I am adding a solar heater (in between filter and existing gas heater), and am using @Rancho Cost-a-Lotta 's amazing post as a guide for the automation for contolling the actuator-enhanced 3-way valve. Most folks here seem to opt for the Sonoff line of products for wifi relays and sensors. I am trying to stick with devices that work with the Tuya/SmartLife app since I already have a bunch (including Dewenwils pool switch), so I have purchased this relay and this temperature gauge, which appear to have identical hardware to the Sonoffs and I assume the apps include similar features (but if I need to I'll buy the Sonoff versions).
My question is about programming the logic for turning on and off the solar heater. My thought is to use two temp sensors, one right before the solar heater and one coming out. Solar will go on automatically in the morning and will stay on as long as the water coming out from solar is higher than going in, and if not, then turn off (and it will turn off in any case in the late afternoon when the sun is gone). By the way, I'm in Michigan, and the pool is only open from around Memorial Day to around Labor Day, so this doesn't need to be a year-round solution.
Problem is, I don't know if the Tuya app (or Alexa routines) supports comparing two temporature sensors. I can set a trigger for if the temperature is below or above a set number, but I can't figure out how to use two sensors in concert to define the trigger.
Does anybody know how to do this? Is this supported by the app the Sonoff app, or is there a third service (IFTTT or something) that can enable this functionality? Did I buy the wrong product? If I flash the firmware and install Tasmota (which I know will entail a learning curve) will that add this functionality? I'll do that if I have to, but I'm curious if anybody has gotten this to work with the stock smart home platforms.
Taking a step back, is this even the most efficient logic to control the solar? Should I be measuring air temperature or light (which the sensor I bought also does) instead?
Tuya and Alexa can use weather data (reported from an online service, not based on sensors, so reliability is questionable). Is the simplest solution to just use that, i.e., on during normal daylight hours, turn off if weather is "cloudy" or "rainy," turn on if "sunny" (BTW only options are sunny/cloudy/rainy/snowy/hazy)? I want to balance efficiency with ease of use so I can set it and forget.
My question is about programming the logic for turning on and off the solar heater. My thought is to use two temp sensors, one right before the solar heater and one coming out. Solar will go on automatically in the morning and will stay on as long as the water coming out from solar is higher than going in, and if not, then turn off (and it will turn off in any case in the late afternoon when the sun is gone). By the way, I'm in Michigan, and the pool is only open from around Memorial Day to around Labor Day, so this doesn't need to be a year-round solution.
Problem is, I don't know if the Tuya app (or Alexa routines) supports comparing two temporature sensors. I can set a trigger for if the temperature is below or above a set number, but I can't figure out how to use two sensors in concert to define the trigger.
Does anybody know how to do this? Is this supported by the app the Sonoff app, or is there a third service (IFTTT or something) that can enable this functionality? Did I buy the wrong product? If I flash the firmware and install Tasmota (which I know will entail a learning curve) will that add this functionality? I'll do that if I have to, but I'm curious if anybody has gotten this to work with the stock smart home platforms.
Taking a step back, is this even the most efficient logic to control the solar? Should I be measuring air temperature or light (which the sensor I bought also does) instead?
Tuya and Alexa can use weather data (reported from an online service, not based on sensors, so reliability is questionable). Is the simplest solution to just use that, i.e., on during normal daylight hours, turn off if weather is "cloudy" or "rainy," turn on if "sunny" (BTW only options are sunny/cloudy/rainy/snowy/hazy)? I want to balance efficiency with ease of use so I can set it and forget.
