apostolakisl

You can use a webcontrol board from CAI and connect a 1-wire thermometer to it. CAI will post directly to ISY variables on any kind of schedule you want. You will have to write a small program on the CAI board, but it could be as few as 4 lines. This can be done for less than $50, though you will need ethernet at the CAI or you will need to spend another $30 for a wifi adapter.

Yes, it sounds like you have it. You can also have multiple scenes with the same members in it but set to different levels. Or multiple scenes where they are almost the same but contain a few extra items. Like I have one scene that I use to turn all the evening lights on, then the lights get turned off in 2 stages where some of the get turned off in the first stage (which I created a scene for) and then the rest in a second stage (which I actually use the original scene to turn off).

ISY uses the ID number, not a name to reference variables internally. The name is only there for your convenience. If you import the programs I wrote, or for that matter any program that references a variable, it references the variable at an ID # location and then whatever name you have assigned to that number gets substituted for the number in the GUI. So, if the variable at an ID# is already being used for something else, you will either have to point my program to a different ID# or point your previous program to that different ID#. It is not terribly complicated, however, since ISY has a find/replace feature. Prior to importing the program, do a find/replace on your current programs to move their variables to locations that won't be used by the importing programs. It can be done in a minute or two. All the ID's that are used in my programs can be seen in the included screen shots.

As others have said plus a few more comments. Scenes are built-in to the Insteon devices themselves. ISY is a great tool to program the scene into the devices, but once programmed into the devices, the scene will function even without ISY present. ISY is by default a member of every scene (actually the PLM), but it need not be present for the scene to work. Scenes are activated by a single Insteon command. So it is much less traffic than a program which sends out as many Insteon commands as you have listed in your program. And as mentioned, scenes are much faster than programs which have to pause a bit between each Insteon command. Generally speaking, I never have a program activate more than one device/scene. Whatever I want, I create a scene. Then, I might use a program to turn that scene on or off as needed based on conditions that I set in the program. A classic example being your night time scene which activates based on sun position/time of day. All the lights that I want to turn on at night in that fashion are a member of one scene.

You can install this set of programs, which includes an every 3rd day program, plus all the other date functions you might ever want. http://wiki.universal-devices.com/index ... _Variables

He edited his post yesterday pointing out that he made a silly mistake accidentally commanding the lights to turn on when he meant to put off.

That is why I used "control is switched on" for your tv. It will only be true when the tv is switched from off to on (at least with a synchrolinc). I misunderstood on the light on/off, thought you wanted the light to turn on with the tv, not off. So swap on for off and vice-versa on the lights. Be aware, that for "if status is on" you might instead say "if status is not off" since "not off" encompasses all the dimmed states whereas "on" means 100% only.

Programs do not "run the entire time". The program only runs when it is triggered and then it is done. This program will trigger on any change in the light status, but that will always cause a false, which is blank, so it is meaningless. The important point is the program will also trigger when the tv is turned on (incidentally, I don't know what you are using to turn your tv on, and this could be important). And then, it will only run tru if the light is off. The jist of this, is that the second program will only run true (and turn the light off) if it was the act of turning the tv on that caused the light to turn on in the first place. If the light was already on when you turned the tv on, the second program won't run when you turn the tv off and the light will staff on, because the variable would never have been set to 1.

You could use a variable. I think this should do it, but it might have some bugs as I haven't fully vetted it. If status Light is off and control tv is switched on Then set light on set $tvlight to 1 Else . . . If $tvlight = 1 and Control tv is switched off Then set light off set $tvlight = 0 Else - --

Actually we very much like our front load Samsung unit. It gets the clothes very clean. And they get spun so close to dry that they would never sit for days wet since they actually dry in the washer in less than a day if let to sit. I have the Samsung unit at my office as well for medical stuff and it is tremendous with sani cycle and all. Our first generation front loader was not so good and we got rid of it.

I wouldn't say they get urine smell. It is just a musty odor as happens with stuff that is wet. It is like a 24 hour problem, not a few hours. Regardless of smell, the implications of forgetting clothes in the washer is going to be worse than the dryer. 1) Laundry in the dryer can't be pulled out and worn on the spot. So the implication of forgetting in the washer is that the piece of clothing is unwearable vs the dryer where you just have to dig it out. 2) If you forget in the washer for too long, it dries in there. Then it needs to be rewashed unless you like to wear cardboard. 3) The front load washers typically run longer than the dryer since they seem to do more fancy cycles and since they spin the clothes so close to dry. We have wash cycles that usually last close to an hour and the dryer usually is more like 30 to 40 minutes. 4) All of the clothes we wash at home don't wrinkle since the wrinkle guard on the dryer does a great job of keeping them fluffed until it is cooled off at which point wrinkling isn't really an issue. The cotton dress shirts need ironing no matter what and therefore they go to the cleaners (we don't iron) 5) Not sure why cold clothes are a problem (as long as they are dry). Gas dryer does simply things since they run on 120. But the wrinkle guard throws a twist into your program regardless of gas or electric. You would presumably want to be warned as soon as it finishes, but you wouldn't want to keep getting warned every few minutes when it does the wrinkle guard thing. Maybe set a variable after the synchrolinc is on for more than 10 minutes to 1 and when the synchrolinc turns off it switches the variable to 0 which is the trigger for notification. That way the wrinkle guard cycle doesn't keep notifying you since it doesn't run long enough to be considered.

I just monitor the washer. Monitoring the dryer doesn't add a lot. Forgetting laundry in the washer and you end up with a stinky mess. Also, when you forget it in the washer it isn't ready to wear. Forgetting it in the dryer really doesn't amount to much trouble. You can always pull the clothes out and put it straight on. Aside from the clothes maybe getting wrinkled, there isn't much to gain from dryer finish notification. Generally the washer time is longer than the dryer time, so the next load from the washer should be able to go right in without needing another notification from the dryer. Having said that, to be a purist, you want to know. If it were me, I would open the dryer, interrupt the wires to the drum motor, put a standard wall socket on the hot side, and a plug on the motor side. Put your IO linc in between and that should work. Of course you might void your warranty.

I wrote those programs, so maybe it is my fault that ISY has not integrated this function into the firmware. I agree, it would be nice if ISY firmware had permanent variables for all of the parameters of date and time. To those programs I have since added variables for hour and minute of day which allows comparison of a time of day to a variable instead of a set value. If you are interested, I posted those a couple weeks ago to another thread.

The barometer is now working on all sites I have checked. I still think the label for "forecast for next 24 hours" is very misleading, or actually just plain wrong. It may be meteorologist secret code talk for 7am to 7am, but ISY users are not members of that club and would have no way of knowing that without putting questions up on this forum over and over. I suggest labeling it in a way that correctly defines what it is (like "24 hour forecast ending next 7am". It says my irrigation requirement is 58 inches. ??? All sites I go to say that same number.

I have noticed many stations are reporting 0 for barometer even though I can directly access those stations and see that they are recording barometer. On the flip side, others are showing barometer. It would appear to me that "forecast for next 24 hours" is really a poor label. I think it would be more accurate to say "forecast for today". . . if it is indeed 24 hours starting at the most recent past 7am.

I look forward to you exporting all your profiles.

The data is coming from someones weather station. It could be wrong. Like 6 inches of rain. 0 psi means they don't have a barometer or it isn't reporting. Pick another station. I am rather vague on what forecast for tomorrow as compared to forecast for next 24 hours means. They seam like they should be pretty much the same. But oddly they are quite different. Like my 24 hour forecast says high of 95 and the forecast for tomorrow says high of 90. At this time of day, the high for tomorrow and the high for the next 24 hours would be the same.

From sunrise to sunset is what you would say in ISY. It offers a lot more flexibility because you can do sunrise/sunset plus or minus a period of time of your choosing. At sunset it is still quite light for another 10 or 20 minutes, so you might want your outdoor lights to wait a few minutes. On the other hand, inside the house you might want the lights to come on a few minutes before sunset. Also, please note that the "wait" clause in your programs will be stopped if the elk zone changes state and the program will start all over from scratch. So, if the wait is partially complete and you open or close that zone, the program will just stop where it is and start all over.

1) Shouldn't be, however, you can wire the valve for normally open or normally closed. In other words, if you expect the valve to usually be on, then wire it so that the relay coil is off when you want the water on. It all comes down to the red and white wire. Apply power to the red to close it; white to open it. So with a double pole relay, connect the normally closed side up to white if your valve is expected to usually be open, or vice-versa. 2) Yes, there will always be 12v going to the valve. Although you could shut the power off once it is open or closed all the way, but there is no reason to do this and it would only add one more switch. It has 2 control wires which act as both the signal and the power for the actuator. You apply 12v to one side, it opens; apply 12 v to the other, it closes. There are no springs or anything else opening and closing the valve, so if you cut power, it will just stop where it is. 3) I have the original wsv. It is not a waterproof item. The wsv2 lists "outdoor" in it's spec sheet, so I guess that means it has some resistance to getting wet. But I would still take great care to keep it dry. A sealed sprinkler box that is above grade should do the trick.

The thing is this wouldn't save much. Heat loss is all about the temp delta from inside the insulated pipe to outside the pipe. As you slow the pump down, the end of the line will end up being cooler, but if it is much cooler, then you defeated the whole purpose of this thing. So, in short you are going to run it fast enough to keep the water at the end of the line hot, and thus the delta will still be there and heat loss will still be there. Presumably the pump would use fewer watts at a lower speed and that would be the bulk of your savings. I doubt that the wattage difference would be much, however. Perhaps the pump life would be extended? Or if the pump wasn't intended to run at slower speeds at might be shortened. You would need to know the details on your pump.

Your pipes are running in your crawl space, which is probably reasonably close to house temp. The length of line is irrelevant. Hot water pipe insulation is pretty much a standard. And that is about how long it takes my pipes to cool which are running at house temp with standard hot water pipe insulation.

A couple of things... -I have now incorporated from 5AM to 6AM into the programs. If I go on vacation it will continue to run during that time but not if the alarm is armed. -I have a pretty sophisticated Grundfos Alpha pump and I'd rather not turn it off and on every two minutes. Also, keep in mind, if the pump runs 2 minutes the electric heater is flushed with cooler water and will run for 20 min since it has a 20 min reheat time. The pump is 16 watts and the electric tank is ~1400 watts so the electric heater is my main concern money wise. Why are you using the electric heater? If you are going to shut down the recirc pump for 20 minutes at a time, you can just circulate through the on demand tank. Probably at most you might see a half dozen extra cycles on your on-demand tank per day based on a wait time of 20 minutes and only triggering on those lights being on. Also, the 20 minute off time should give plenty of time for the water to cool sufficiently for it to kick on the on demand heater. If you set your on-demand at around 130, then after 20 minutes of sitting in the lines, I would think the water would drop to around 100 or so. Really the only piece of the puzzle missing is that you could put a temp probe on the water line and only let the program run if the temp is lower than 105 or so. A webcontrol board plus a one-wire temp probe would easily do that for about $40.

I think the deal was that he wanted the water to stay warm while the room was in use, even if the water wasn't in use. This would only heat it initially. But for the most part, I would think that in a bathroom, you would actually only need it heated initially and then once you got in there you would actually be using the water which would keep it hot. The kitchen could be different. I don't disagree with the logic of the alarm, except ISY gets the status wrong on devices sometimes (comm issues), so I don't think it is a bad way to override an incorrect Insteon status. I have never had ISY get the alarm system status wrong (mostly since it is not an Insteon comm).

I ended up going with a program like this but altered the wait times a little. Thanks for the help! What is going to stop the repeat? Once it gets going in the repeat, if the first program triggers false, there is nothing to stop it until the first program becomes true. While your first program will shut the pump off when all the lights are turned off, this repeat will turn it back on again within 40 minutes. For example, the else clause is running in program 2, someone turns the light off. The first program turns false, it runs the else and turns the pump off. But the else clause in program 2 is still running. If at that point you left he house on vacation, your else clause repeat would never stop. The 20 minutes on 20 minutes off still makes no sense from the standpoint of the goal of having hot water at the faucet. You should either have it or not, not be in some random state where you might have warm water in the kitchen or you might not depending on the random nature of when you turn the faucet on.

I believe he has a separate loop from the sounds of it. The logic you refer to is what we are trying to create here. I am opposed to putting a tank on a tankless system. . . all you have done is spend a whole bunch of money to get what amounts to a regular tank heater (all be it with very high btu). To really do the logic correctly you need to monitor the temp in the water line and use that to determine when it would be appropriate to turn the recirc pump back on, as opposed to just waiting a fixed amount of time. I agree with you that tankless have issues that many people like to overlook. I have two of them in my house and wish I had done differently. But unlike you, I have never had the "sandwich" problem. Perhaps it is the brand of heater or the fact that I am in a climate where incoming water is rarely colder than 60. But I never get water that goes hot/cold/hot or even hot/cool/hot no matter what the timing is on the start/stop/start of using water. I honestly don't know how it does it but I swear to you in 5 years I have never experienced it. If I were to do it again, I would put in a large holding tank and heat pump heaters with a recirc pump that runs whenever the alarm is not armed away. Maybe a 200 gallon holding tank since heat pump units can't recover quickly. The heat pump would pump cold air into my attic while heating the water which is a good thing where I live and with my spray foam insulated attic.