Exterior cooling alert channel of July 2, 2014

[elagache]

Dear WeatherCat early adopters,

I went back to the synthetic channels I have been running since the private beta and realized that one of the simplest is the most useful and demonstrates how useful synthetic channels can be.  So I went ahead and created another writeup for what I call an Outdoor cooling potential synthetic channel.  The name is a bit presumptuous.  All it does is compute the different in temperature in degrees between the outside thermometer and the thermometer on your console or Weather Envoy.  However, I added a custom alert and an AppleScript that generates a Growl notification.  Now I get an alert when it is time to open up the windows in the afternoon based on my experiences of 5˚ being sufficient to do some effective cooling of the house.  As simple as it is, it turns out to be very convenient and helpful.

I've written it up as the previous synthetic channel and you can download it here:

http://www.canebas.org/WeatherCat/AppleScripts/Exterior%20cooling%20alert%20channel%202014-07-02.zip

As before, any comments, typo corrections, fixes, etc. would be appreciated!

Enjoy! 

Cheers, Edouard 

[Steve]

Cool! (pun intended)
I'll have to fiddle with this and see how close it comes to reality. One thing I know I'll add is a parameter for humidity. If it is 5˚ cooler outside, but the humidity is in the all-too-common 80%+ range, I'm leaving the AC on!

Thanks,
Steve

[Blicj11]

Edouard, thanks for posting this. I have downloaded and implemented it. Thanks for the very nice primer on a practical use of a synthetic channel.

[elagache]

Howdy Blick, Steve, and WeatherCat "Interior climate managers," 

Edouard, thanks for posting this. I have downloaded and implemented it. Thanks for the very nice primer on a practical use of a synthetic channel.

Thanks, it really is very practical in the warmer months of the year.  So far the summer has been relatively cool in coastal northern California, so I have been using this feature a lot.

I'll have to fiddle with this and see how close it comes to reality. One thing I know I'll add is a parameter for humidity. If it is 5˚ cooler outside, but the humidity is in the all-too-common 80%+ range, I'm leaving the AC on!

Hmm, unfortunately so far this summer, we haven't seen any monsoonal activity so I can't personally test humidity modifications very well.  However, the National Weather Service is threatening us with some by next week, so that might change.  If you go ahead and tweak the custom alerts or something please do share as I'm sure you are not alone with the need to control for humidity!

Cheers, Edouard