Hey all - looking to not re-invent the wheel. I'm trying to decide on a good method to implement a pseudo-mode kind of thing - to handle seasons.
As the seasons have changed here in Portland, OR - it's time for me to take my window A/C units and store them away for the winter. These AC units have a number of rules tied into the house temperatures and have worked perfectly. Once I remove them, I want to be sure that rules and such don't function unnecessarily.
Since I used Mode to create chunks of the day, I want to create a Season with chunks of the year. This probably seems unnecessary to many but it's what I want.
My question then is : how have others implemented something like this? Making more Modes? Using Variables? Is there an App to overcome this HE weakness? Have I not searched deep enough in the HE community data? This is non-critical but for me at least, seems like a missing component to HE but that's just personal opinion. Looking forward to your responses!
I have a switch that turns on for BST and off for DST.
It turns on the last Sunday of March and off the last Sunday in October via an RM rule.
I then use this in a few rules as a predicate now but it used to be a condition.
Maybe you could do something similar. The rules will still get triggered but the predicate stops the rule from doing anything.
Alternatively just go into the rule and 'Stop' them.
Personally, I created two virtual switches: Virtual Summer Switch and Virtual Winter Switch. (Turns out, fall and spring aren't really exciting enough for me to need to care; I usually end up flipping this at some point manually, sometimes back and forth a couple times during these transitional periods.) I have a rule that makes sure only one can be on at a time. Thus, they function sort of like pseudo-modes for me. Like it seems you have planned, I have them tied into many automations so certain things don't happen in one season or the other.
You could definitely do the same thing with hub variables, but for my use case I'd need to create switch connectors anyway; not all of my apps are rules (so don't currently have a way to access these), and the device gives you a way to change it by voice more easily if you want.
Some day, I might automate the switches based on outdoor temperature trends or the forecast...but I'm not there yet. 
(And I'm not sure my personal whims are subject to automation.)
Pretty much what I do. Have a V-Switch for each season and rules to switch them on the desired dates.
such quick replies - In the time it took to clean my gutters!
I'm thinking this might be a good first App for me... Something with 4 variables, maybe tied to a virtual switch(s?) as descibed. I could have each 'chunk' have a start/stop date ... Before I do diddly - I'll keep my eye here to see any other thoughts ideas but thanks already!
RM has a condition "Between Two Dates". Depending on how you want to build things that might be handy. I have a 'seasonal' automation that uses that as a Predicate Condition, so the rule basically goes away for many months at a time.
Well - that was almost too easy! My solution was elegant (from my POV) - I created a single rule (5.0) that used if/then to put a text string into a Global Variable I called Season. (based on the general dates of the seasons as published on Wiki).
I then created using the Variable Connector - a connection of my global variable to an virtual device.
I stored 4 seasonal icons on BlueIris, and using Tile Master I created tile background for the tile and bob was my uncle! POINT: Hubitat.
(and the simplicity of the integration into the predicate was:
