[RELEASE] Humidity and Temperature Management with Scheduling (homes without HVAC/thermostats / using heaters and cooling appliances / vacation home / remote homes)

SmartApps & Automations Community Created SmartApps
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Humidity and Temperature Management with Scheduling

Automatically manage and schedule the climate (humidity and temperature) for your rental homes and vacation homes using HVAC’s, heaters, coolers, fans, humidifiers, dehumidifiers and more appliances. Also useful for older homes without a thermostat or for rooms which have heating and cooling appliances in them with no HVAC or homes with WiFi thermostats. See below for a full list of features:


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FEATURE SUMMARY:

  • Use different devices to control temperature
    • Thermostats
    • Heaters
    • Cooler/fans
  • Use different devices to control humidity
    • HVAC’s
    • Humidifiers
    • Dehumidifiers/exhaust fans
  • Temperature Management
    • Set high/low temperature thresholds
    • Set high/low humidity thresholds
    • Set temperature swing threshold
    • Set separate sensors for high/low temperature measurement
  • Humidity Management
    • Set high/low humidity thresholds
    • Set humidity swing threshold
  • Set upvto 3 weekly/daily operating schedules
  • Set operating modes
  • Send SMS to multiple recipients
  • Send push notifications
  • Speak notifications (e.g. Sonos or Alexa)

NOTES

  • You can define the High and Low temperatures sensors (independently) as well as action to take like turning on HVAC’s, Fans/switches, heaters etc. It will automatically turn them off once the temperature is out of the control range, configurable up to 1 degree (C/F) above or below the temperature settings.
  • You can also monitor a Humidity sensor and correspondingly define a set of action to take/device to turn on (HVAC, dehumidifiers, humidifiers, switches etc) to remedy the situation and it will automatically turn them off after the humidity return to 5% below the threshold or turn off the humidifier when it’s 5% above the threshold.
  • You can define up to 3 operating schedules for the heating and cooling appliances (these will only turn on during the schedule but will turn off when the desired temperature/humidity thresholds are achieved)
  • You can also define the operating modes, like scheduled modes will control when appliances are turned on
  • If you’re using external temperature sensor(s) in the SmartApp, it will set the thermostat setpoints to around 85F for heating and around 60F for cooling until the external sensor temperature(s) indicates that the desired temperature has been achieved after which the setpoints will be reversed to turn the thermostat off. This is normal behavior, please ensure that your thermostat is using factory settings and the setpoints range are not limited.

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS:

You can find step by step installation instructions here.

If you have any feature requests please feel free to send them in.

You can also check out the following thermostat management apps

This app is available on the RBoy Apps Server .

Visit our website for more details and to get access to all our apps.

Visit our Facebook page for updates on new apps: http://www.facebook.com/RBoySTApps

(c) RBoy Apps

2 Likes
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Version 1.2.1
You can define upto 3 operating schedules for the heating and cooling appliances (these will only turn on during the schedule but will turn off when the desired temperature/humidity thresholds are achieved)
Fixed an issue with modes

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Thanks for the recent update with scheduling. I am using this for my sons bedroom to set a min temp via a motion sensor which turns on an electric heater when he is there at night, but not when he is in school.

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##humidity and Temperature Management with Scheduling - Version 1.2.2

  • Added fix for error while installing if the hub location/timezone wasn’t specified. Now it’ll warn the user to add the hub location to that it can pick the correct timezone otherwise it’ll default to UTC timezone.

Thanks to DnCCrew for this step:

To set the hub Location, from smartphone app:

  1. Clicked on the 3 lines (top right corner)
  1. Clicked on gear icon (top right)
  2. Click area that says “Tap to set where home is on the map” and zoom in to correct location on map.
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###Humidity and Temperature Management with Scheduling - Version 1.2.3

  • Fix for a scheduling bug in the ST API when end time is before start time (i.e. next day)
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###Humidity and Temperature Management with Scheduling - Version 1.3.0

  • Added support for ST Contact Address Book
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###Humidity and Temperature Management with Scheduling - Version 1.4.0

  • Added ability to automatically check for updates to SmartApps and Devices and notify user

After updating the code, open the SmartApp and click Done for the changes to take effect

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###Humidity and Temperature Management with Scheduling - Version 1.5.0

  • Added ability to use humdifier if the humidity falls below the threshold
  • Improved description of options
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###Humidity and Temperature Management with Scheduling - Version 01.05.01

  • Update due to change in ST phone app, now you can separate multiple SMS numbers by using a *
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Humidity and Temperature Management with Scheduling - Version 01.06.00

  • Added support for schedules ending past midnight into next day
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Hi RBoy.

I just found this app of yours (been running your door lock app for a long time) and I would love to use this one also in my home.

I am currently set up with sensors and and switches only and would like to know if it were possible to add functionality to turn a switch off when max heat is reached as opposed to switching on a cooler (which I don’t have). :slight_smile:

Let me know.

Ulf Thomas

1 Like
12

If you don’t have a cooler, just don’t assign any switch to the cooler function. It will turn off the heater when the heat threshold is reached.

13

Ahaaaa. That is great. :slight_smile: Thanks.

I have been testing it for awhile now and it does work - but it does notify me that it is turning off the heaters even thought the heaters are off. Could a check be added to disable this if the heaters are indeed off?

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Hi again.

I am seeing some every erratic behavior from your app. By that I mean that it looks like the app suddenly stops monitoring temp changes and that it doesn’t switch on or off any heaters. Then all of a sudden it will start again.

I.e. just now - when I’m at work I get a notification that the temp had increased but when I look into the history of the sensor I find 10+ temp events before this. Several of which should’ve either switch a heater on.

Please advise.

BR

Thomas

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SmartThings is an event driven setup. What means is that the SmartApp doesn’t poll the devices for temperature changes instead SmartThings notifies the app when the temperature changes then the app takes actions accordingly.

If you’re seeing that the temperature has changed in your device and nothing is happening with the SmartApp then it could be a few reasons

  1. The platform didn’t notify the app
  2. The app isn’t scheduled to be running/notified for the mode (check if you’ve set any mode restrictions on your SmartApp settings)

For the first one, one way to check would be open your ide Live Logs and see if the platform notifies the app when the temperate changes. If it doesn’t you’ll have to contact ST support to look into your account and find out why the platform isn’t nothing your app for your account (each account apps run independently).

It could be a temporarily platform issue caused by server load (for e.g. If this started recently or eratticly like you mentioned) and could fix itself after a few hours or days once the platform sorts out its load issues.

16

Hi and thanks for your reply.

There is something strange all together going on here because if I create an instance of your app to monitor my living room sensor and setting the high temperature to 25, I am suddenly getting a notification that the heater has been switched off because the temperature has reached 24.6. Any suggestions on how to debug that one? :slight_smile:

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Check your SmartApp settings, heaters are connected to low temperature settings and not high. If you’re still facing an issue, please take a screenshot of the messages and SmartApp settings and eMail them to our support team to check out.

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Humidity and Temperature Management with Scheduling - Version 01.07.00

  • Enhanced the humidity and temperature management engine to make it hardier and also fixed a bug
  • Added ability for users to configure the swing thresholds for temperature and humidity (advanced settings)
  • Added sanity check for initialization on app start up and settings updates
1 Like
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Humidity and Temperature Management with Scheduling - Version 01.07.01

  • Turn off all devices when mode changes to non operating mode

After updating to this version, open the SmartApp and click ‘Save’ for the changes to take effect

1 Like
20

I would like to use this app for our upstairs bathroom. I have a decent fan I believe it moves 110 CFM. Unfortunately the bathroom is rather large and I don’t think the fan gets ran long enough to bring the humidity to an acceptable level. Compound this with living in Florida and I often end up with a mold problem. I would like the exhaust to run whenever the humidity rises above 60% and shut off when it drops below that target. What type of switch should I purchase for the fan, and can you recommend a humidity sensor that the batteries will last at least three months or better.

Thanks.