I'm using Hubitat to manage my HVAC system (virtual thermostat and thermostat scheduler, tied to outlets right now). I'd like to include a calculation in my HVAC system to reflect "comfort" based on something like heat index.
Something like "Select a temperature sensor and a humidity sensor, and the app creates a virtual temperature sensor that it keeps updated with a 'heat index' or 'realfeel' temperature."
Are there any community apps that do this? My quick searches haven't turned anything up but I'm not great at these kinds of searches.
I'm planning on developing something myself if it doesn't exist, but don't want to reinvent the wheel.
I use a Node-RED sequence to calculate the dewpoint and use that number to control my HVAC system (99% of my automations are in Node-RED), and I'm happy to share those flows. I keep the indoor dewpoint between 55-58F when the house is occupied, and up to 63F when only the animals are at home.
Thanks so much! @JohnRob's app looks nearly perfect! I'll give it a try!
I think I may still end up adding some stuff to it, but the dew-point looks really helpful. My research had somehow failed to turn up that as a good measure of comfort.
I hadn't heard of Node-Red. Some quick googling looks interesting but at this time I'm trying to avoid adding additional processors to my setup. I'd like to just develop apps and drivers for Hubitat so I can keep everything running on one box. It looks like Node-Red is essentially an alternate programming language you're running on a RasbPi or something similar, that is driving Hubitat over the Maker API?
I like the interface to create automations (sequences).
It has a great many integrations not available directly in Hubitat - so it lets me integrate devices that aren't supported by Hubitat with my Hubitat-paired devices.
It is very easy to swap devices. For example, if for any reason, I decide in the future to use a different z-wave controller, I can keep my existing automations with minimal changes.
here is some groovey code that is part of the eccowitt weather station.. it would be easy to roll into a therm that has both temp and humidity, assuming you have a custom not built in driver.. but would you want it based on the heat index outdoors or indoors?
// Calculate heatIndex based on Heat index - Wikipedia
BigDecimal degrees;
String danger;
String color;
Yes it has. I use dew-point to control my thermostat set-point in cool mode, and temperature in heat mode.
I calculate the dew-point using an average of 10 temperature/humidity sensors that are weighted differently in Home (when I'm upstairs) and Sleep (when I'm downstairs) modes.
I indeed spent many years fine tuning this program to manage temperature in parallel with humidity levels. There's still work to be done on the automated comfort evaluation, but we use it at home and no one complains about the temperature being wrong. Also, there's the possibility to use a dimmer as a mean to send voice commands in order to get the proper temperature at a given time - the app then adjusts its automatic settings and comfort evaluation from there : it learns from your input (if you chose the "auto" option as a method of evaluation). Many other features to be explored too.