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**waynehead99** · July 13, 2016, 10:02 PM

Event help for A/C not working notification.

I have a script (not near my computer right now) that does this for the outside temps. I use it to compare inside temp to outside to let me know when to open the windows. It also has trending built into it to let me know if temp is rising or falling. It could be modified very easily for your needs. If you want it, let me know and I will dig it up when I am at my computer in the morning. I can help modify it too if you want. My scripts aren't clean, but they are functional

**vasrc** · July 14, 2016, 05:15 AM

Originally posted by sirmeili View Post

So yesterday apparently our A/C quit working around 4pm and it went from 82 up to 84 in the house until we noticed it (4 hours later). So I am thinking of creating an event that will alert us via pushover and voice announcement in the house when:

1) The A/C is cooling (maybe for at least a set amount of time? 1hr?)
2) The Ambient temperature on the thermostat is going up instead of down.

I know I can do the first one as a condition to the second one, but I am having some confusion on the best way to handle #2.

I could set up a virtual device and when ever the A/C temp changes I could:

1) Check if the temp is higher than it's current value, if so add the condition (#1 above) and then alert us and set the virtual device to the new value
2) If the temp is lower (or the same if that's possible), just set the virtual device to the new value.

I know that "would" work, but I was kinda thinking I could get away without using another virtual device that would literally just be a copy of the current ambient temperature device from the Nest.

I looked in the easyTrigger triggers and didn't see one that would let me compare the old value to the new one in terms of greater than, less than, or equal to. Is there something else I could use or should I just suck it up and use the Virtual device?

(Note, I'm going to put in a feature request for easyTrigger to do the comparison between old and new values by GT, LT, or EQ).

***BTW, it was just that our compressor started to run backwards after a short power outage and it overheated. After it cooled down over night, it was fine. The A/C Guy says it's rare, but it can happen due to very short power outages. Not sure if he's talking out is A$$, but I tend to like and trust the guy (He's been good to me over the years).

Might be a good excuse for getting a thermostat you can talk to. Then it would be a simple matter of checking when the inside temp is X degrees more than the setpoint. Same for heating.. I have all my thermostats setup this way, and I get a text if they deviate too much.

Z

**sirmeili** · July 14, 2016, 02:35 PM

Originally posted by waynehead99 View Post

I have a script (not near my computer right now) that does this for the outside temps. I use it to compare inside temp to outside to let me know when to open the windows. It also has trending built into it to let me know if temp is rising or falling. It could be modified very easily for your needs. If you want it, let me know and I will dig it up when I am at my computer in the morning. I can help modify it too if you want. My scripts aren't clean, but they are functional

The Easy Trigger lets me compare the two values between two values already. I was hoping to have a way to compare a devices value before and after the update. This way I can tell which direction it's going. It should be very rare that while the A/C is actively cooling the temp should go up.

**sirmeili** · July 14, 2016, 02:43 PM

Originally posted by vasrc View Post

Might be a good excuse for getting a thermostat you can talk to. Then it would be a simple matter of checking when the inside temp is X degrees more than the setpoint. Same for heating.. I have all my thermostats setup this way, and I get a text if they deviate too much.

Z

I have a Nest thermostat and use Spud's plugin. I do have an event that notifies me if it is hotter than the current setpoint, but the A/C is off (which notifies me to consider turning on the A/C).

What I did ultimately was to set up a virtual device to track the temperature and before updating it, I check it against the new thermostat's ambient temp. If it's is currently cooling and the temp is going up, there is an issue (reverse if heat is on). I would rather have done it without the extra virtual device though as I don't think that it's too much to ask to have access to the value before updating.

(Yes, I knwo my message only mentions cooling. I have to update it to be more generic)

Attached Files

**waynehead99** · July 14, 2016, 04:31 PM

Originally posted by sirmeili View Post

The Easy Trigger lets me compare the two values between two values already. I was hoping to have a way to compare a devices value before and after the update. This way I can tell which direction it's going. It should be very rare that while the A/C is actively cooling the temp should go up.

Look this over and see if it will help. I took the script I use to monitor outside temps for my windows and whole house fan and modified it. It uses two global variables, one to hold the previous temp, and another to hold the trend status (rising, falling, steady). You will need to setup an event to call the two methods (I changed them from the screenshot, so use the names in the subs in the script, SetTrend and Temp_Compare), and also add a couple lines in the startup.vb script to create the global variables (they get removed when HS is shut down and have to be recreated).

Add these to the end of the startup.vb script before the "end sub"

Code:

hs.CreateVar("temp_previous")
hs.CreateVar("temp_trend")

The way the script is comparing, I am concerned that it may not work depending on how much your temp changes. I currently have it set that if the temp changes 2 degrees and trending is rising, to alert you, but I think this might fail since the previous temp reading gets updated each time. Maybe run the script every 30 minutes vs every minute like I am and that should give enough sampling time for you.

Code:

Sub SetTrend(var)
    DIM errst
    'Get Outside temperature
    DIM OT=CInt(hs.DeviceValue(864)) 'Change to device you are using to monitor temperature
    'Get Previous Temperature from Global Variable
    DIM PT=hs.GetVar("temp_previous")

    IF (PT=999) THEN 'initializing on first run  - set in startup script
      PT=OT
      errst = hs.SaveVar("temp_previous",PT) ' save it as previous temp
    END IF

    IF (PT<>OT) THEN
        IF (PT>OT) THEN 'temp cooling
            errst = hs.SaveVar("temp_trend","falling")
        ELSE 
            errst = hs.SaveVar("temp_trend","rising")
        END IF 
    ELSE
       errst = hs.SaveVar("temp_trend","steady")
    END IF
End Sub

Sub Temp_Compare(var)
    Dim IT as integer = hs.DeviceValue(864) 'Change this to the device you are using to monitor temp
    Dim PT as integer = hs.GetVar("temp_previous")
    Dim Trend As String = hs.GetVar("temp_trend")
    Dim Pushover_String as string
        If ((IT >= PT+2 And (Trend = "rising")) 'Well be true if temp is 2 degrees higher or above than previous reading and rising
            Pushover_String = "Comment out or delete if not using pushover"
            hs.RunScriptFunc("pushover.vb","Main","Window Alert|"& Pushover_String & "|Priority|Sound",false,false) 'Again remove or comment out if not using pushover
        End If
    hs.SaveVar("temp_previous",IT)
End Sub

Attached Files