noticed something odd lately. If I come home after a temperature schedule change, instead of using the new temperature, it uses the original temp. That probably doesn’t make a lot of sense, so here’s a theoretical schedule.
6:00pm Nest set to Heat 70F
7:00pm I leave the home area. Nest goes into ECO mode.
10:00pm Nest schedule should switch the heat to 65F (but doesn’t because its in ECO mode)
11:00pm I get home and the Nest sets temp to 70F, rather than the temp from 10:00pm of 65F.
Am I doing something wrong?
Is the schedule set in Nest, ST (Nest Manager) or some other SmartApp?
When you leave home and your Nest goes into Away, I’m assuming you are setting it to Eco from Nest
When Nest is in ECO Mode you cannot set a temperature on the thermostat. So the schedule at 10pm is not going to do anything to the thermostat unless you already arrived home and Nest went back into home mode and out of ECO.
If your schedule at 10pm were to take the Nest out of ECO Mode from NST Manager, then you could adjust the temp. You either let NST Manager control putting Nest into Eco Mode with schedules or you do it from Nest when Away (gps).
If you put your thermostat into ECO Mode and then open the Thermostat in Things, try and adjust the Temp. 
I’m using webcore to set it Away (as well as allowing the Nest app to do it when ST presence craps the bed). However, the schedule is set through Nest. Logically, I would assume would know that it missed it’s own schedule and follow it. It seems that’s an incorrect assumption though.
I was looking at the browser version of the thermostat graphs and the graph datasets look incorrect.
I have 2 nest thermostats (1 on each floor)
I have 2 virtual thermostats that link to the real nests
The upstairs data shows on the downstairs label on the browser. All of the other graphs are blank on the browser link.
Thanks,
- Ryan
Not seeing exactly how you have this configured, there are a couple of ways to approach this. Here is one:
Because you want your Nest to remain in “Away” status and because you want to go in and out of “ECO” before you are actually Home, I would configure it this way:
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In Nest directly, turn Off Home / Away Assist for when you are Away (Disable ECO).
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In Nest directly, turn off “Use Phone Location” under “what decides if your home” in Home / Away Assist.
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Setup Modes Automation inside of NST Manager. For Away and Home. This will automatically change Nest to Away and Home based on ST going into Away or Home Mode (do not select ECO Mode in this automation).
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Now setup a Thermostat Automation (Schedule) in NST Manager to run between 6pm and 7pm when in Home Mode only with your Heat / Cool setpoints.
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Setup another schedule that runs let’s say at 7:15pm (giving some time between you leaving the house and ST being changed to Away) thru 9:59pm and only when in Away Mode that sets Nest to ECO
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Setup another schedule that runs at 10pm that sets HVAC Mode to Auto with new heat / cool setpoints.
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Setup another schedule for running after 11pm and only when in Home Mode that sets a new heat setpoint
You can do all this without the use of any Pistons all contained within NST Manager. Or you could get even more elaborate and create Pistons that trigger virtual switches on and off which in turn, the Schedules you define in NST Manager can be defined off of those switches and not based on time. Open this up inside NST Manager to create a schedule. You have a ton of options to control the HVAC Mode, heat / cool setpoints based on a ton of different options such as Time, Days of week, Mode, someone being home, all people being home/away, switches being on or off.
This of course is just one option, but all maintained within one consolidated place.
Now as for GPS (mobile presence) failing and not setting your ST Away, creating this entire setup to fail. I would create a Routine (not a Piston) with a widget on your phone that performs your “Goodbye” equivalent that Arms your system and sets your Mode to Away with the push of a button. This way you have a simple backup when mobile presence sh…ts the bed
If you have cameras as well (I do), you can have those turn on and off from the NST Manager Modes Automation when Away then turn on these cameras, when Home turn these cameras off. Not controlled by Nest (options turned off in Home / Away Assist)
Just some thoughts.
I used to do something similar with my CT-30 before I got the Nest. However, it seems that even if I remove ST altogether and just use the Nest Away and Nest scheduling, my problem will be the same. Once it comes out of Eco, it goes to the original temp and not the scheduled one.
That seems wrong to me. Is that really how it’s supposed to work?
Yes, when it comes out of ECO it returns to the previously defined settings, whether that be Heat, Cool or Auto with those previous setpoints. But as I documented above, you have full control of being able to take Nest out of ECO and set whichever HVAC Mode you want with the New Setpoints in one schedule. It accomplishes exactly what you want all while keeping your Nest in Away or Home Mode appropriately.
Does no one really see that as a bug then (apparently in the Nest software)? If my Nest schedule says it should be 65F after 10pm and then I get home at 11pm at it sets it back to 70F. wtf
How would the user expectation be that the schedule be ignored?
Nope, don’t see it as a bug at all. ECO Mode is an economically predefined Heating / Cooling setpoint and it’s a specific HVAC Mode in Nest. If the Nest system is in ECO Mode, you cannot set a different Heating / Cooling setpoint until you return Nest itself to Heat, Cool or Auto and then you can set whatever setpoint you want. No bug whatsoever.
is there a way to export Nest thermostat history to an excel sheet or google sheet?
Except the idea of an automated thermostat is that it’s… automated. Having to manually set a temperature when I get back is the opposite of a smart home. Especially since it seems like it wouldn’t be difficult for the thermostat to check and see if it missed a schedule while it was in Eco mode.
That’s just crazy to me.
You don’t have to manually set a temp when you get Home so long as you don’t force the thermostat into ECO Mode while you are Away. If you leave the Thermostat in Auto (Heat / Cool) mode all the time, you can set as many schedules as you want including the equivalent temps of what ECO is set to between those specific hours. You don’t need to use ECO period to achieve the same results.
If you do use ECO, you are locked into that mode period, until the HVAC mode is changed back to either Heat, Cool, or Auto.
If you look at what your ECO temps are set to ie: 69 and 78:
Leave your Thermostat on Heat / Cool period.
Schedule 1: 6pm Set Points 70 and 78
Schedule 2: 7pm and Mode Away set points (whatever your current ECO settings are now without using ECO)
Schedule 3: 10pm and Mode Away set points 65 and 78
Schedule 4: 11pm and Mode home set points 70 and 78
ECO is just a convenient way to set a predefined set of temps when you are Away or Home without having to do anything else, but if it is in this HVAC mode, you are not going to have the ability to override the temps
Temp selection can only occur on Heat, Cool, or Heat/Cool, period.
Not sure why you would want to allow the temp to drop to 65 degrees at 10pm, only to return it to 70 when you get home. That’s not really efficient, unless your current ECO temp is below that at 64 or lower.
Bear with me, I’m fairly new to ST… I’ve added NST Manager to my SmartThings with the intention of using my thermostat’s presence to trigger things. I see that I now have mulitple nest devices as “things”:
A) Nest Presence Device
B) Nest Thermostat
C) Nest Weather
Both A and B appear to have “presence” and also “nestPresence.”
- Why are there separate devices for A and B? Does it matter which one I use in my automations/pistons?
- When “presence” on A changes, will B change also, and vice versa, or do I need to manually set that up?
- On either device, when “nestPresence” changes, will “presence” change also, or do I need to manually set that up?
If you open your Nest App up and set the mode to Away, it will set both Nest Presence and the tile in Nest Thermostat to Away.
For NST Manager Automations / Modes, if you create/set this up to syncronize between ST and your Nest Thermostat, it uses the ST Modes (Home, Away, Night) to send to your Nest Thermostat so your Nest environment goes to Away when ST goes to Away and vice versa (this is how I use Nest and have Phone Location turned off in Nest).
So if you are using WebCoRE (Pistons) or Routines that arms/disarms ST (SHM armed status and changes the Mode, you don’t have to do anything else if you have the Modes Automation setup in NST Manager. This will automatically change your Nest Thermostat in and out of Home and Away based on the Mode in ST.
You don’t need to utilize the Nest Presence or Thermostat devices to do anything else with this setup.
You can also setup Thermostat schedules directly in NST Manager which you can see some of what is being discussed above based on ST mode, time, etc…
Now perhaps you don’t want to use the NST Manager schedules and maybe have some sort of unique or more complex set of requirements (a lot of ifs / ands or if/ors) where you want to define certain things to happen with the Thermostat, then you could leverage the Nest Presence sensor as the device that you base your qualifications on (Present / Away). As for the Tile in the Thermostat that shows Away or Home - direct reflection of Nest), that is used as a visual representation of the Status of Nest only. Not used in Automations.
FYI - The Nest Presence represents Present (which is Home) and Away which is away. The Present is misleading.
I would leverage the Mode / Thermostat Automations (it’s pretty robust what you can schedule things for or base things off of) as much as you can. If you find that your use case cannot be satisfied using the internal Automations, then and only then would I venture off in creating Routines or Pistons that satisfy those requirements.
Hopefully that answers some of your questions and clears things up a bit.
Some screenshots for the Modes Automations if you haven’t looked at it in NST Manager yet:
Thanks for the very detailed reply. I’ll have to play with it when I get home, but in the mean time, perhaps if I describe a little more of what I’m trying to accomplish then it will make more sense. I’m trying to use phones as presence sensors for family members, and the nest presence sensor as a catch-all sensor for anyone else that might be there, be it guests or intruders. I have a “Guest Mode” virtual switch. What I want to happen is:
- When guest mode is on, and ANY presence sensor leaves, then if ALL presence sensors are gone, then turn off lights and set mode to away.
- When guest mode is off, and any PHONE presence sensor leaves, then if all PHONE presence sensors are gone, then turn off lights and set mode to away.
- When guest mode is on, if ANY presence sensor arrives, then turn on lights and set mode to home.
- When guest mode is off, if nest presence sensor changes to present and phone sensors are gone, then send an SMS “there’s activity at home while you’re gone”
I’m attempting to keep all my automations in webcore if I can, that way it’s all in one place, it’s easier (for me) to look at and troubleshoot if something isn’t working the way I expect.
The Nest Presence device is the actual Thermostat and it’s Home / Away Status.
Based on what I know you are looking to do, I will write something else up later.
Questions:
Are your Pistons doing anything with the Thermostat?
Is NST Manager currently doing anything with your Nest Thermostat?
What are your goals with the Thermostat and temp settings while Home or Away?
How is your Nest Thermostat currently being set to Away and Home?
Forget the Nest Presence device in this equation. Forget it exists as a device for now.
I need clarification on the following statements. When you said “ANY presence sensor” are you referring to the ST Arrival Sensor (Zigbee device) and by “any PHONE presence sensor”, you mean Mobile Presence (GPS). Do I have your terminology correct?
When guest mode is on, and ANY presence sensor leaves, then if ALL presence sensors are gone, then turn off lights and set mode to away.
When guest mode is off, and any PHONE presence sensor leaves, then if all PHONE presence sensors are gone, then turn off lights and set mode to away
With those questions answered, I can give you a straight shot at whether you can or even should incorporate trying to use Nest Presence as anything or if based on your Pistons already setup, your Nest environment can stay in sync with ST and it’s Mode by passing Home or Away to Nest when appropriate so that you have everything enabling / disabling in your environment in the correct order.