I have done some searches and ended up seeing some theoretical discussions, but no solutions thus far. Last one I found was in January of this year, so here’s hoping something has been developed since then…
I am trying to move from a manual hand-turn knob on an inefficient 2000 watt electric wall heater (aka wall fire hazard) to a smart temp/time controlled 400 watt efficient radiant panel.
I am dealing with a small room I only want heated during the day. I want to connect a radiant heat panel to a smart switch and–working in tandem with a motion or multi-purpose sensor–maintain the room at a given temperature, but only between 7am and 6pm. In the evenings when no one is in this room, I don’t want it trying to maintain that daytime temperature any more and can either a) just shut off/be inactive or b) maintain a lower temperature (to keep things from freezing and/or working so hard to rise to temperature the next morning).
I only found a couple topics discussing this and all of it was “I wish Virtual Thermostat could do this,” and some people saying they were working on coding this functionality, but no actual finished solutions. Any tips?
1 Like
tgauchat
(ActionTiles.com co-founder Terry @ActionTiles; GitHub: @cosmicpuppy)
2
Frankly, webCoRE seems to be the answer for “everything” these days; note the quotes – it may not be optimal or comprehensive for your requirements.
The advantage of using webCoRE is that you will have a growing community of users that are more likely to help than if you want this coded as a SmartThings SmartApp in Groovy.
If you want to learn Groovy and a whole bunch of fun stuff about the SmartThings development environment, SmartApps, Device Type Handlers, etc., then you have to first start with really simple projects, and then, you’ll be able to do something wonderful.
Learning webCoRE is a suitable alternative. It is still not trivial, so I’d still recommend starting small and simple.
@TribalDancer
I needed something very similar to control a conservatory heater so I wrote a smartapp to do what I wanted and am happy to share it if you wish.
The only problem is that it doesn’t have a time period (as I don’t require it)
However… it does have an on/off control switch which you could setup to turn on/off at certain times with smart lighting or similar
Alternatively if you give me a few days I’ll look at adding a time restriction in my app (not back home until Monday pm)
Edit: forgot to mention, the reason I didn’t need a time setting is because I use an ‘evening’ mode (which is a capability of the app)
If you do end up revisiting this to add a time component, I would be very interested. Thanks for taking the time to write and I look forward to hearing more. I am not in a giant rush, still investigating my options.
Shay
I have updated/recoded this to include a time restriction as well as the optional on/off switch
Try the clickable link below:
Please note.
I am currently using this version and it seems fine … BUT… I use IOS and cannot test Android use
I have found sometimes Android has a problem with some of the apps I create (I have no idea why - It’s an Android thing - or maybe my crappy coding)
Hopefully it will work for you
Anyway, try it and let me know how you get on, it should be pretty easy to setup
If you have any problem just enable the ‘debug logging’ and check the ‘live logging’ in the IDE and post the results.
This will usually tell me what is happening
Have you found a solution for the virtual thermostat needing certain time settings . I want the settings in VT to control the day and evening temp for a window ac . To cool more at night than day.
I tried using modes , but am having trouble with them .
