The sun is hitting my thermostat

[Mebejedi]

So, I cleared some bushes from my rear patio, and the wall has a high window over the main window. This morning at 8:00, my air conditioner came on because the sun can shine on my Honeywell thermostat. While the house was @75*, the thermostat showed a toasty 83*. Since I’d rather not move my thermostat, I’m looking at using Webcore to prevent unnecessary air conditioning.

I’m considering these options:

1. My door sensors have thermometers, so I could program Webcore to compare them to the Honeywell. If the Honeywell is above 80, and the front door is below 75, then no A/C

2. If the difference between the Honeywell and door sensor is greater than, say, 5*, it’ll prevent the A/C from turning on (They’re in the same room)

3. Prevent the Honeywell from turning on A/C prior to the time that the sun shines on it. (Not sure how to find the $time variable, and how would I account for Daylight savings?)

4. Have Honeywell work off the front door sensor instead. Is this possible?

Any suggestions on these? I’m hoping this can stop the Honeywell before the A/C is turned on, since I’d like to reduce unnecessary wear and tear on the A/C.

Also, my children sometimes turn the A/C down very low. If I wanted to prevent this (other than locking out the device), would I have Webcore monitor the setpoint? What’s the difference between coolingsetpoint and mincoolingsetpoint (or maxcoolingsetpoint)?

I’ll be playing around with this for awhile, but if anyone has any suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

Thanks in advance!

[Mebejedi]

Well, I’ve got this…but I wanted the piston to send me a text when the Piston came on, and when it was turned off. Unfortunately, it’ll keep sending me texts concerning the ELSE status endlessly. Do I need to set up a variable or attribute so it only sends the text IF the Piston is turned off (A/C status turned back on), and only then.

[Mebejedi]

I’m trying to set up the piston to loop, so that once the termperature drops, it’ll send the “Done” notification, and then finish. How would I do this?

Nvrmnd…found it: How do you create a do while or while or For loop?

[Mebejedi]

OK…we’ll see if this works…

[Edit] Nope. I still get constant notifications afterwards that the program is done. I need to create a loop within a loop.

[bobbles]

How about a boolean variable called ‘DirectSunlight’.
Then in your piston in the ‘while’ after you Turn Off Thermostat 1 set the variable to ‘True’.
Then in your second statement have an ‘IF’.
So
IF
Variable DirectSunlight = True
THEN
WITH
Thermostat 1
DO
Set to Auto
Set Variable DirectSunlight = False.
Wait 5 seconds.

I’ve out the wait in there to make sure the variable gets set before the statement is re-evaluated.

EDIT: You will probably need something else in your new IF otherwise it will keep cycling round. Maybe something around your thermostats.
EDIT 2:
Maybe put an ELSE in your WHILE to set the variable to False.
Then in the new IF

IF
Variable DirectSunlight CHANGES TO False
THEN
WITH
Thermostat 1
DO
Set to Auto
Send SMS message

[bobbles]

Would this work for you.

[Mebejedi]

@bobbles, Okay, I tried this…but what is Tado-Heating? Did you put the thermostat, SMS, and variable into a group, so they could all be changed under the same DO?

[bobbles]

Tado-Heating is just that, my heating which happens to be controlled by Tado.

As for the piston, I do not use it. It was something I knocked up to give you an idea of what you require could possibly be done.

[Mebejedi]

Ok, but when I put my first DO for the thermostat, then the subsequent DOs also have to be under thermostat…unless I’m DOing something wrong there. (Did you see what I DID there? )

[bobbles]

Did you see what I DID there?

Nice one.
Put everything in one block. i.e. this.

All under the Turn Off.
It doesn’t matter that they are under the Thermostat.
Have a go at copying what I have posted above and see if it works.

[Mebejedi]

Well, I was able to do this…

[Mebejedi]

So, my current form is:

[Mebejedi]

It works! Here’s the final form. I incorporated Echo Speaks so it can tell me when the Piston is running. Cool stuff!

[Mebejedi]

So, the last piston didn’t work…and I’m messing with it again (since the sun is low enough to hit my thermostat again.) I’ve created this piston, but it says “This piston does not subscribe to any events.” Apparently, I can’t use a change in temperature?

[WCmore]

it says “This piston does not subscribe to any events.”
Apparently, I can’t use a change in temperature?

Line 30 (changed) is currently a condition, not a trigger…

---

Try changing line 30 to:
IF Thermostat 1's temperature changes

That will make it a trigger, and it will fire at each and every change in temp.
(hopefully that sensor only reports integers, not decimals)

[Mebejedi]

Yep, that did it.

According to my ST app, it’s a whole number.