Routines and Scheduling-- how do you manage your thermostats?

SmartApps & Automations Automation Ideas
1

Right now both of my thermostats are programming in their own software at the thermostat. I would like to move that to ST. I would also like to have it use a different temperature setting based on presence and/or routines. I might also like to run a different lighting schedule (currently using Smart Lights) based on my presence/routine.

Is this possible and what path should I look at for accomplishing this? Also I’d be interested to hear what others do differently in your houses based on if you are home or not.

Thanks.
Bob

2

pretty straightforward to do with routines. Our goodbye routine sets the heat/cool temps to save energy. The i’m back routine sets them to our comfortable settings.

3

Welcome! :sunglasses: What’s the brand and model of your current thermostat? Or are you thinking about replacing it with a smart model?

Meanwhile, you might want to take a look in the community – created wiki in the project report section at the “get started” list. There are a lot of interesting topics there that might give you some ideas, including some specific to using routines.

http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=How_to_Quick_Browse_the_Community-Created_SmartApps_Forum_Section#Quick_Browse_Links_for_Project_Reports.2FQuestions

4

They’re both zwave enabled already. I manually alter them via the ST app.

I’m not looking to just set a temp when I am home and set another when I am away. Instead I am looking running a schedule and the temps in that schedule would be different. For example in the summer I have the upstairs go down to 75 at 9pm. I would like that to maybe go to 78 if I’m not home and 75 if I am. Then the morning it goes back up to 85 upstairs.

A long time ago I modified a little smart app that made sure the thermostats were in sync and that the upstairs was always x degree warmer than the downstairs. But I need to add some more meat to that because it just always maintains the x number of degrees. During the day however, I usually have the upstairs at 85 and the downstairs at 75.

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5

I’ll dig through the smart apps for hvac. There seems to be a ton of them.

What else are people doing based on home/away?

6

I would look at webCoRE. It’s a ST app that provides easily configured but very powerful logic. I use it extensively with my HVAC to coordinate fan settings and temperature settings based on presence and time of day. Here’s a wiki to get you started:

2 Likes
7

Thanks, Carson. That seems very robust. Right now I am trying the “basic 5-2 Day Programmable Thermostat” and it seem to be working.

This is my first dive into utilizing the home/away/night modes.

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8

I use Routines. I don’t really use the schedule in my Ecobee for temps. SmartThings controls the temp based on routines.