Report operating state?

[Keoni]

Hi,

Is there a way to determine operating state of the HVAC or fan either directly with the plugin or any creative way? I have a few events that turn off a ventilation system when any of the internal HVACs are running and would like to trigger these as well from the Nest state in some way.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

[cheeryfool]

Hi,

Is there a way to determine operating state of the HVAC or fan either directly with the plugin or any creative way? I have a few events that turn off a ventilation system when any of the internal HVACs are running and would like to trigger these as well from the Nest state in some way.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

Spud mentioned previously that this isn't in the official API currently, along with a few other things like relative humidity and motion detection - all of which I think Nest should include and we'd all find useful.

I think previously there were some scripts written to parse the webpage, but currently the only way that I see that you can tell the current operating state on the website is from the colour of the thermostat graphic, which presumably is hard to parse. I do see the relative humidity on there though.

The problem with scraping webpages though of course is that it breaks every time they rejig the layout.

[spud]

yes you can't get the HVAC status (Idle, cooling, heating) with the official API

but you can get the fan status (On/Off), there is now a fan device created by the plugin that reports this value.

[Keoni]

Spud mentioned previously that this isn't in the official API currently, along with a few other things like relative humidity and motion detection - all of which I think Nest should include and we'd all find useful.

I think previously there were some scripts written to parse the webpage, but currently the only way that I see that you can tell the current operating state on the website is from the colour of the thermostat graphic, which presumably is hard to parse. I do see the relative humidity on there though.

The problem with scraping webpages though of course is that it breaks every time they rejig the layout.

I thought that I recalled that from somewhere. What about using some logic like: when in cool mode if target temperature < ambient temperature then set a virtual device to on. And the reverse for heating. Logically, if the mode is set to heat or cool and the temperatures vary in that direction then the system would be on (at least I think).

Now, being programmatically challenged... if the above makes sense can someone point me in a direction to make it a reality in Homeseer? I'll try to fiddle this evening none-the-less.

Thanks!

[Keoni]

yes you can't get the HVAC status (Idle, cooling, heating) with the official API

but you can get the fan status (On/Off), there is now a fan device created by the plugin that reports this value.

Ah - thanks Spud! That should do it for me as I only use the fan in automatic mode and it runs when the heat/cool is on. So that would work just fine to automate what I need.

Cheers!

[Keoni]

yes you can't get the HVAC status (Idle, cooling, heating) with the official API

but you can get the fan status (On/Off), there is now a fan device created by the plugin that reports this value.

Unfortunately I did observe that the Fan device still reports Off when the system is cooling. Maybe it only indicates On when the fan itself is activated alone? When setting the Fan to On at the Nest the HS device does report On.

[joegrace13]

Spud,

I would like to purchase this plugin but I need to know if it can report what I need.

Right now I use an Ocelot to report when my HVAC fan is running. I don't need to know anything else about the HVAC system just that the fan is on or off.

You posted that there is a device created for this now. I just have 2 questions:

1. Does the device status get updated nearly immediately when the fan changes state? I need to know as soon as possible.

2. There was a mention that it does not report the fan status if in cooling mode, is that true?

Thank you for your time.

[spud]

1. Does the device status get updated nearly immediately when the fan changes state? I need to know as soon as possible.

yes, all updates are quasi instant because the plugin does not use polling but gets instant notification on any change from the API

2. There was a mention that it does not report the fan status if in cooling mode, is that true?

the fan status that the plugin report (and this is the only thing available from the official API) is the fan timer status. So if the fan timer is On like on the screenshot below, the fan device in HS is set as On

[joegrace13]

Great, this sounds like exactly what I need to get off the aging Ocelot.

Thank you for the quick reply. I'll give it a shot.

[Keoni]

Great, this sounds like exactly what I need to get off the aging Ocelot.

Thank you for the quick reply. I'll give it a shot.

The way I read Spud's reply was that it will not report fan on/off status for you when the system is operating, with the exception of when the fan timer is being used. This is what I observed in practice as well. So, when it is cooling or heating and the fan is on as a result, the plugin does not indicate that the fan is on. If you are looking to monitor fan on/off to control events this might now work.

Spud - am I correct in this extension to your reply?

:-)

[ORNVM]

that is kind of frustrating that there is no way to tell when the system is actually running not just "on". even their own app reports that because the thermostat turns red when its heating and blue when its cooling on the web and mobile app, so the nest is obviously reporting that back to their service, seems odd they wouldn't expose that to the api too.

Is there a resource to submit feedback to nest regarding the api to potentially influence adding this?

[spud]

The way I read Spud's reply was that it will not report fan on/off status for you when the system is operating, with the exception of when the fan timer is being used. This is what I observed in practice as well. So, when it is cooling or heating and the fan is on as a result, the plugin does not indicate that the fan is on. If you are looking to monitor fan on/off to control events this might now work.

Spud - am I correct in this extension to your reply?

:-)

yes I think you are correct

[spud]

that is kind of frustrating that there is no way to tell when the system is actually running not just "on". even their own app reports that because the thermostat turns red when its heating and blue when its cooling on the web and mobile app, so the nest is obviously reporting that back to their service, seems odd they wouldn't expose that to the api too.

Is there a resource to submit feedback to nest regarding the api to potentially influence adding this?

yep this is very frustrating. Some dev say it's part of their strategy so that no third party app can actually replace the official app
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2...ing-or-cooling

I asked them via twitter but never got any reply.
https://twitter.com/domo_geek/status/491628668301877248

you can try to ask them as well, but I don't know what is the best way to do that.

[Keoni]

I have an idea that should take care it with some basic scripting, I just do not know how to do it... :-)

Create a virtual device that you can set on/off status with a script.

The script would do the following:

If HVAC Mode is Cool and Ambient Temperature is greater than Target Temperature Low then set virtual device On
OR
If HVAC Mode is Heat and Ambient Temperature is less than than Target Temperature High then set virtual device On
ELSE
Set virtual device Off

Logic would suggest that if these conditions exist then the HVAC is on. That would then at least give us the ability to get an idea of system run state.

Thank that would work? If so, can you add it as a virtual device into the plugin?

[spud]

I have an idea that should take care it with some basic scripting, I just do not know how to do it... :-)

Create a virtual device that you can set on/off status with a script.

The script would do the following:

If HVAC Mode is Cool and Ambient Temperature is greater than Target Temperature Low then set virtual device On
OR
If HVAC Mode is Heat and Ambient Temperature is less than than Target Temperature High then set virtual device On
ELSE
Set virtual device Off

Logic would suggest that if these conditions exist then the HVAC is on. That would then at least give us the ability to get an idea of system run state.

Thank that would work? If so, can you add it as a virtual device into the plugin?

yes I could add a virtual device with this logic, but you would have to be aware that it wouldn't match perfectly the actual behavior of your thermostat. There are edge cases when ambient temp is close to target temp where the Nest thermostat does not seem to use this simple logic:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2...ing-or-cooling