Ceiling Fan Automation with Furnace Fan


#1

1) Give a description of the problem
I am trying to automate ceiling fans such that they will turn on when the furnace fan turns on. I have a smart switch set-up on the furnace that provides a signal to Smartthings when the Fan is running. I have my ceiling fans automated with GE Smart Switches (for Ceiling Fans).

2) What is the expected behavior?
I want the Ceiling Fan to “turn on” when the Furnace Fan is running and "turn off: when the furnace fan is not running except if the ceiling fan was turned on previously using the manual switch or from Smartthings.

3) What is happening/not happening?
I can get the Ceiling Fan to turn on when the furnace fan starts. However, when the furnace fan stops the ceiling fan stops even if the ceiling fan was already on.

4) Post a Green Snapshot of the pistonimage
(UPLOAD YOUR IMAGE HERE)

5) Attach any logs (From ST IDE and by turning logging level to Full)
(PASTE YOUR LOGS HERE BETWEEN THE MARKS THEN HIGHLIGHT ALL OF THE LOGS SND CLICK ON THE </> ICON TO FORMAT THEM)

REMOVE BELOW AFTER READING
If a solution is found for your question then please mark the post as the solution.


#2

Create a global variable to hold the state of the ceiling fan. In the piston that starts the ceiling fan, add an if statement to see if the fan is already running. If the fan is already running, set your variable to true. If the fan is not already running, set your variable to false. In your piston that turns off the fan, only allow it to turn off the fan if your global variable is false.


#3

Hi Brian… I think this will work great. However, I am new (today) to webCoRE and just tried to create the Global Variance for a Ceiling Fan. Can you walk me through how to do this? I can see the Global Variance selection on the Upper Right but when I click on it, it is not clear how to set up this device for the True/False indication you mentioned.


#4

Sure. After you select “Add new global variable”, change the top drop-down that says “Dynamic” to “Boolean”. This will only allow values of true/false. You can name the variable anything you want.


#5

Hi Brian… I have the Global Variable and it is set up as Boolean. I can see how to set up an If Statement for the Condition of the Fan Switch. However, I can’t see how to set the Global Variable to true or false based on the Fan Switch. For 'then" statements, I can’t select a global variance as an action.

Thanks in advance for the help.


#6

I did something similar with my undercabinet lights. Wanted it to flash the undercabinet lights when the garage door opened. I wanted it to return to the prior state afterwards.
Line 34 captures the current state and Line 36 returns.


#7