Thermostat Scheduler [RELEASED]

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1

We have released a new built-in app: Thermostat Scheduler.

Thermostat Scheduler allows you to establish schedules to control the heating and cooling setpoints of a selected thermostat. It also allows manual control of the thermostat setpoints, EcoMode, and Hold.

EcoMode provides a selectable number of degrees by which to adjust the setpoints when the mode becomes Away, or changes from Away to some other mode. When the mode becomes Away, the heating setpoint is reduced by the selected offset, and the cooling setpoint is increased by the selected offset. Upon the mode changing from Away, the setpoints are returned to their prior settings.

There are two methods of establishing a schedule for the thermostat: days and times, or modes.

With days/times scheduling, there are four predefined day periods, Wake, Leave, Return, and Night -- much like a conventional programmable thermostat. The time for each period to begin may be set, including the possibility of setting it differently for each day of the week, or groups of days, e.g., Mon,Tue,Wed,Thu,Fri with one time and Sat,Sun with another time. Times may be specific times or sunrise/sunset based times. For each scheduling period, both heating and cooling setpoints may be defined.

With modes scheduling heating and cooling setpoints may be defined for each of your modes. A schedule for mode changes would be established in Mode Manager. Mode Manager also allows day-of-week specific scheduling,

It is not possible to mix the two types of schedules. Only one type may be in effect. Both types allow the option of EcoMode adjustments when Away.

Thermostat Scheduler is intended for use with thermostats that either do not have schedules, or have their schedules disabled. For a thermostat with its own schedules, there would potentially be a conflict between the thermostat schedules and those established in Thermostat Scheduler.

Notice in the screen shot below that only three modes had settings established. Other modes were simply omitted from the summary display. Similarly, time periods with no settings are also omitted from the summary display (see screenshot below).

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Below is a screenshot of the days/times summary schedule. Notice that only two of the periods have been scheduled, and that there are separate schedules and temperatures for weekdays and weekend days.

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16 Likes
3

This is exactly what I've been waiting for! It looks great, can't wait to try it out.

4

This looks like a good start to what I am looking for, moving from Vera and AVT / SVT, but a bit different than how I am using those. (Thermostat scheduler app like Mode Manager)

Here is my scenario:

I have a holiday cabin. In that cabin I have several rooms, and other smaller houses, each with their own temperature probe and each with their own electric heater, connected to a Fibaro wall plug. The only exception is 2 rooms that have one temperature probe and 2 heaters on 2 wall plugs. Each of these rooms has a Virtual Thermostat.

When I leave the cabin, I put my Virtual Thermostat on Eco, which means I maintain a set temperature on each of the rooms, set in the respective Thermostat. The rooms and house will cool down to this temperature and the heaters will turn on when needed.

Before I am scheduled to arrive, I have a Google calendar entry that is read by a agent that then changes the Virtual Thermostats to their Home mode, thus raising the temperature.

Then I also have another setting, which is the following: If the outside temperature is more than 6Ā° c, then I turn off the heaters for the night, between 1 am and 6 am. At 6 am they start heating again to Home mode. If the outside temperature is lower than 6Ā°, I leave the heaters on for the night at home temperature.

Now my question, and thank you for reading this far :wink: Will I be able to do a similar thing with this thermostat on Hubitat ? I see you mention that there is either a timer or not, but would I be able to use a seperate timer to accomplish my night routine ?

As for turning them on via a calendar, perhaps I can use IFTTT ? (Which was not available on Vera)

Looking forward to your answer.

5

I must admit I got a bit excited when I read the release notes but when I looked at the app it doesn't really give me what i am doing in 10 rules!!!!!!!
I currently gradually increase the temperature through the day when my heating is on.
What would be good for me is instead of having 4 settings under "Set heat/cool schedule based on days and times", it would be nice to be able to create user defined time schedules.
Something like-
22:00 - 07:00 - Set temp to 19C.
07:00 - 08:00 - Set temp to 21C.
08:00 - 10:00 - Set temp to 21.5C.
10:00 - 12:00 - Set temp to 22C.
etc.etc.
Also have restrictions in there so that the above is true only when mode is Day/Evening/Night.

When Away set temp to 10C.

I hope my request makes sense.

As I've said before, the more you give us, the more we want. :wink: Sorry. :):laughing:

6

Your feedback is valuable! This is a first cut at something sure to evolve.

Going from fixed Wake, Leave, Return, Night times to a list of time periods user defined and extendable is not a very large stretch, and definitely worth doing.

Another thing in the works are links to this from Rule Machine. So, you could have a rule that does your Away setting. It will also be possible to change settings from RM.

3 Likes
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Most of what you are describing is very straight forward with Rule Machine. The Google calendar part is perhaps an IFTTT thing, not sure. Your use case doesn't sound like Thermostat Scheduler fits it.

1 Like
8

Brilliant. Thanks Bruce.

It is commendable how all of your team are open to ideas and suggestions.
Keep up the good work.
(Oh and BTW, I look forward to the next release of this app. :wink: )

2 Likes
9

Sounds great. I am looking forward to receiving my hub and get started. Less theory, more action :grin:

1 Like
10

Trying to see if this can work for my use case? I have two EcoBee3 thermostats each controlling it's own HVAC unit. I have programmed into my Ecobees:
image

Right now I have Hubitat Mode change rules that control the thermostats (really just uses the SetAway() when all presence sensors depart and resumeProgram() when any presence sensor arrives). And I have Home and Night schedules and setpoints programmed into the thermostats.

My questions are:

  1. I have two thermostats and each has slightly different heating and cooling setpoints for night, so I do not think I can use one app for both. Can I have two Thermostat Scheduler apps active at the same time (one for each Thermostat)?

  2. I was thinking I would use the 'Modes' method, but does that mean I cannot also use scheduled times in the thermostats? I currently have different start times for each thermostats 'Night' mode (which is independent from the Hubitat Mode). But if I use the Modes method, I think both use the Hubitat Mode ... correct? Once one of my rules sets the Hubitat to 'Night' then the Thermostat Scheduler app will change my thermostats to 'Night' which means both thermostats change modes at the same time. Is that correct? If I don't use 'Mode' method and use days/times, will I be able to set the thermostats to 'Away' mode and it will work correctly when changing from both 'Home' and 'Night' modes (the Away offsets would be different for Home vs Night)?

I can probably live with #2 above if I can have two independent instances of Thermostat Schedule active (one for each thermostat). Is there are different/better way for my use case?

Thanks.

11

Each instance of Thermostat Scheduler is for a single thermostat. You can have as many as you need.

If you use Modes schedule, the thermostat changes the setpoints when the Hubitat system mode changes, as selected in the app.

For now, you'd probably want to use a Rule Machine rule to set the thermostat into your Away settings, unless EcoMode would work for your use case.

12

Thanks. Do you see an issue if I keep my climates schedule in the thermostat (Home, & Night) and then use Thermostat Scheduler's Mode scheduler? I ask because right now my Thermostat is scheduled to enter 'Home' at 5:30 AM (to get the heat going), but the Hubitat does not enter 'Home' mode until motion is detected coming down the stairs (after the shower and getting dressed). Similar function going on in the evening ... Thermostats scheduled for 'Sleep' mode at 10:30 PM but Hub does not go into 'Night' mode until no motion has been detected for 15 minutes. It seems the hub changing modes will just attempt a change to what the thermostat is already set to, so no harm done. Am I missing anything that would be bad?

Thanks.

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No. All it does is set the setpoints and if they are already set that way, no big deal.

14

Thanks. I'll give it a try and let you know how it works out.

15

I think this will work. On the Ecobees it does change the setpoints and 'Hold's them until the next scheduled change in the thermostat's schedule.

I would still prefer to have a setSleep() or setNight() added to the Ecobee integration, then this app would not be necessary. I have RM rules that run whenever the Hubitat Mode changes and I would just add the thermostat commands into those. I had Home (resumeProgram()) and Away (setAway()) that way already, but there is no way to set the thermostat program mode to Sleep (or Night) ..... yet.

Thanks. Making progress. I appreciate it.

16

Ditto on the ecobee integration.

My issue is that Iā€™ve got multiple ecobees and multiple ecobee temp sensors. I need to have the ecobee in ā€œsleepā€ mode so that it only uses the temp sensor in the bedroom. I donā€™t think this new app will give me that functionality.

1 Like
17

Excellent point. I also have many Ecobee temp sensors and they are identified as either being used, or not used, to calculate the average temp based on the thermostat program mode (e.g. the temp sensor in the storage/workroom area is not used in 'Sleep' or 'Away' modes, because not one will ever be in there when the thermostats are in those modes but it is used when in 'Home' mode).

While Thermostat Schedule does set the setpoints to mimic the comfort settings, it does not allow for the functionality of the program mode and the use of, or not, of specific temp sensors.

1 Like
18

I've mentioned this a number of times. If we could actually just trigger the comfort schedules it would allow us to use the sensors. I think that may be the only way to do this, just short of directly modifying the comfort schedules via the app (which is a lot more complicated).

For now I just use IFTTT to do this.

19

This is drops my rm down to just temperature modes based on my living room temp sensor.

I have kids in school and a wife who teaches I was ignoring the leave settings based on summer/vacation mode. I imagine others would have reason to exclude the leave settings based on a mode while still using the standard day/time schedules. could this feature be added.

20

I don't follow what you mean. Are you talking about EcoMode? Please explain further...