I apologize if this is not the right forum. Please move if needed. I have a V2 hub and a few Aeon smart plug with energy monitor along with a Nest. I have this smart plug connected to 2 different panel mounted heaters on the walls to heat rooms at night. I was heating a whole 3800 square foot house with central heat to keep two bedrooms warm at night. I decided I wanted to use these energy efficient wall heaters instead. The plugs work from the App and so does the Nest. Oh I also have 2 multipurpose sensors as well. Here is what I would like to do.
At 8pm, turn the nest down to 60 degrees.
Allow the heater to be turned on between 8pm-5am via toggling the smart plug.
During that 8-5am window, if the temperature goes above 72 degrees as reported by a multi sensor, turn the plug off and essentially turn off the heater.
If during that window the heater is off and the temp goes below 69 degrees, turn the plug back on and thus turn back on the heater.
At 5am, turn off both plugs and set Nest to 70 degrees.
I am a little new to Smartthings and I have some things working, but this scenario above is a little above my current knowledge level. I would really appreciate it if anyone could help me learn and figure out how to set this situation up. Thanks in advance for the help!
The scenario you outlined is somewhat complicated and SmartThings can’t really do this with any built-in tools. There are community developed apps that should be able to accomplish this. I would start by setting up Rule Machine and seeing how far that can get you. Make sure to read the description and instructions fully.
Check out the Virtual Thermostat SmartApp. In the phone app go to Marketplace and then pick the SmartApps section and then Climate Control. It connects a temp sensor and a switch together into a thermostat, essentially.
It wants to run on Modes so if you happen to have your Night mode running from 8pm to 5am then perfect.
Sounds like the Nest you could just program to go up to 70 at 5am or you could use the Good Morning routine to set it - assuming that you switch from Night to Home at that time.
You don’t say when, but if you want the Nest to go to a lower temp at 8pm then the Good Night routine can do that as well.
Thanks for the help! I think modes work great. I wasn’t aware I could set conditions on the modes when to activate. I thought they were all manual. So, I have night mode to start at 8 pm by putting the Nest down to 60 degrees. Then I have a virtual thermostat. In the options for the virtual thermostat, it has “set for specific mode(s)” which I set to Night. Does that mean the thermostat will only start working when the Night mode is activated?
My other issue is the Nest keeps kicking up to 70 degrees at night even after I manually/physically set the temp down to 60. It got super hot in the room with the central heat on + heater. Is the nest coming back up to 70 degrees since “Auto Schedule” is enabled on the Nest and I have for the past month had it set to 70 at night?
Sorry another question. I am using the Samsung Multisensor. How often does the virtual thermostat poll the temp reading on the sensor. Does anyone know?
I believe that the Nest is changing things on you. I had that problem anyway. If you go into the nest app you can see and change the schedule. I think that there is a setting to turn the auto scheduling off, too.
Right, if you set the modes in the VT then it will only be in operation during that mode.
I think that it operates based upon the event of the temp changing and the sensor sending that change instead of polling. I don’t think that it does any polling - you’d need a different smartapp for that.
Okay so anytime there is a temp change it will send that to the Virtual Thermostat? I am fine with that, I just want to make sure the Virtual thermostat is getting temp readings when needed. I was/am afraid that it only sends temp readings when I manually refresh, but I guess that is not the case.
I’m using an EverSpring ST814 temp sensor and I don’t have to refresh that manually - it pushes out temp changes. My thermostat is a Nest, though, and I DO have to refresh that one using Pollster - that is so that the app has the current information about what the thermostat is doing (or not doing) - for instance it needs to know what the current thermostat temp and setpoint are and if it is on/off so that it knows what new setpoint to give it so that it turns on/of.
Hum, I also keep having the smart outlets turning back on and I can’t figure out why. I’ll keep monitoring and see if I can figure it out. I’ll maybe start another thread asking how the multipurpose sensors works in terms of giving off temp readings to see if anyone has a definitive answer.
I don’t have exactly what you want but close. check out my smartap and thread…
it turns on and off any switches when the temps are between a certain range, and also the date is between a certain range…