Ok, up here in Ontario, we have Time of Use power rates, and they change bi-seasonally. “Cheap” time is always 7:00pm to 7:00am, and weekends/holidays. Medium and expensive times are between those. (pricing difference is substantial: 8.9c low vs 18.9c high)
Now, I currently have anything that shouldn’t run during expensive times (dehumidifier, various random things around the home) to only run between 7pm and 7am … however, it’d be nice to say “this item only runs cheap times” and “this item can run cheap and medium cheap times”. Anyone have an idea how I can do this? I was thinking of using modes, but it gets very complex very fast, so not workable (really wish you could have two different modes at once … boo).
Really, it’d be as “simple” as, instead of “sun rise” or “sunset”, it’d be “low”, “medium”, and “high”, and twice a year, I’d have to adjust the times.
Something to think about. I currently use built-in apps for basically everything I do, otherwise I just program something; seems I can throw together an app in about 10 minutes if I can’t find something “off the shelf”. I got into the habit of doing this before I knew about CoRE, so I never bothered to learn how to use it (even though I have it “installed”).
I like the idea of what JDRoberts did; I’ll look into it, and if I can’t easily make my apps deal with it, maybe I’ll learn CoRE. Thanks!
I didn’t make the three state DTH, @anon36505037 did. I just pointed out that there was an existing device type, a garage door Indicator, which had more than two states, and Robin took it from there.
Been down the “Too Many Modes to Keep Up With” path… Find it easier to build the “Modes” into CoRE Pistons. If really complex then I incorporate a combination of Virtual Switches and/or Variables.
As an example:
One Virtual Switch=Power Savings
One CoRE Piston that says: If time is between 7pm and 7am Turn on Power Savings, Else Turn Off Power Savings
Then in your rules, add the if Power Savings is On/Off condition
This way, you only have one Virtual Switch and one Piston to control it and in all your rules that turn stuff on/off can use the Virtual Switch to meet the condition.
If you’re willing to set up automations that veer outside ST a bit, you can use Sharptools with Tasker for these things. Tasker can get virtually anything from existing websites, such as the times of sunrise and sunset today from various weather sites (you might subscribe to RSS feeds for this). It can also do computations on those times. So that in summertime, you might have a lighting automation that not only triggers at sunset but waits another 30 minutes due to the extended brightness during dusk - while in winter, it might do the automation immediately because darkness falls within a few minutes of sunset. So Tasker does the calculations, then sends the appropriate command to ST at the appropriate time via sharptools.
I just pointed out that there was an existing device type, a garage door Indicator, which had more than two states, and Robin took it from there.