Does the outside temperature drop suddenly while we are away from home, without the possibility of being able to turn on the heaters on time? In these cases we can avoid finding ourselves with a frozen and uninhabitable house during our absence by relying on modern home automation technologies such as remote controlled thermostats and external weather stations.In this guide we will show you how to turn on the heating based on the outside temperature using the temperature monitoring systems included in the smart thermostats or alternatively the weather stations capable of communicating with the aforementioned or with the other home automation devices present in our home.
In this way we will have a warm and welcoming home even during our absence, without even having to manually turn on the heaters.
Heating control based on temperature
In order to obtain an effective automation we advise you to focus on products that have a complete control app, so you can choose which weather service to use to create the routine based on the outdoor temperature.
Smart thermostat
The most effective method to turn on the heating based on the outside temperature is to replace the original thermostat with one equipped with Wi-Fi and remote control via the app. For this purpose we recommend using the Decdeal Wi-Fi Thermostat for Gas Boiler (€ 47).
This thermostat is compatible with practically all autonomous heating systems that using a natural gas or LPG boiler, to which it must be connected via the control wires (if we are not practical, it is better to ask a technician or an electrician for a hand).
Once the thermostat is placed in the house, we install the app Beca Smart (available for Android and iPhone), let’s start it, create a new account for remote control and follow the procedure to add Wi-Fi to the new thermostat (when turned off, press the sequence of keys recommended in the manual to put it in listening mode, then start adding new devices from the app you just downloaded).
As soon as the thermostat is connected to our Wi-Fi network, from the same app let’s go to the menu Smart, press the + button at the top right and then open the menu Automation.
In order to start heating based on the outside temperature perceived by the online weather service, press the + symbol next to the section When all conditions are met, press on the item Temperature and set the minimum temperature Below 8 ° C (we can obviously choose a preferred temperature).
In the same screen, make sure that our city is present as a monitoring place, then press on Come on to return to the previous screen. Here we will have to press the + button next to Take the following actions, press on the name of our smart thermostat and choose whether to simply turn it on (Power -> ON) or whether to start manual mode (Mode -> Manual). At the end we press on To save to make the changes effective.
From now on every time the outside temperature in our city drops below 8 degrees, the heaters will be automatically turned on without our intervention! For convenience, we recommend that you set the manual mode to a comfortable temperature (20 ° C or 21 ° C) and plan the programmed mode, so that you can only turn on the heating when it is really cold!
To learn more about smart thermostats, we recommend you read our guides Smart thermostat and automatic heating and air conditioning control is Automate lights, sockets and thermostats to save.
Meteorological monitoring station
If we are true technology enthusiasts and we want the detection of the external temperature to be as precise as possible, we will have to use a much more expensive Wi-Fi thermostat combined with a complete meteorological station always connected via Wi-Fi.
Compatible devices that can be managed from a single platform are not easy to find, but if we do not have budget problems we advise you to bet safely on the Netatmo NTH01-IT-EC thermostat Wifi thermostat (149 €) combined with the Netatmo NWS01-EC weather station with external sensor (158 €).
By placing the temperature and humidity sensor outside the house (possibly sheltered from the wind and bad weather) and using the official Netatmo app, we will be able to benefit from a complete home automation platform where you can set up a new routine in which, if the outside temperature detected by the station, it drops below 8 ° C (or another preferred temperature), the thermostat automatically switches on the heaters, bypassing any settings programmed by the user. Netatmo apps, essential to be able to perform all the steps, we can download them for free from the following links:
- Netatmo Energy (Android and iPhone)
- Netatmo Weather (Android and iPhone)
Conclusions
As we have seen, planning the switching on of the heaters according to the outside temperature is really very simple, just get all the recommended tools to be able to automate the heaters based on the climate. The beauty of the recommended procedures is that, if we do not need to activate them, simply remove the tick from the routine to “turn it off”: if we already perceive that the temperature is falling steeply, reactivate it and leave it to the Wi-Fi thermostat or the Thermostat combination -Weather station.
If we love to automate our home and also want to use Alexa’s voice commands, we recommend you read our guides Home Automation (Smart Home): the best devices to install and use is How to control heating with Amazon Echo and Alexa.
Are we trying to save on electricity, water and gas consumption? In this case, let’s forget about the automatisms and rely on the apps recommended in the guide App to save energy, electricity, gas and petrol.