Home Automation Series: Initial Temperature Findings

I knew going into this, that temperatures around the house would vary, but the degree to which they vary is quite astonishing. First, I’ll show the main HVAC values:

{
  "heat_to": 71,
  "cool_to": 74,
  "indoor_temp": 68,
  "outdoor_temp": 49,
  "fan_status": {
    "fanMode": "on",
    "fanIsRunning": true
  },
  "temperature_status": {
    "StatusCool": "Holding until next window",
    "StatusHeat": "Holding until next window"
  },
  "system_status": "Heat"
}

As you can see at that moment the Heat is one trying to heat the house to 71 degrees, the indoor temperature is 68 and the outdoor temperature is 49.

Here are the rooms I’m currently monitoring:

  {
    "controller_name": "<redacted>",
    "controller_id": "<redacted>",
    "damper": 0,
    "id": 1,
    "temperature": 69,
    "humidity": 48
  },
  {
    "controller_name": "<redacted>",
    "controller_id": "<redacted>",
    "damper": 0,
    "id": 2,
    "temperature": 71,
    "humidity": 46
  },
  {
    "controller_name": "<redacted>",
    "controller_id": "<redacted>",
    "damper": 0,
    "id": 4,
    "temperature": 65,
    "humidity": 50
  },
  {
    "controller_name": "<redacted>",
    "controller_id": "<redacted>",
    "damper": 0,
    "id": 5,
    "temperature": 61,
    "humidity": 54
  }
]

I’ve redacted the identifiable bits here, but rooms 1 and 2 are upstairs, and rooms 4 and 5 are downstairs.

Upstairs, we’ve got comfortable temperatures at 71 and 69, that’s a pretty good range between them. Downstairs though, is a much different story. Room 5 (No there aren’t 5 rooms in my house, that’s just the ID based on the number of sensors I’ll have) houses a preference of having windows open when sleeping. Room 4, is a living room, directly outside room 5, which as you can see gets colder due to this.

The problem now is when I turn on the heat, all of the cold air from downstairs will get pumped upstairs into warm rooms, cooling them down, before the heater eventually warms up the house.

This is where damper control would really make this easy. Monitoring temperatures constantly, it could very easily adjust dampers and force more air into the colder room (regardless of the windows being open) and warm it up.

This is going to be quite the challenge keeping rooms comfortable, but keeping rooms within some margin should be easy(ish)