7-Day Solar Time Table Programmable Rules

[doceinstein]

I'm a newbie to both HA and A+ and am starting adding a few clients this weekend.  A feature that I will be looking for is solar timetable rules for 7-day programming for a device, say a power receptacle.  This would allow dumb devices plugged in a power receptacle run on sunrise/sunset with added programming or HA clients function in the same manner.  An on/off or 7-day rules/programming won't be much helpful for lighting devices as daylight varies based on calendar and geography.

Honeywell Econoswitch RPLS740B non-HA switch (http://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-Econoswitch-RPLS740B-Programmable-Switch/dp/B004AP92N2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422723598&sr=8-1&keywords=solar+programmable+switch) does exactly like this.  I have two of them installed for outdoor lights, and they work as a charm.  For full functionality, HA clients should have this capable feature as well rather than just on/off or 7-day rules/programming.

Is this already in the UI or planned for future firmware upgrade?  Thank you for your responses.

[mparadis]

Planned, I believe integrated with the weather app on the LCD UI. Not sure when it is up, I know they were working on the weather app yesterday.

[LGNilsson]

It'll come, but I'd guess it's still a month or two away, but I could be wrong here.
As we already have weather data, we're going to pull some of that in to the rules and the discussion we had about it this week implied that we'll have sunset/sunrise and also an option in case it's raining. Not sure if any other "weather" related data would be of any use for the rules.

[mparadis]

How about temperature, humidity and wind speed?

[LGNilsson]

They'd be somewhat useless for the automation no? As they'd be outside, not inside your home.

[Ohiomedic]

They'd be somewhat useless for the automation no? As they'd be outside, not inside your home.

Temp would be nice as I could put a sensor in my garage that would turn on a heater at a certain temp. Same with humidity I could set it to turn on a dehumidifier at a certain percentage.

[LGNilsson]

Right, I think you confuse things. We'll of course support temp/humidity sensors, I was referring in this case to the specific use of the weather data, not sensor data.

[fillibar]

I'll play devil's advocate for outdoor sensors (outside temp and humidity you could already have):

Wind speed: I was SPECIFICALLY trying to get wind speed this winter in order to control whether our Christmas inflatables were on or not. If the wind got too high I was going to shut off power so they would deflate and be safer than straining at the tethers.

Rain sensor: Being able to control automated windows (like motored skylights) or a retractable awning or just notification that you will not need to be watering the yard/garden that evening, so do not turn on the sprinklers (now that I have seen a host shutoff that can be controlled, no idea if it works with Almond+ yet).

Barometric pressure or wind direction: No ideas about these.

I think those are the 6 most common weather measurements I see...

[LGNilsson]

Rain will be supported, but wind speed, hmmm, well, I can suggest it, as so far nothing has been done.

[mparadis]

I suggested wind because many alarm systems which use sensors such as motion or door/window are falsely triggered by excessive wind. So if I get 5 alarm notifications but can't see anything on the cameras it would be good to know the wind conditions. As for temperature humidity those could useful for controlling items in the house even if it isn't through rules. If I know relative humidity outside I may wish to open my garage door or turn on fans in the house etc. I always would rather have more information than less.

[fillibar]

Never really thought of the wind setting off the motion sensors but it makes sense. Our house USED to have a fan system to vent the air out (and draw fresh air in) in the morning when it was cool so the house would stay cooler on summer days. The solution they had was horrible but the general concept is there. With the ability to automate things AND check to make sure of the temperature outside and humidity differences it makes sense.

I have been working on sending weather data to weathercloud.net. They actually seem interested in having people work with them and have an API for submitting data. Reading it from them is a bit more difficult but if you have all those sensors in the first place you are probably not reading it. I am not even that into weather (I never remember to check) but did it as practice with my Arduino and curiosity sake mostly. The did not support receiving data from Arduino's before... but they should soon.

[mparadis]

Wind is a common cause of false alarms, along with driving rain. Also anyone ever heard of z wave compatible home weather station? Obviously just for monitoring not controlling  or I'd love a way to add a " connected" version right to the weather app here.

[rldreams]

Not that Quirky is a good example, but I know I tried using the temp sensor in Quirky spotter as a trigger and it was just too unreliable.

 I would be happy to use the current temp from app as trigger. " if moisture sensor detects wet and weather temp below freezing turn on heat tape. "