I’ve created a simple routine that checks the temp from a connected Ecobee thermostat. The IF statement is simple; the temp is greater than or equal to 72 degrees.
Then: turn on an outlet that has a fan plugged in.
I’ve tested it and the outlet does not come on (tried setting the 72 to a value below the current temp value on the Ecobee).
Also, if it were to work, would it turn off the outlet if the temp falls below 72? In other words, how often is the rule evaluated?
BTW: this was simple to setup in webCoRE and worked great till Groovy was killed. webCoRE allowed me to specify how often to reevaluate the condition in a while loop.
The triggers in the If portion of a Routine are event driven so it depends how often the thermostat integration (or driver if not cloud to cloud) is reporting the temperature.
Just like webCoRE pistons, Routines are event handlers. In this case they are activated by a new temperature event.
The greater than or equal condition is implemented in such a way that it only triggers any action by the Routine when it transitions from false to true (in the underlying Rule the changesOnly property is true for the condition).
In webCoRE terms it acts like rises to or above 72F (a trigger) when there is a temperature event, and greater than or equal to 72F (a condition) if some other event occurred. The mechanisms are different though.
The Routine will not assume you want to turn the fan off if the temperature falls.
It is unfortunate that a great product, WebCoRE, was killed in favor of such a limited solution. This forces my decision to retire the SmartThings system and components from our greenhouses. It will be replaced with Mycodo that automated the hydroponics system.
If you like Webcore, it’s alive and well on a competing home automation platform, Hubitat. In fact, it was always an unofficial feature for smartthings, a community-created project, but Hubitat has now made it part of their official offering.
There are even some community members who are running both smartthings and hubitat, because smartthings has a nicer app, but hubitat now offers full webcore support. Choice is good.
