Recirculation Pump Schedule

I have a Leviton Z-Wave switched outlet so I can turn on and off my re-circulation pump. I made a Hubitat simple lighting rule to turn on at 7am and turn off at midnight. I tested with something plugged into the outlet and it all works great

But, If I unplug the switch from the wall and plug it back in again, it defaults to off. This means that the pump wouldn't turn on again until 7am came around again the next day if there were a power outage

Is there a way to have it poll the device every X mins and then set the correct state?

Does your outlet have a neutral connection? Can you see the device on your network and control it when the device is unplugged? What sounds like is happening is that when you unplug it, the power is lost to the radio and then when you plug it in, it boots back up, turning on. Otherwise, how would the outlet know what something is plugged in or not. You don't say it's energy monitoring.

How do you determine what the "correct" state is? Presumably you want the device on sometimes, correct? So, how do you know if the switch should be on or off?

Not sure we are on the same page, this is what I have

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NAO4B9Z/

During the hours of 7am to midnight, it should be on no matter what

Oh, when you said outlet, i thought you meant this:
image

So, when you say you are unplugging it, are you also unplugging the z-wave switch or are you unplugging the appliance from the switch?

I am unplugging the Z-Wave switch to simulate a power outage

Ah...okay. I thought there was a parameter you could set on these devices that would control their default state on power-up but it doesn't appear that there is.

The trouble your're going to run into is that you don't want to run a rule every so often just to check if the switch is on. 99.999999% of the time the rule is going to do nothing which adds no value to system. What would be better to do is to react to the power being restored and turn it off then. Are you currently doing anything to monitor for power outages? There are several posts on the forum about that.

However, what you are trying to fix is that the pump be off if you get a power outage that is restored between midnight and 7am. How often do you lose power? How terrible would it be if the pump was on for an extra couple of hours every once in a blue moon? I understand trying to save money but I think the "problem" you're trying to solve isn't really an issue you'd want to invest that kinda time in fixing. You're only talking a max of an extra 7 hours running it if the power went off/on at exactly midnight. If it were me, I wouldn't worry about it.

Look at it this way, if the outlet default to on on boot, then when you needed it on during the day, which is the majority of the time, the outlet would be off. At least this way, it's on when you don't need it rather than off when you do.

I don't lose power that often, However I am busy renovating my house with its aging electrical system. This means that from time to time, I might flip the breaker off to work on something. I really want this to "Just work". Annoyingly a HIVE Smart plug I got for free in a giveaway, remembers its state during a power outage as long as the hub is connected

If I could do something like this, it should be okay

At 7am Turn on
Every 30 seconds until 12AM turn on
12AM turn off

Then even if there was a power outage, I would be waiting 30 seconds max before it came back on

Or if there was a way to "check" the state and correct it

I could just deal with it being off, but then we are at the situation where a crappy cloud managed IoT solution is better at doing this than the superior more open solution Hubitat. The same scenario ended up with me switching from Android to iOS. Sure its "better" but not really

Oh....it defaults to OFF???? I must have misread your first post....my apologies.

Correct, so if I lose power, its off when the power comes back

Cutting through to just simplicity.

Replace the Leviton with a Zooz ZEN15 which is designed for a higher amp draw 15a and can set set to return to last setting on power fail. The plug is relatively cheap and works as you're wanting.

1 Like

This rule is going to run 2,040 times a day, almost 100% of which will do absolutely nothing. I would not recommend doing that as periodic triggers don't provide much added value.

When you plug the outlet it, does it report that it's off to Hubitat? If so, you could have a rule that response to the switch being off. This rule could be paused before the other rule turn the switch off at midnight and back on at 7am unpauses it.

Yes it does show off. Would I just make a second rule in rule station for that?

Yep this would have been better! I guess if I don't get this solved, ill return this one and get that

Of course shipping will almost certainly take a long time with the current situation going on

Yes, it would be triggered by the switch being off and it would have the action of turning it on. Then in your first rule you would insert an action before turning the switch off to pause that rule and an action right after turning it on to unpause that rule.

I've been receiving shipments mostly on normal cycles so far. Some have been a day delayed but not major YET!

Okay I think I am getting somewhere, I have made this which turns it right back on again. Where should I set the timeframe?

You don't need to set the timeframe. Can you post a copy of your rule that turns it on at 7am and off at midnight?

Update...you're using a simple lighting app for that?

Create a rule that has the triggers of 7am and midnight. Then in the conditions, you'll add a conditional action of between two times. Still with me?

You know what though, I just realized that this will always turn it back on. So I could never turn it off if I wanted to just by toggling the switch. Maybe I should just return this and get the other one

Yes.

The one time I try and "just answer someone's question" rather than tell them what they should have bought instead. I give up.

Well I do appreciate the help, nothing more frustrating than a thread full of people telling you just to get something else

In this case though, it seems like this would be a hacky workaround. The other switch is probably just better

1 Like