Trigger on low temperature

Hello,

I wanted to setup a trigger to get an alert on a low (actual ambient) temperature (say below 60 degree). Currently I have a trigger setup for Device State Changed> Zone 1 Temperature > Becomes Less Than 60 degrees.

Will this trigger how I'm expecting? There were a lot of potential temperature variables and I wasn't sure if that was the right one...

Thanks!

Hello,

I wanted to setup a trigger to get an alert on a low (actual ambient) temperature (say below 60 degree). Currently I have a trigger setup for Device State Changed> Zone 1 Temperature > Becomes Less Than 60 degrees.

Will this trigger how I'm expecting? There were a lot of potential temperature variables and I wasn't sure if that was the right one...

Thanks!

There are a lot of fields. Just a couple of bits of explanation...

A system can be heating or cooling only or manage heating & cooling systems in parallel. When a system is heating or cooling only (e.g. in Heat or Cool mode) then the NEST uses target_temperature_c and target_temperature_f. When it can control heating & cooling systems together (Auto) it uses the high & low equivalents. The decision on which field it's using is determined at the NEST by setting a scale (C or F) and setting the mode. Nest Home reads the NEST scale and heating/cooling mode and uses the right fields accordingly. Degrees Celsius are stored as float numbers X.X in 0.5C steps whereas Fahrenheit is stored/displayed as an integer XX.

So to achieve what you're wanting I'd use the ambient_temperature_f field and check for when the value goes below 60 degrees. You could also have another trigger that did something when the temperature became 60 or above.

Here are the definitions

Overall...

ambient_temperature_c - Current temperature in degrees Celsius
ambient_temperature_f - Current temperature in degrees Fahrenheit

Systems only heating or cooling

target_temperature_c - Target temperature - Celsius
target_temperature_c - Target temperature - Fahrenheit
away_temperature_c - Away target temperature - Celsius
away_temperature_c - Away target temperature - Fahrenheit

Systems heating and cooling - Occupied

target_temperature_high_c - Target temperature that a cooling system uses as it's setpoint - Celsius
target_temperature_low_c - Target temperature that a heating system uses as it's setpoint - Celsius
target_temperature_high_f - Target temperature that a cooling system uses as it's setpoint - Fahrenheit
target_temperature_low_f - Target temperature that a heating system uses as it's setpoint - Fahrenheit

Systems heating and/or cooling - Away settings

away_temperature_high_c - Target temperature that a cooling system uses as it's setpoint when NEST registered as away - Celsius
away_temperature_low_c - Target temperature that a heating system uses as it's setpoint when NEST registered as away - Celsius
away_temperature_high_f - Target temperature that a cooling system uses as it's setpoint when NEST registered as away - Fahrenheit
away_temperature_low_f - Target temperature that a heating system uses as it's setpoint when NEST registered as away - Fahrenheit

There are then identical fields with the format [normal NEST name]_int these fields are identical to the ones above but only give an integer result for degrees C. Degrees F is always an integer but equivalent fields exist. This was because a number of users asked for clean numbers for control pages.

Phew!

Mike

Thanks, this makes sense except it doesn't quite match what I'm seeing in Indigo. I do see these values when I look at the details of the thermostat device in Indigo, but I don't see these options when I go to create a trigger on the device. I've attached a couple screenshots (the forum reordered the screenshots, but hopefully the captions will explain) which show the options I'm seeing to trigger on when the Thermostat is selected. The original reason I tried Zone 1 Temperature was that, when I selected Current Temperature (F) (which I assumed was the current ambient temperature?), my only options to trigger on were "Becomes equal", "Becomes not equal" or "Has any change". (See screenshot). I wanted to trigger on "Becomes less than", which wasn't an option.

After your message I looked through the options again. I don't see any "ambient temperature" options listed, but I noticed there are actually six "Current Temperature" options (Three "Current Temperature (F)" and three "Current Temperature (C)"). I decided to try the other "Current Temperature (F)" options and found one of them did included the "Becomes less than" trigger option. One of the screenshots shows how I currently have it setup.

Thanks again for the help. Let me know if I'm still missing something.

Thanks, this makes sense except it doesn't quite match what I'm seeing in Indigo. I do see these values when I look at the details of the thermostat device in Indigo, but I don't see these options when I go to create a trigger on the device. I've attached a couple screenshots (the forum reordered the screenshots, but hopefully the captions will explain) which show the options I'm seeing to trigger on when the Thermostat is selected. The original reason I tried Zone 1 Temperature was that, when I selected Current Temperature (F) (which I assumed was the current ambient temperature?), my only options to trigger on were "Becomes equal", "Becomes not equal" or "Has any change". (See screenshot). I wanted to trigger on "Becomes less than", which wasn't an option.

After your message I looked through the options again. I don't see any "ambient temperature" options listed, but I noticed there are actually six "Current Temperature" options (Three "Current Temperature (F)" and three "Current Temperature (C)"). I decided to try the other "Current Temperature (F)" options and found one of them did included the "Becomes less than" trigger option. One of the screenshots shows how I currently have it setup.

Thanks again for the help. Let me know if I'm still missing something.

nanobots

I've updated the names of the triggers for each of the states - hopefully they're easier to follow. Let me know if there's something else I can do.

Regards

Mike

Great, thanks! I'm out of town but will take a look when I get back.

Thanks again!

Hi Mike,

I've tried a few of the Nest plugins and this one is really cool! Thank you for developing this plugin for the Indigo community!

Is it currently possible to set a trigger when the current temperature is x degrees below or above the heating or cooling set points?

Thanks again,
Dennis

Hi Mike,

I've tried a few of the Nest plugins and this one is really cool! Thank you for developing this plugin for the Indigo community!

Is it currently possible to set a trigger when the current temperature is x degrees below or above the heating or cooling set points?

Thanks again,
Dennis

Dennis

I started to write a long post about how you could use server scripts to achieve what you wanted along with new variables for the job and then I realised in the time that would take I could update the code for the feature you're looking for

You'll see I've released a new version 2.0.22 that does exactly what you were looking for. It maintain three new variables - coolpointTrigger, heatpointTrigger and targetTrigger. These are either true, false or blank. If blank then NEST Home is waiting to calculate the field or you're not using that feature (i.e. if you only have a heating system like me then I only use the target temperature field and so I'd monitor targetTemperature. On the other hand if I had a combined HVAC system then I would track coolpointTrigger and heatpointTrigger.

You can set the 'x' degrees for NEST Home by editing the NEST Home configuration (Plugins/NEST Home/Configure).

Hope it works for you It was a good idea for a feature.

Regards

Mike

Mike,

This is exactly what I needed for low and high temperature alarms. Thank you so much for this solution and your quick response!

Dennis

Mike,

This is exactly what I needed for low and high temperature alarms. Thank you so much for this solution and your quick response!

Dennis

It was an easy change - and it's good customer service

Mike