Inside temp lower then outside temp set lights to green

Morris · 8 August 2020 11:19

Hi there,
I am completely new to apilio and have a hard time understanding Booleans and logic blocks and their logic behind it.

I want to create something that when the outside temperature falls below the inside temperature the lights go to green. Indicating that the windows can be opened.
I do have several devices that can measure inside temperature and outside temperature (or do this via weather channel) and then set a light via Philips hue.
But I don’t understand how to start

How should I start?

pebneter · 11 August 2020 13:31

Hi @Morris,
welcome
We have no ready-made guide for this setup, but it should be quite straight forward.

You need to send both temperatures (inside and outside) from IFTTT to an Apilio numeric variable (here’s some help on that: https://community.apilio.com/t/how-to-update-a-numeric-variable-via-ifttt/212).
Then you create a condition to compare those two values and make sure to check the option “Trigger logicblocks using this condition whenever the condition changes”
Next, create a logicblock and select the condition created above
Finally, create a new IFTTT action with a name you choose. Go to IFTTT after saving the logicblock and create a new applet that uses Apilio as the “this” part and the Philip Hue service as the “then” part.
Hope this helps to get you started!
There’s a lot of documentation around (and even some nice videos ) - a good place to start is this overview: ★ Apilio's help guides: all our documentation ★

MusicMan3001 · 6 April 2021 00:06

Hi, I have a very similar question to the above user. I want to compare two temperatures, and then if one temperature is higher than another, I want to turn on a smart outlet (which will power a fan). Then, when the temperature evens out, I want to turn the outlet off again.

I’m starting completely from scratch, so assuming that the previous post solves some of the problem, I want to make sure the rest is possible before investing money in hardware. Can anyone confirm that the following is correct and will work?

I need to buy two temperature sensors (in my case, one for indoors and one for outdoors) that can supply the current temperature to IFTTT
I must also buy a smart outlet that can be turned on/off by IFTTT
Then using some combination of IFTTT and Apilio, I can use the following logic:
If the outdoor temp is lower than the indoor temp (i.e., in the late afternoon when it starts to cool down), turn the outlet (and the fan) on.
Then, once the outdoor temp starts to rise again (maybe early in the morning), turn off the outlet.

Will this work, as far as everyone understands?

teknofilo · 6 April 2021 09:38

Yes, that should work without any issues but my suggestion would be to buy temperature sensors and smart outlet which are compatible with Smart Life / Tuya.

That is because Apilio can now integrate directly with Smart Life / Tuya compatible devices, so you don’t need to go through IFTTT at all. This would avoid delays and would be much simpler to configure.

Caveat: Not all Smart Life / Tuya devices can be accessed by Apilio (some of them do not provide info), so have a look at this post with compatible devices: Smart Life (Tuya) product tracker: compatible products curated by the Community

pebneter · 9 April 2021 14:15

Hi @MusicMan3001,
yes, this will generally work, but there are some catches:

Most temperature sensor on IFTTT only send data when they cross predefined thresholds. That’s not so good if you want to continuously compare two temperatures
If you buy a Tuya / Smart Life sensor, you would not need to go through IFTTT. But with Tuya sensors, you cannot compare two temperatures in Apilio - the value you compare with has to be a static value.

So my conclusion - to my own disappointment - is, that you can only do it with IFTTT compatible sensors that send data quite often (I know that Wireless Sensor Tags can do it: https://wirelesstag.net)