Make individual Flume values available

[Morris Hansen]

My monthly water bill is not based on the calendar month.  Flume monthly readings are based on the calendar month.  As we are charged extra at certain tiers of usage, I would like to keep a more accurate monthly reading based on my bill.  One thought to do this is to have the EISY take the Last 24 hour value and add it to a variable.  This variable would be aligned to the dates of my water bill and reset at the start of the month.  I would then generate an email/alert that would notify me of the monthly total and/or when I am getting close to the next tier.
 
I have seen some node servers that break out each value of the sensor (i.e. Weatherflow) and make these available to programs.  I don't see that with the Flume node server.  Is it possible to do this?  I have not looked into what it takes to create a node server so not sure of the effort involved.  I could see the potential of having these specific values available in many other HA scenarios in addition to this one use case.
 
FYI.  I have suggested to Flume to allow the user to configure their monthly start and end dates but have not seen it implemented in the few years I have been using Flume.
 
Thanks
 
 

[apostolakisl]

I asked flume to do the same thing.  I'm sure lots of people have.  I guess it is either very hard to do or they don't really care.  Emporia energy monitor does let you set the bill date.

[MrBill]

On 6/18/2023 at 9:33 AM, Morris Hansen said:

I have seen some node servers that break out each value of the sensor (i.e. Weatherflow) and make these available to programs.  I don't see that with the Flume node server.  Is it possible to do this?  I have not looked into what it takes to create a node server so not sure of the effort involved.  I could see the potential of having these specific values available in many other HA scenarios in addition to this one use case.

I confess I'm not using this nodeserver, but the documentation says this is available now.

https://github.com/UniversalDevicesInc-PG3/udi-poly-FlumeWater/blob/master/README.md#drivers-2

 

[apostolakisl]

49 minutes ago, MrBill said:

I confess I'm not using this nodeserver, but the documentation says this is available now.

https://github.com/UniversalDevicesInc-PG3/udi-poly-FlumeWater/blob/master/README.md#drivers-2

 

I just dug deep into the app and can't find anywhere to set your monthly bill start date.  It shows monthly usage only as calendar month, not your billing cycle month.  I also checked to see if the app had an update and it doesn't.  So, if you can't tell it your monthly billing cycle start date, there would be no way for it to report your usage during that period.  There is a last 30 day reading which would tell you your billing cycle usage if you checked that value on the last day of your billing cycle.  But typically people are looking for usage billing cycle to date.  People who have tiered pricing would want to know when they are approaching the next tier.  So, you could write some programs in ISY that add up your daily usage and save it as a variable which gets reset on your billing start date.

[MrBill]

59 minutes ago, apostolakisl said:

I just dug deep into the app and can't find anywhere to set your monthly bill start date.  It shows monthly usage only as calendar month, not your billing cycle month.  I also checked to see if the app had an update and it doesn't.  So, if you can't tell it your monthly billing cycle start date, there would be no way for it to report your usage during that period.  There is a last 30 day reading which would tell you your billing cycle usage if you checked that value on the last day of your billing cycle.  But typically people are looking for usage billing cycle to date.  People who have tiered pricing would want to know when they are approaching the next tier.  So, you could write some programs in ISY that add up your daily usage and save it as a variable which gets reset on your billing start date.

Addressing what @Morris Hansen was asking for:

On 6/18/2023 at 9:33 AM, Morris Hansen said:

One thought to do this is to have the EISY take the Last 24 hour value and add it to a variable.  This variable would be aligned to the dates of my water bill and reset at the start of the month.  I would then generate an email/alert that would notify me of the monthly total and/or when I am getting close to the next tier.

Coupled with the title of the thread "Make individual Flume values available" makes me believe he's not finding the 24 hour value.  He further states:

On 6/18/2023 at 9:33 AM, Morris Hansen said:

I have seen some node servers that break out each value of the sensor (i.e. Weatherflow) and make these available to programs.  I don't see that with the Flume node server.  Is it possible to do this?

He should be able to do exactly that already.

[Morris Hansen]

On the device page and for this specific node server, I see all the various values. When I am in a program, I don’t see how to get specific values from the node server. If it is there, can someone help explain how to access the individual values. Thanks.

[dbuss]

50 minutes ago, Morris Hansen said:

On the device page and for this specific node server, I see all the various values. When I am in a program, I don’t see how to get specific values from the node server. If it is there, can someone help explain how to access the individual values. Thanks.

The dropdown menu should show the values as in the image below.

 

[Morris Hansen]

thanks for the screen shot.  I now understand why I was not seeing anything. I see that the Flume values are available as part of the If condition but not part of anything in the Then portion of the program.  I could see having a condition to do an alert if an individual value is greater than or less than some predefined value.

What I want to do is to actually read the value (Last 24 hours) and add it to another variable every day at midnight.  Is it possible to make these values part of Variable action?  I know I can add variables to each other, would just like the ability to add a node server value to a variable.

for example:

Creat a variable monthly_water_usage.

If

Everyday at midnight

Then

Last 24 Hours += monthly_water_usage

 

I would also have a program that would send me an email on the day my water meter is read by the water company and then reset the monthly_water_usage value back to zero.

 

[MrBill]

@Morris Hansen   Disclaimer: i don't have this node server, but it should be there. Here's how to find it.

First create a variable, integer should be fine.  Set the decimal place for 1 while you're on this screen.  (I know ironic, Integer variable with a decimal place.)

Next navigate to the Then portion of your program.  Select Variable in the Action Block.  Then find your variable in the next drop-down.  Change the operator to +=  Next press the "Play" button a couple of times until you get a Node drop-down as the next field.  Find your Flume node.  Change the last drop-down to the 24 hour value. 

Here's a screenshot using a different node server with the "play" button circled in red.

 

[Jimbo.Automates]

Thanks @MrBill, yes this is available @Morris Hansen

[Morris Hansen]

Thanks @MrBill, that was what I was missing.  I had used the play button before to switch between variables but never clicked it enough to get to the node server.  I have it working as I want.

 

I can now send an email with the monthly water usage aligned to my water company billing cycle.  Also have email alerts setup on when I am approaching the next tier of usage pricing.

 

Appreciate the support and education.  I figured it was possible, just was missing the simple steps.