Setting away mode automatically on Evohome

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  • freddyq
    Automated Home Jr Member
    • Oct 2016
    • 40

    Setting away mode automatically on Evohome

    Hi all, is there a way to get the Evohome system to automatically be set to away mode based on certain conditions? We have daily schedules setup but I need this for the scenarios where we are out straight after work and don't get home until later in the night. In these scenarios, the heating is turning on as per the schedule and what I want is for the system to be set to away mode.

    Would appreciate any advice.

    TIA
  • mylesm
    Automated Home Guru
    • Nov 2015
    • 153

    #2
    If you use The IFTTT Service they have Evohome services

    Integrate Honeywell evohome with over 900 of your favorite apps & devices to unlock powerful automations on IFTTT. Get started today!

    Comment

    • freddyq
      Automated Home Jr Member
      • Oct 2016
      • 40

      #3
      Yea I had a quick look at the IFTTT services but I couldn't see anything that would work for my requirement. There is an "Enable Quick Action" service which maybe I need to dig a bit deeper into.

      Comment

      • killa47
        Automated Home Guru
        • Jan 2016
        • 123

        #4
        Hope I'm not stating the obvious but you can always use the App to trigger Away mode whilst at work. Admittedly it's not automatic which is what you ask for.

        Comment

        • paulockenden
          Automated Home Legend
          • Apr 2015
          • 1719

          #5
          I use a special sensor and Smarthings to set my system to Economy mode when my burglar alarm is set.

          The important bit is that it needs to save the current state, and then restore it when the conditions clear.

          Also, don't do it if the current state is 'off'.

          Comment

          • Mavis
            Automated Home Ninja
            • Oct 2014
            • 322

            #6
            +1 for IFTTT.

            You could either use a calendar trigger as the IF.

            Or use your phone as geofencing so when you leave the area IFTTT will enable a Quick Action in Evohome. The one I use is Evohome Geofencing Applet.
            Then you create another recipe for when you return and it will disable the quick action.

            Just had another look at the Evohome Geofencing Applet and you can also adjust the duration to hours, days or permanent. So you could just have one trigger.

            Actually, reading you post again, the calendar trigger would probably work better. The recipe works on a Key word or phrase in your calendar (I use Google calendar) and you can have it to work on one zone (so you can make multiple recipes) or whole house.

            Comment

            • freddyq
              Automated Home Jr Member
              • Oct 2016
              • 40

              #7
              Thanks all for replies so far. The alarm based trigger is a good idea but the tricky part of my requirement is that on days when we're both working our schedule is set to turn the heating on before we arrive home so doing it based on alarm wouldn't really work. I did recently purchase the Smartthings starter kit as I have plans to put in place whole house lighting automation and I suspect I may also be able to use it in some way to help automatically set the heating to away mode and then disable appropriately too, just not sure how at the moment.

              I'm not entirely convinced there is logic I can apply to my scenario, it is by nature an exception case where we deviate from the normal departure and arrival times but I have the Nest in mind where if it's set to turn on based on schedule but doesn't sense any movement for a specified period of time, it sets itself to Away. Not sure what it does to then cancel that away state but there must be something I can do to replicate that kind of scenario using maybe a Smartthings movement sensor integrated with my Evohome...

              Comment

              • Rameses
                Industry Expert
                • Nov 2014
                • 446

                #8
                Originally posted by freddyq View Post
                Hi all, is there a way to get the Evohome system to automatically be set to away mode based on certain conditions? We have daily schedules setup but I need this for the scenarios where we are out straight after work and don't get home until later in the night. In these scenarios, the heating is turning on as per the schedule and what I want is for the system to be set to away mode.

                Would appreciate any advice.

                TIA
                Life 360 is good for multiple account/member geofencing needs
                Or just the simpler IFTTT geofence rule
                getconnected.honeywell.com | I work for Honeywell. Any posts I make are purely to help if I can. Any personal views expressed are my own

                Comment

                • MichaelD
                  Automated Home Guru
                  • Mar 2006
                  • 167

                  #9
                  What sort of response time are people getting from IFTTT? It says an applet can take up to an hour to complete

                  Comment

                  • mylesm
                    Automated Home Guru
                    • Nov 2015
                    • 153

                    #10
                    Originally posted by MichaelD View Post
                    What sort of response time are people getting from IFTTT? It says an applet can take up to an hour to complete
                    I have used a couple of applets like set Zone to a temp and do a quick action and they always act almost immediately

                    Comment

                    • paulockenden
                      Automated Home Legend
                      • Apr 2015
                      • 1719

                      #11
                      IFTTT seems to take either a maximum of a couple of seconds, or not at all.

                      Comment

                      • guyank
                        Automated Home Sr Member
                        • Sep 2015
                        • 73

                        #12
                        I used to use IFTTT and Life 360. Generally it worked fine but maybe 2% of the time it failed to change. As Paul says above, if it did change it was as good as instantaneous for controlling heating. Since moving to SmartThings, I've found that much more reliable.

                        Comment

                        • freddyq
                          Automated Home Jr Member
                          • Oct 2016
                          • 40

                          #13
                          So I had a look through IFTTT and setup a couple of applets to work with my evohome system to try and achieve what I want. One of them triggers the 'Off' quick action if the outside temperature rises above 14C. The other one disables any quick action if the outside temperature drops below 11C. I need to experiment with the outside temp values but you get the gist.

                          The problem I realised with this approach is that when we know we will be out for the day or evening we set the system to 'Away' mode to stop the heating turning on as per the normal schedule. With the applet which disables any quick action, that 'Away' quick action will be cancelled once the 11C temp is reached so the heating will turn on even though we may not be home for the whole day or several hours.

                          Anyone got ideas on how to get round this? My thoughts are that either I find a way in IFTTT for the disable applet to apply only if the set quick action is 'Off'. But not sure IFTTT is configurable enough to achieve this. The other thing is that I set the low temperature to something so low that we'd want the heating on anyway, even if we were out.

                          Comment

                          • paulockenden
                            Automated Home Legend
                            • Apr 2015
                            • 1719

                            #14
                            The 'Groovy' I use in Smartthings for stuff like this saves the current state before making the change. Then puts it back when the condition returns to normal.

                            Seems to work OK, although of course it gets confused if someone manually sets a new mode in the meantime!

                            Comment

                            • freddyq
                              Automated Home Jr Member
                              • Oct 2016
                              • 40

                              #15
                              Hmm, I've got the Evohome SmartApp installed on my Smartthings and all my evohome stats are visible in ST. So is it worth me looking into recreating the logic in Smartthings? Are you able to point me in the direction of some posts or tutorials to help do that?

                              Comment

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