I am trying to create a rule that turn off a plug if there the Power of the device plugged into is under a specific threshold.
Trigger certain time
Action Turn off Plug
Condition Power Meter < 5
I am trying to create a rule that turn off a plug if there the Power of the device plugged into is under a specific threshold.
Trigger certain time
Action Turn off Plug
Condition Power Meter < 5
So you want the plug to turn off at say 9PM if the power is above a certain level? With a trigger of a particular time, the rule will only run once a day.
trying to keep it simple at first. Next step is to have it keep checking every so often so if the condition is not met then it checks again. My logic is not working every time I run the action it turns the plug off no mater which <> i choose.
I still don't understand what you are trying to do exactly.
So far all I have is you want to check (something) for power above 5W? Could you please write out what device you have, and what you are trying to accomplish?
That is often the hardest thing about rules, you have to write out (mentally or physically) to where the steps make sense to anyone reading the rule. If you can do that, then you have most of what you need.
If you give more detail, we can probably help to put this together.
I am trying to turn the plug off to my TV at 10:30 P.M.
If someone is watching the TV at that time I do not want it to turn of the TV.
The TV uses power even when its off so I want the TV plug to keep it from using any vampire energy.
I have a dome on off plug with energy monitoring.
OK.
So the next question is, how do we know someone is watching TV or not? How are we going to detect that versus someone just leaving it on?
Are you going to add a button or motion sensor or something else to determine if the TV is really being watched?
And another question, how are we going to reactivate the TV plug when you do want to watch TV?
Thank for your help with this.
At 10:30 p.m. The adults are pretty good about turning it off. We will use Alexa to turn it back or just have another rule to turn on plug in the morning.
But that still doesn't answer the question about how do we know the kids left the TV on VS the adults staying up to watch a movie. Or do you just want it off no matter what?
We can just turn it off at 10:30 every day, but you will probably be annoyed by that pretty quickly.
I think what is missing here, and maybe I am wrong, is you are trying to go by standby power for the TV compared to running (full on) power of the TV? Your one condition of 5W probably isn't enough information.
So I think this is what you want? This isn't the finished rule exactly, but trying to determine your logic here.
IF 10:30 PM, AND (outlet) power is > 10W (maybe needs to be higher?)
THEN Exit Rule
ELSE IF 10:30 PM AND (outlet) power is < 5W
Then turn off (outlet)
Else IF 8:00 AM
Then turn on outlet
The trouble with this is that it won't recheck if you say are watching a movie that ends at 11 PM. You would have to manually turn off the outlet. You might want to have a few extra triggers, maybe one at 1 AM or something?
Yes. That is the purpose of the Power Meter/Energy Monitory Condition that if it's pulling more power than it does from the baseline it stays on.
For example, Power consumption is more than 5 watts it doesn't meet the condition therefore it keeps the TV on.
I think I would start with what I have above, but again, you may want to add more triggers other than 10:30.
Probably something like:
IF 10:30 PM, AND (outlet) power is > 10W (You will want a definite higher value than the 5W thing)
THEN Exit Rule
ELSE IF 10:30 PM OR 1 AM AND (outlet) power is < 5W
Then turn off (outlet)
The 3rd ELSE (turn on) would be optional, and I probably would leave it out for now or write a separate rule (or even use Simple Lighting) to do this task, at least until the other part of the rule is sorted out.
Don't forget to close out the rule with an END IF.
So it looks like 20W standby and almost 100W on?!!!
That is quite bad standby! What type of TV is that bad? My cheap 55" Walmart special is 2W in standby and 60W while on, and my 65" 4K Samsung isn't much worse than that.
At that rate a new TV would be cheaper than running it.
As a novice I'm not sure how that corresponds to Rule Machine 4.
Sony Bravia
The simplest RM Rule that I can come up that does what @steven2 asked for is the following.
Now, this is very simple and does not reset the power automatically, nor handle the case where the TV gets turned off later in the evening. But it does check at 10:30pm to see if the TV is not using full power, and if so it turns off the TV Outlet.
You could easily add a second trigger at 1:00am to this same rule to have it check a second time each night as @neonturbo showed in his rule.
I am curious as to how much this TV is really costing per year... Just a mental exercise to see if I can justify replacing anything around the house with more energy efficient devices...
Average electricity cost in the U.S. is 12 cents per kWh.
If the TV is used for 10 hours per day, at 100W per hour, it would consume 1kWh per day.
If it is off for the other 14 hours per day, at 20W per hour, it would consume an additional 0.280kWh per day
So, the TV's total cost is ~ 15 cents per day, or $54.75 for an entire year. Turning the outlet to the TV off when not in use would save $10.95 per year. One has to weight the savings against the potential wear and tear on the TV's electronics by cycling its power, as well and the up front cost of the smart outlet.
Your point is well-made
I did a similar calculation today. ~6 years ago I installed controlled relays on both my water heaters. I run each of them for exactly an hour a day now; they consume ~2.8 kWh/day in the summer and ~3.75 kWh/day in the winter. When they ran continually, it averaged to about 5 kWh/day (per heater).
It cost me $70 (for two Leviton z-wave outlets) and ~$125 for the relays in code-compliant boxes. So let's say $200 for the parts.
In 6 years, I've saved ~3500 kWh, which at $0.10/kWh is about $350 (per heater).
No fancy electronics here (outside of the Leviton outlets).
BTW, this was also my first foray into z-wave. I had X-10 controlled lights at the time ......