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    Benefits of a weather plugin

    Hi folks, a friend was asking how much use a weather plugin could actually be so I just thought I would share some of the use cases/events that I've got running with my Environment Canada weather plugin (so far).

    -provides me with selective weather warnings via email or voice etc.
    -if it rained yesterday, I don't water the lawn today
    -if it's greater than say, 50% chance of rain today or tomorrow, I also don't water the lawns
    -if a storm is imminent, I can shut of the pool skimmer (prone to clogging by wind-blown leaves) - ditto for high wind days
    -ditto re: pool heater - heaters need to cool down before shutting them off - (I had expensive repairs when a storm took out the electricity, causing the pool pump to fail in mid-use, without first cooling down)
    -during hotter weather I can water lawns more often or longer, than in cooler periods

    Are you doing something unique with your weather-related events?
    Feel free to share - would love to hear about some additional possibilities.

    Cheers!

    #2
    Weather wife Friendly

    I use the weather plug-in to announce the weather outside temp and forecast over the Sonos speakers in the garage when my wife leaves each morning at 4 AM. It speaks only in the garage or outdoors to prevent from waking me up so early....

    I have a hidden Door sensor on all outside doors that trigger events


    Devoir

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      #3
      I use one of the old Homeseer table top touch screens as my alarm clock, instead of just beeping at me it tells me the temperature and forecast so I know how many layers to put on for the day.
      https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/de...plifier-plugin

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by Otto-mation View Post
        -if it rained yesterday, I don't water the lawn today
        -if it's greater than say, 50% chance of rain today or tomorrow, I also don't water the lawns
        How accurate do you find this is? I'm in FL and it could rain a street over and I'll never get a drop. So just because the weather says it is or that it did rain, that may not be accurate here if it's based on the city and not on my very specific location

        *Because of this, I use netatmo's rain sensor, but I currently don't have my sprinkers controlled yet, so it doesn't matter. That said, I'm not sure how much I trust the Netatmo rain sensor...LOL

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          #5
          Thanks for sharing - something for me to think about - it's growing on me!
          Cheers!

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by sirmeili View Post
            How accurate do you find this is? I'm in FL and it could rain a street over and I'll never get a drop. So just because the weather says it is or that it did rain, that may not be accurate here if it's based on the city and not on my very specific location

            *Because of this, I use netatmo's rain sensor, but I currently don't have my sprinkers controlled yet, so it doesn't matter. That said, I'm not sure how much I trust the Netatmo rain sensor...LOL
            Hi Frank,
            Good point - I'm only dealing with Environment Canada locations and they're about 15km apart so I take it all with a grain of salt - besides, none of my weather related tasks are hinged on high-degrees of accuracy - that's a "nice to have".

            Always on the lookout for better solutions and I'm sure they will evolve over time.

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by happnatious1 View Post
              I use one of the old Homeseer table top touch screens as my alarm clock, instead of just beeping at me it tells me the temperature and forecast so I know how many layers to put on for the day.
              *Love* this idea!
              If I can get my weather plugin working again (EnvCan changed to HTTPS and I can't get the certs into the Zee), I will definitely add that to my weekday morning event.
              Thanks for sharing!

              Comment


                #8
                I track four day water totals and then take the average. Over a 1/2 inch over a four day average and the sprinklers will not come on.

                I have a large awning that can't stay out all the way on windy days. Reading the cumulus hourly file, the awning will automatically be drawn in under gusty conditions or under higher avg wind speed conditions. Still working on this event but there's no reason it won't work.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Definitely a more thorough/sophisticated method to manage the lawn watering.
                  My feed doesn't provide for that.
                  Are you tracking actuals? If so, may I ask how?

                  Comment


                    #10
                    1) I have Cumulus weather station, but you could just as easily read the data from a site. I read the file once per hour for other things, otherwise you could read once a day.

                    2) At 1am move yesterday -2 to yesterday -3 and keep working down to yesterday. Now you have yesterday, yesterday -1. -2, -3.

                    3) Add the numbers together

                    4) Are all the conditions met? If so turn on the virtual device OK TO WATER to ON

                    5) start watering already. The last part isn't very elegant but the manufacturer doesn't support the device any longer, so I made do. I cycle twice through so I don't saturate the lawn and have run off.
                    Attached Files

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                      #11
                      Originally posted by Otto-mation View Post
                      Hi folks, a friend was asking how much use a weather plugin could actually be so I just thought I would share some of the use cases/events that I've got running with my Environment Canada weather plugin (so far).

                      -provides me with selective weather warnings via email or voice etc.
                      -if it rained yesterday, I don't water the lawn today
                      -if it's greater than say, 50% chance of rain today or tomorrow, I also don't water the lawns
                      -if a storm is imminent, I can shut of the pool skimmer (prone to clogging by wind-blown leaves) - ditto for high wind days
                      -ditto re: pool heater - heaters need to cool down before shutting them off - (I had expensive repairs when a storm took out the electricity, causing the pool pump to fail in mid-use, without first cooling down)
                      -during hotter weather I can water lawns more often or longer, than in cooler periods

                      Are you doing something unique with your weather-related events?
                      Feel free to share - would love to hear about some additional possibilities.

                      Cheers!
                      I've got a seasonal event that has come in handy on more than a few occasions - if the wind is over 15 mph, turn off the Christmas inflatables.

                      -Chris

                      Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

                      Comment


                        #12
                        That's a useful winter one, thanks for sharing.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          This is very useful and helpful detail - thanks for sharing.

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