I have very complex heating needs in an apartment that is used infrequently. I have not been able to get the routines right.
I would like to hire an expert to sort it out for me. Do people like this exist—professional SmartThings assistants? I have failed multiple times, but it will probably take someone who knows the app no time at all to set up.
The only people I’ve heard of doing this professionally are doing full equipment installs, and then help out their customers. And there aren’t very many of those…
But to be honest one reason for that is that there are lots of people here who will be happy to help you for free, if you are willing to post your requirements to this forum. So, even if you have a very complicated use case, that might be all you need.
If you’re willing to post your requirements here, we’ll see what we can do.
First up there are a few questions we need answered
what country is the apartment in?
do you have a Smartthings/Aeotec hub at the apartment, and if so, which model?
what’s the exact brand/model of the HVAC equipment you want to control? Or at least the thermostat model if everything‘s going to be managed by the thermostat.
if you are going to use “presence“ as part of the rule, what brand/model mobile device are you going to use?
do the rules based on presence need to work for more than one person?
then take just one use case and describe it and let’s see what we can do.
—-
For whatever reason, if you prefer to hire someone and do everything privately, they’ll still need to know the answer to those first five questions, but we’ll see who responds.
Among the more active expert helpers here with regard to complex rules are @jkp, @orangebucket, @Automated_House @milandjurovic71 , @Paul_Oliver , @Declankh , @TapioX , @mlchelp , @DaWeav and @marktr , but I don’t know if any of them are looking for paid work. And there are lots of others who help as well, including some who might be using the same equipment you are, which would be useful. So hopefully someone will respond.
As JD said, answer the questions in his response and one if not all of us will help you for free as we have been helped by other members.
Of course I would be happy to have free help. Thank you.
In my small apartment in NYC, that I only use a few days a week, I have three Samsung units. Two cassettes in the ceiling, and a large unit in the wall. They are controlled by a Samsung Thermostat and a Wifi kit. They were installed in 2022, so it is all pretty new.
Here is an image of our devices:
A regular daily schedule does not work because of our erratic use of the space, and I would rather the system not be on all the time because it seems so wasteful. I would also like to take advantage of the automation features as much as possible.
MEMBER LOCATION:
I love the idea of it recognizing people and turning the system on as people come and go. At one point I had it come on as my husband and I came and went, but that did not work for us because sometimes the dogs are there without us and the HVAC needs to be on for them. Is there is a way for it to recognize dogs?
I have a cleaning woman who comes once a week. Is there a way to add her to the system without her having to set her up with a SmartThings account?
When I added my husband to the system he had to set up an account on SmartThings, which was OK for him, not easy, but he did it. But its sort of an odd ask for the cleaning woman. Is there no way to go through the app and add people? Or do all members need an account?
MY CURRENT SETTUP:
I have two Manual Routines, HOME and AWAY, and a few automated routines for Winter and a few routines for Summer, that I also turn on and off manually.
WINTER Automated Routines:
When we are HOME, it is set to a certain heat temperature in the winter days.
When we are HOME, it is set to a certain heat temperature for the winter nights.
When we are AWAY, it is set to the minimum heat temperature during the days and nights. Is it true that it does not go below 61 degrees? That feels very wasteful to me, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get it lower than that.
When we are AWAY, I have tried to have heat go up for the time when my cleaning woman is in, but that has never worked. I think there might be a conflict.
SUMMER:
When we are HOME, it is set to a certain AC temperature in the summer days.
When we are HOME, it is set to a certain AC temperature for the summer nights.
When we are AWAY, I leave the system off.
When we are AWAY, I have tried to have AC go on for the time when my cleaning woman is in, but that has never worked. I think there might be a conflict.
My Questions:
I appreciate any advice you can give me.
Harry
Sorry, I just went back and re-read your email. Below is the info you requested.
USA
NO, I have Samsung Wifi Kit
One Samsung ACO30MNHDCH/AA Samsung Duct S, Single Zone Duct, Split System
Two Samsung AM009NN1DCH
Apple Iphone 14 Pro Max
Yes
If you want me to break down my requests I will, but I can’t to it now.
You can base presence on your phones coming and going, so it won’t be affected by the dogs at all.
Do both you and your husband have the same model phone?
Now, as for the cleaning crew… do you have a smart lock on the apartment? Or are they just using a key when they come in? Or if they always come on the same day of the week, then a timed schedule might be easier for them.
do you have a HomePod mini or an Apple TV 4? Since you don’t have a Smartthings/Aeotec hub, there are fewer options for detecting people coming and going, but there are some quite good ones with Apple that can then be brought into smartthings. As far as the cleaner, we could set it up so that they push a button on a smart plug to indicate that they have arrived and then push the button again to indicate that they are leaving and that way you wouldn’t have to do anything with their phone at all.
Thermostat Routines can be the trickiest because of the various scheduling ideas…
The Routine will only trigger if the Away mode action happens between 8:30am-4pm on Wednesday. If the system is already in Away mode before the time window, then it won’t do anything since a pre-condition time range is not a trigger and the Away mode as the trigger is already set prior to the time window.
If you set the specific time at 8:30am on Wednesday as the trigger (not a precondition), and use the Away mode as the precondition, then it will activate and run at 8:30 on Wednesday when the system is in Away mode. But, you’ll then need to make another Routine to turn it off at 4pm on Wednesday when away with Away mode as the pre-condition if that’s what you want it to do.
As for Summer and Winter, I use @Mariano_Colmenarejo Virtual Calendar device for my seasonal thermostat Routines by using the month ranges setting of the Virtual Calendar as the pre-condition.
61 sounds more like a cooling limit then a heating limit. You should be able to set the heating temperature at 41 on most thermostats for obvious reasons.
In your Away:Winter routine you need to do the following
IF
Location mode Away
THEN
Office/ Guest Bedroom HVAC
On
Select Mode: Heat
Set Wind strength: Auto
Set Temperature: 41
Living Room HVAC
On
Select Mode: Heat
Set Wind strength: Auto
Set Temperature: 41
HVACMaster Bedroom
On
Select Mode: Heat
Set Wind strength: Auto
Set Temperature: 41
Create this routine when all 3 units are already on and in heat mode. I have a feeling it is only letting you pick 61 because at the time your setting up the routine, the units are in cooling mode.
See if this works and then we can help you with the virtual calendar solution that DaWeav mentioned to automaticaly determine which season it is.
This will be controlled by the heating temperature that you set in your routines. So, if you set all the units to a particular temperature in your routines, then that will keep the apartment at that temperature no matter what the weather is! Don’t turn any of the units off, just adjust their modes and temperature. You want the units on all of the time so you can take advantage of their temperature sensors!
During the winter all the units should always be turned on and in heat mode and then use the temperature setting in the routine to control the lowest temperature you want.
During the summer all the units should always be turned on and in cooling mode and then use the temperature setting in the routine to control the highest temperature you want.
All the units use a very low amount of energy when thier turned on and not heating or cooling.
Don’t overthink this part, use the already built in function of the units and forget about the outside temperature or weather!
I don’t think that there is a presence sensor for the dogs unless you can strap a phone on their back. You would probably be able to do this with motion sensors unless they sleep all the time. I’m not familiar with doing this part without a hub so maybe someone else would be able to chime in with a sensor that would work with SmartThings without a hub. Maybe some kind of Wifi smart tags on their collar or something but again I use SmartThings with a hub and have no experience without using one in my setup.
Good suggestion for people who have a SmartThings/Aeotec hub, but like all edge drivers, it’s not available for those who don’t have an ST hub, which includes the OP.
Unfortunately, the ST official features don’t have calendar functions. 
You can add them through a third party service like IFTTT or SharpTools, or, of course, add a SmartThings/Aeotec hub in order to be able to use edge drivers. Different people will have different preferences in this regard.
CALENDAR TRIGGERS IN SHARPTOOLS: DOABLE, NOT EASY
Normally for someone who doesn’t have a hub, I would recommend SharpTools. It has a very easy visual interface for setting up rules, you can make really nice custom dashboards, and often the free tier is all you’ll need, although even the paid subscription is only $30/year. And they have a free 14 day trial so you can check it out.
In this case, though, well, it’s very easy to add a calendar as a display item on a SharpTools dashboard, using one in a rule is one of the most complicated set ups in Sharptools, and does require the paid subscription. It could definitely be done, but the OP would probably require some help to set it up.
Here’s the main SharpTools page:
And here is the page for using a calendar as the “if“ in a rule. They can certainly be done, and you don’t need to have a SmartThings Hub to do it, but the setup is definitely technical.
I don’t know if @joshua_lyon can suggest an easier way. (He’s the developer at SharpTools. )
ADDING AN ST HUB SO YOU CAN USE EDGE DRIVERS (AND MATTER)
Some people might find it worth it to add a Smartthings/Aeotec hub just so they can start using specialty edge drivers like the calendar from Mariano. And maybe so they have the possibility of adding Matter devices. But other people don’t want to add a hub at all. I am reluctant to suggest one for an “infrequently used“ apartment as it does add a level of unreliability to the whole set up. But that’s just me.
