Nest thermostat native schedule vs ST automations

Devices & Integrations
1

I’ve searched the forum and can’t find anything on point, so I’m sorry if this has been discussed before.

Can someone summarize how ST automations and the Nest thermostat native schedules interact and prioritize?

For example, if I tell the Nest thermostat schedule to change to 74 everyday at 7a, and 70 everyday at 9p…then I have a ST automation that changes to 80 when all phones are gone…Will the Nest thermostat change the temp to 70 at the next 9p even if we’re gone (and I don’t have the Nest presence feature activated)?

Separately, the reason I have set it up this way is because it appears that the ST automation I set up to change the temperature at a designated time if all phones are home doesn’t work unless everyone leaves and come back…correct?

Basically, I wanted to use ST to control the Nest thermostat, and not use any of the built in features of the Nest. But I’m struggling to get it to react the way I wanted. So I’m trying to figure out how they interact with each other, in order to get my desired results.

PS, I would categorize myself as an above average novice at all this. So please be kind and don’t use too many acronyms :blush:

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2

For example, if I tell the Nest thermostat schedule to change to 74 everyday at 7a, and 70 everyday at 9p…then I have a ST automation that changes to 80 when all phones are gone…Will the Nest thermostat change the temp to 70 at the next 9p even if we’re gone (and I don’t have the Nest presence feature activated)?

Yes, the 9 pm schedule will still kick in.

There isn’t any prioritization because neither set of rules is aware of the other. So each just kicks off whenever its own trigger conditions are met.

I’ll leave it to others to discuss specifically how they use Nest and SmartThings together.

3

Thanks. That makes sense.

So, am I correct that the ST automations based on presence of phones are only triggered when the phones arrive or leave? In other words, it’s not “if phones are home” between 7a and 9p, then xxx… as its worded. It’s really “if phones arrive” between 7a and 9p, then xxx…

I do have the time listed first, so I thought the time would trigger it to check to see if phones are home, and then it would trigger the automation. But it doesn’t seem to be working that way. Perhaps if I change to a specific time, instead of a period of time. I’ll give that a try.

4

To be honest, I’m not sure exactly how presence works any more in the ST app, it’s changed a couple of times and I haven’t kept up. Initially it was exactly as you say: the event was triggered only at the moment that the phone crossed the geo border. At one point they were trying to add an “is home” rather than just “arrives home”, but I don’t know if they succeeded. Hopefully someone else will know.

In any case, you can usually use location.mode for that kind of filter, through two automations.

  1. if phone arrives home, change location.mode to Home.

  2. If location.mode is Home and…. For your occupancy check.

@Automated_House

5

Thanks! That seems to be working, but does appear to require a point in time, rather than a period of time. For the benefit of others, I achieved my desired outcome with the following ST automations:

1-change temp to 74 when any phone arrives between 7a-9p
2-change temp to 70 when any phone arrives btwn 9p-7a
3-change location to home when any phone arrives (which I could likely just build into the previous two)
4-change temp to 74 at 7a if location is home
5-change temp to 70 at 9p if location is home
6-change temp to 80 and location to away when all phones leave

I then have all schedules and presence tracking on the Nest turned off, so it’s only controlled by ST.

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