Events for bathroom exhaust fans

[facke02]

Hi,

I am new to HomeSeer and Home Automation. I am running HS 3 Standard and I just installed two HS-WS100+ switches on two bathroom exhaust fans.

What I would like to do is to have the fans run for 15 minutes after they've been swicthed off. I built an event for the switch that will delay for 15 minutes. But I can't seem to get it to work with a single press, the fan just goes off. If I use the pressed twice it works fine. Can I do what I want?

I've searched but I'm not finding anything that helps.

Thanks

Ken

[randy]

Hi,

I am new to HomeSeer and Home Automation. I am running HS 3 Standard and I just installed two HS-WS100+ switches on two bathroom exhaust fans.

What I would like to do is to have the fans run for 15 minutes after they've been swicthed off. I built an event for the switch that will delay for 15 minutes. But I can't seem to get it to work with a single press, the fan just goes off. If I use the pressed twice it works fine. Can I do what I want?

I've searched but I'm not finding anything that helps.

Thanks

Ken

Because a single press also controls the switch, it cannot trigger an event to turn it off afterward. A "key held" scene presents the same problem, leaving you with double or triple press events as your only options.

We use three different controls for the fans

1. The fan will turn off 10 minutes after the light is turned off
2. The fan will turn off 15 minutes after the last motion is detected
3. The fan will turn off 60 minutes after it is turned on

We initially only used 1 and 3 until we added motion sensors to the rooms. With the fans turning off 15 minutes after the last motion, the 60 minute timeout is redundant, but I didn't see the harm in leaving the event in place.

[enigmatheatre]

I may be wrong and I can guess I am as Randy is the Event god in Homeseer but I thought I would have a stab at this.
You would need a virtual device named Fan run on and the following event.

If fan turns OFF and Fan run on device is OFF
Turn fan on(because it has just been switched off)
Turn Fan run on device ON
Delay 10m
Turn fan OFF
Turn Fan run on device OFF
This way Homeseer will not switch the fan back on when it turns it off as the virtual device stops this.


Greig.

[randy]

I may be wrong and I can guess I am as Randy is the Event god in Homeseer but I thought I would have a stab at this.
You would need a virtual device named Fan run on and the following event.

If fan turns OFF and Fan run on device is OFF
Turn fan on(because it has just been switched off)
Turn Fan run on device ON
Delay 10m
Turn fan OFF
Turn Fan run on device OFF
This way Homeseer will not switch the fan back on when it turns it off as the virtual device stops this.


Greig.

That would work if everyone remembers to turn the fan off. It would turn it back on and let it run for 15 minutes.

It would not turn it off if they forget. In our household it is easier to train people to be lazy than conciencious.

[facke02]

Because a single press also controls the switch, it cannot trigger an event to turn it off afterword. A "key held" scene presents the same problem, leaving you with double or triple press events as your only options.

We use three different controls for the fans

1. The fan will turn off 10 minutes after the light is turned off
2. The fan will turn off 15 minutes after the last motion is detected
3. The fan will turn off 60 minutes after it is turned on

We initially only used 1 and 3 until we added motion sensors to the rooms. With the fans turning off 15 minutes after the last motion, the 60 minute timeout is redundant, but I didn't see the harm in leaving the event in place.

Thanks Randy, I suspected this might be the case. I'll add an event for the triple press. Mind if I ask what motion detectors you use?

[facke02]

In our household it is easier to train people to be lazy than conciencious.

Same applies in my household too. They just leave them on for someone else to turn off.

[enigmatheatre]

Yep. I thought I missed something. I guess you could also get round this.
I am thinking of adding this to that's why I am interested.
Greig.

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

[facke02]

I may be wrong and I can guess I am as Randy is the Event god in Homeseer but I thought I would have a stab at this.
You would need a virtual device named Fan run on and the following event.

If fan turns OFF and Fan run on device is OFF
Turn fan on(because it has just been switched off)
Turn Fan run on device ON
Delay 10m
Turn fan OFF
Turn Fan run on device OFF
This way Homeseer will not switch the fan back on when it turns it off as the virtual device stops this.


Greig.

Intertesting idea. I hadn't thought of using a virtual device. An area I have yet to explore. Thanks

[randy]

Thanks Randy, I suspected this might be the case. I'll add an event for the triple press. Mind if I ask what motion detectors you use?

We use DSC hardwired PIRs with our security panel. They are tied to HomeSeer devices with Spud's Envisalink plug-in. Z-Wave and many other motion sensors have a motion timeout minimum of a minute or so. The DSC PIRs are almost binary. They will go to no motion the instant they are not detecting motion and back to motion an instant later. This allows us to control the fans with motion. We turn the fans on when the bathroom is occupied, whether or not the lights are turned on. To determine "occupancy" we count the number of times motion is detected within 2 minutes. The fan will not turn on if someone simply walks into the bathroom to get something out of the medicine cabinet, but will turn on if there is continuous motion.



This is in addition to our events that turn the fan off.

[facke02]

I have a DSC security panel as well. Something else to explore.

Thanks for all the great info.

[waynehead99]

Events for bathroom exhaust fans

Maybe a different direction. Get a motion sensor put in the bathroom and have your event state reset timer if no motion and fan is on. Set another event to turn fan off when timer reaches 15 min.

Edit: didn't read that Randy had already covered this

[randy]

Maybe a different direction. Get a motion sensor put in the bathroom and have your event state reset timer if no motion and fan is on. Set another event to turn fan off when timer reaches 15 min.

Edit: didn't read that Randy had already covered this

Yes, and I don't use a timer, just that there has been no motion for 15 minutes and the lights are off.

As I have stated in other posts, I use "This device has been/for at least..." because I want these sorts of events to clean up if the exact time is missed for any reason - HomeSeer server restart, etc. When that trigger is used, a controlled device MUST be included as a condition. Additionally setting "Cannot Re-Run For:" to 10 seconds keeps the event from retriggering in interval between when the device is controlled and it reporting the change of state back to HomeSeer. Usually device response is quick enough to prevent this, but with Z-Wave there is the possibility that the device will not report its change of status before the event might re-trigger (usually about once a second).

[randy]

Thanks Randy, I suspected this might be the case. I'll add an event for the triple press. Mind if I ask what motion detectors you use?

I'll also add that we do use the HS-WD100+ scenes on the light control in the bathrooms

1. A key held down of the top paddle when on or the bottom paddle when off disables motion control of lighting.
2. A single press of the top paddle or the bottom paddle resumes motion control
3. A double tap of the bottom turns off the fan and lights immediately and resumes motion control
4. When the lights are turned on by the switch or by motion, they come on at different levels based upon the time of day, occupancy mode and/or light level. A double tap of the top paddle will toggle the lights between On and the default level

The first two apply to every motioned controlled light in the house, so the behavior is consistent throughout the house.

[sparkman]

I use humidity sensors in our bathrooms to control the exhaust fans or if they are turned on manually, they automatically turn off after 20 minutes. I also use a virtual device to track if its been turned on manually or through an event due to high humidity.

Cheers
Al


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[facke02]

Humidity sensors could work too. Which one do you use?

I need to dive into virtual devices, lots of possibilities there.




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