I would like to place a Vera in a ski vacation rental in Utah, which is about 1700 miles away from where I reside, in Florida. The unit has electrical base board heaters. Ideally I would be able to control the temp of the unit when there are no guest (to save energy) but I would like to monitor the temperature to insure that it does not get too cold and allow the pipes to freeze. I would also like Vera to help me control access with the locks.
I would like to know if the locks can be programmed to open to a code that I give the guest ahead of time or do I have to go into the system and set the codes myself on the day they are set to arrive? Meaning if they are do to arrive 12/5 and depart 12/11 can I preprogram a code in October of that year once they have made their final payment and are due to get their welcome letter to work for the time they arrive on 12/5 then have the code automatically disable at a specified time on 12/11 or do I physically have to go into the computer to enable the code to work on the date they arrive and delete it when they depart?
Can I use a iPhone to do this or does the phone just monitor when someone is coming and going?
should I replace all of the base board heater thermostats or just he ones I think would be most effective?
thanks in advance
I am using at my cabin. As for the schedules… that is available, I don’t use it. I have attached a screen shot showing the schedule window in UI2. I know that the lock holds all codes locally, but not sure if vera handles the schedule or not. That is something that someone else can chime in about. (You need to worry about power failure if vera handles scheduling).
Suggest a UPS on the vera, router, dsl modem anyway.
As a final failsafe, I have a lock box (pushbutton combo) mounted outside the place. That way if the battery dies, or something just fails on the lock electronics, the guest can at least call me, I can get them into the lockbox and they can get in the old fashioned way.
As for linevoltage thermostats, can’t say much there. I have line voltage radiant heat in the bedrooms and bathroom (not attached to Vera). The main cabin is on a GE Zoneline PTAC (Heat Pump/Electric Heat) which is attached to a Trane thermostat, also in the screen shot.
Thanks for the screen shot…That actually helps a lot… it looks like you can program the lock for certain dates and times.
I have a question about the system that you may have some experience with… it mentions in a couple of posts that the system seems to be very reliable except if there is a power outage… does that mean that the system will only work while the power is out, lets say a storm that knocks power out for 3 hours, or does it mean that if the power is interrupted for five minutes the system will remain out until someone comes to the condo and physically does something to restore or reboot the program?
Why don’t you use the locks scheduler?
what is a UPS?
thanks,
frank
I have vacation rentals and don’t have a UPS (uninterupted power supply) hooked to them. I do use the door code schedule and set them all up for the month ahead of time and as needed for last minute bookings. They have been fairly reliable until resently when one of them won’t let me log in from afar. It is still updating the log of events like people coming and going using the door lock but I can’t add new door lock codes. I have to fly back and figure it out. I had a house keeper unplug it for a minute to reset it to no avail. Of course I can’t send a trouble ticket from it if I can’t log in to it. It worked for about 6-8 months straight pretty well before this happened. I’m running UI2 1.0.979 until UI4 comes out because it just wastes too much time trying out all the new firmware that always seems to fail.
What it comes down to is it’s still not bullit proof yet but it’s come a long way from a year ago.
Sorry… I should have elaborated. Electric at the cabin can be a bit ‘dodgy’ so I ended up with the UPS just to keep power smoothed out and stable (and Vera happy). I haven’t used scheduling yet as the place is not something I rent out back to back, and have not felt the need to assign codes on a per guest basis. Until 2 months ago I just used a combo box with the key. That was until one of the keys disappeared and it didn’t set well with me. Decided for more security. At least I can change the code at will. Wanted to see how well things worked for awhile. I do like the logging of events so I know who came and went when. (Cleaner, guest etc…). Guests like the fact that I can fire up A/C or heat before they get there to make it comfortable. Its also good to make sure they turn the HVAC off when they leave, otherwise it may run a day or so until the cleaners get in. (Like I said, its not a busy rental, so most times not on a tight cleaning schedule).
Being that these locks hold 16 codes maybe something got messed up. I think you need to reset the codes in the lock and start over. How many codes do you have in the lock?
To delete all codes in the lock enter the programming code in to the lock push the #6 then reenter the programming code.
[quote=“finorman, post:1, topic:165958”]I would like to place a Vera in a ski vacation rental in Utah, which is about 1700 miles away from where I reside, in Florida. The unit has electrical base board heaters. Ideally I would be able to control the temp of the unit when there are no guest (to save energy) but I would like to monitor the temperature to insure that it does not get too cold and allow the pipes to freeze. I would also like Vera to help me control access with the locks.
I would like to know if the locks can be programmed to open to a code that I give the guest ahead of time or do I have to go into the system and set the codes myself on the day they are set to arrive? Meaning if they are do to arrive 12/5 and depart 12/11 can I preprogram a code in October of that year once they have made their final payment and are due to get their welcome letter to work for the time they arrive on 12/5 then have the code automatically disable at a specified time on 12/11 or do I physically have to go into the computer to enable the code to work on the date they arrive and delete it when they depart?
Can I use a iPhone to do this or does the phone just monitor when someone is coming and going?
should I replace all of the base board heater thermostats or just he ones I think would be most effective?
thanks in advance[/quote]
Where are you in florida. You have a problem with pipe freezing. I alwas thought that Florida was warm.
As to line voltage thermostats - there are none available. You would need to use some sort of relay.
[quote=“zmistro, post:8, topic:165958”]Where are you in florida. You have a problem with pipe freezing. I alwas thought that Florida was warm.
As to line voltage thermostats - there are none available. You would need to use some sort of relay.[/quote]
The cabin in question here is a ski cabin in Utah.
As for direct control of the baseboard thermostats…I would have a bit of a concern with safety here. I know there are folks controlling radiators, etc with regular on/off switches out there, but as for me I only allow my vera to control things in my home that have relatively low risk of starting a fire or burning a hole in my electrical bill if they go haywire. I should say that in the short time I have used vera, I’ve never experienced an issue with devices turning themselves on unexpectedly, etc… I’m just extra cautious about it. Here is another thread where this concept is discussed: [url=http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php?topic=2876.0]http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php?topic=2876.0[/url]
Then again, I did once leave the oven on in a ski cabin I was renting for 2 weeks without realizing it… maybe it should be MY logic and reliability that I question.
The scheduling feature apparently has a bug in it. I got a response back from supprt that a fix has already been completed and will be in the next release coming in perhaps a month from now.
But the control of the PIN codes works really well. Notifications as well. So at the moment you have to manage the pin codes yourself at approximately the time you want them enabled or not.
I have an update on my issue of not being able to log in and remotely control Vera. It ended up being the router it connects to in wifi client mode was getting a poor signal. It ends up that I believe someone removed an antenna from it while it was plugged in and shorted out the radio. WRT54GL So I bought a GS model with non removeable antennas. It was only getting about a 1/3 of the normal signal. So all along Vera was behaving well.
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