Thanks to the participation of over 110 volunteers in our RATES pilot, we learned a lot not only about Transactive Energy but also how to best engage customers using Smart Speakers. We are quite pleased with the outcome and hope you will enjoy reading the results in our official and approved RATES Final Report.
We are very excited to announce the launch of Energy Expert, the Alexa Skill and ecosystem of things that will enable you to better understand and optimize your energy usage and costs. Energy Expert uses OpenADR 2.0 standard to manage and process Time of Use prices. Two of the most electrifying features of Energy Expert are Proactive Notifications and Automatic Optimization. Take a listen to this awesome recording.
Automatic Optimization uses your Energy Savings Preferences (low to high), and energy price for that duration, and temporarily automates your things to optimize your energy usage, savings and comfort. For example, Energy Expert may temporarily adjust your thermostat setting to save energy during peak energy times.
Through Alexa as well as SMS/email, Proactive Notifications provide you with helpful energy information and tips. For example, Energy Expert may notify you of the best time to operate your connected appliance(s) to save energy and money based on your current rate. Or, you may be notified of an activity that goes against your Energy Savings preferences.
Energy Expert is trained to help you achieve your energy savings goals. Energy Expert is not there to take over your life nor is it going to force you into doing something you don’t like. As such, you can opt out at any time using Alexa voice commands, manually adjusting the device being optimized, or through the ISY Portal.
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If you are already a participant in Southern California Edison Smart Speaker Project, to get started, please follow the instructions here.
If you are a Southern California Edison or PG&E customer and wish to be considered for participation in this program with your existing equipment, please contact sales@universal-devices.com.
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As you may already know, and thankfully, the Climate Module is going away. ‘Thankfully’Â because, now you have many other options and services to choose from. But, which option and service is the right one for you? Let’s find out!
The first thing you will have to figure out is which platform to choose. For the 
new weather services to integrate with your ISY, the following requirements must be met:
If you have already signed up for MobiLinc Connect Module/service, then your choices are restricted to the Network Module + Polisy. The reason is that ISY can only support one proxy service: either ISY Portal or MobiLinc Connect.
The advantage of ISY Portal is that it does not require additional hardware. The advantage of Polisy is that you can integrate your ISY with a lot more things out there. In addition – and if you don’t use MobiLinc Connect – Polisy comes with 2 year subscription to ISY Portal free of charge.
Weather service node servers connect to a specific weather service and query for current weather conditions and daily forecasts. The goal is to make the various node servers similar, but there are differences in the specific data returned by each service and the number days of forecast data available. Different services use distinct data sources and various algorithms for determining forecasts. You will need to determine which one works best for your region. 
Most of the services offer a free subscription plan, along with paid subscriptions. The node server only takes advantage of the data in the cheapest plan, typically the free plan. In addition to the queried weather data, the node servers attempt to calculate the evapotranspiration–a fancy term for land evaporation combined with plant transpiration–based on the daily forecasts. All of the weather service node servers will work with either ISY Portal Polisy. Node servers are available for the following services:Â
Personal weather station node servers get data directly from a personal weather station. The frequency of the updates is typically set by the station and can be as often as once a minute. These only provide information on the current conditions. Node servers are available for the following weather stations:
The WeatherPoly node server is designed to work with existing weather software that is locally installed. Most weather software can be configured to export data to a URL. By pointing the export URL at the WeatherPoly node server, the data can be parsed and forwarded to an ISY. This currently works with MeteoBridge, Cumulus, and AcuParse. It is also possible to make this work with WEEWX via a modified extension. This allows access to data from personal weather stations that don’t have a network-accessible API. This only works on a Polisy.
It’s always good to have choices, and with all the different weather related node servers, there’s something for everyone.
You can now use Raise, Lower, Open, and Close with Alexa.
To enable this feature:
— On ISY Portal, go to Select Tools | Connectivity | Amazon Echo
— Edit one of your “spokens”
— In the Alexa Category, choose one of these new options:
   Device with Open/Close syntax
   Device with Set/Lower/Raise syntax
— Save your “spoken”
— After changing the Alexa Category, ask “Alexa, discover my devices”
When you use “Device with Open/Close syntax”
In addition to the regular turn on/turn off, you will now be able to say:
When you use “Device with Set/Lower/Raise syntax”
In addition to the regular turn on/turn off, you will now be able to say:
Please note that this Alexa category is available for devices and state variables only. In the case of variables, when setting up your spoken, it is recommended to use a turn off value of 0, and turn on value of 100.
You can now control your locks using Google Home.
To enable this feature:
— On ISY Portal, go to Select Tools | Connectivity | Google Home
— Add a lock to your device list, then save
— Ask “Ok Google, sync my devices”
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Things you can ask:
Enjoy and stay safe!
Thanks to our very active, enthusiastic, and ingenious developer community, and as we are reaching 75 awesome and full featured Polys (Node Servers), we are going to start sending Poly news on a regular basis. And, of course, we also hope that these communiques can save you from boredom (in case you are home). In this edition: iAquaLink and Ring.
If you have the Ring Poly, then please restart it. We were instructed by Ring to update the integration for added security. Please note that, if you don’t restart this Poly, it will stop working by June 2020.
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Do you have iAquaLink? If so, we are looking for testers! If interested,
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Keep safe and thank you!
The first Climate Module was installed on 11/21/2008 on an ISY99! Since then, we brought to life such gems as ISY Portal, Polyglot, Polyglot Cloud, and Polisy. And, more importantly, we’ve been blessed with a community of genius developers, who develop bleeding edge integration of things, including an assortment of Weather Services, with advanced functionality and features.
So, although we are sad to say farewell to our beloved Climate Module on 03/31/2020*, but we are excited to offer you more choices and enhanced features through Polyglot Cloud.
And just to make this transition a little easier for you:
Please send your UUID to our sales department.Â
Say hello to the future!
* Please note that on 03/31/2020, your climate module will stop functioning.
The long wait is finally over: Polisy is now shipping! Polisy is ISY’s companion that extends your automation wishes to infinity and beyond. Click a couple of buttons and integrate with weather services, Philips Hue, LiFX, Ecobee, Roomba, Sonos, Tesla, SolarEdge, and a growing list of other things.
Polisy is powerful. It boasts 1Ghz Quad Core AMD CPU, 4GB RAM, 32GB 3D NAND SSD, 3 x 1 GB Ethernet ports, and extensive I/O features. Its prowess is assured by a lean fine-tuned version of BSD Unix. Its security hardened by TPM boot. Its reliability, viability, and support is guaranteed by the same team that brought you the ISY.
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Polisy is preconfigured with our revolutionary Polyglot framework 
that allows integration of anything into ISY. These things show up just like any other device, can be included in scenes, and available in programs.
For instance, our Tesla Poly enables you to use battery range, state of charge, and your own preferencees – such as price of electricity – as conditions to automate when to charge/discharge. Or use an INSTEON / Z-Wave motion sensor on the ouside of your home as a trigger for your Tesla to honk the horn and flash the lights to thwart off intruders.
For your reading pleasure:
– Polisy Quick Start Page
– Polisy User Guide
Lest we forget, if you are a geek like us, you would want to know that we value your geekiness so much so that:
Let Polisy take your home to where no home has gone before!
It’s all about the weather, whether it’s on the evening news or it’s the first app you open in the morning to plan your day, your week or your vacation. But wouldn’t it be great for your home or business to do the same? To prepare itself for changing weather conditions and automatically adjust things for your comfort, energy/water savings, and even parties?
Well, now it can! Combine your ISY994 with a global weather network service like OpenWeatherMap and do just that.
Your ISY will have up-to-date information on the current weather conditions for your area along with the 5 day forecast.
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Control fans and ventilation based on current outside temperature.
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Use the UV Index to notify when sunscreen may be required.
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Retract your awning when high winds are detected.
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Adjust irrigation requirements based on rainfall and ETo.
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Raise or lower blinds based on current cloud cover.
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With either the Polyglot cloud service or your local Polyglot, select the OpenWeatherMap node server from the store and click the “Install” button. Assign the node server to an unused slot.
From the Polyglot Dashboard, select the newly installed OpenWeatherMap node server Details and then Configuration. The following custom configuration parameters need to be configured.
When the configuration is finished, the node server will start polling OpenWeatherMap.org for current and forecast data. You can also control how often the data is polled and update using the ‘shortPoll’ and ‘longPoll’ advanced configuration options. ShortPoll defines how often current condition data is retrieved and longPoll defines how often forecast data is retrieved.
Once configured, you can be an enviro-hero and save water by optimizing irrigation, protect your outdoor patio furniture and awnings from wind, send a reminder to take your umbrella when rain is forecast and, of course, buy a vat of sunscreen to protect your skin when temperatures and UV levels soar.
If you have additional ideas for how this node server could be used, comment below.
Rain or shine? Your house wants to know!
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ISY994 + ring, who?Â
ISY994 + ring = Awesome!
You\’ve been using ring for a while, and although it makes remote doorbelling rather easy, but you have been having a nagging feeling that something was missing. Well, of course! It was missing ISY994 till just a few moments ago. And, now, you can use your ring\’s ding and motion events in your ISY994 programs and ISY994 can control your ring\’s floodlights.Â
Of course, with everything ISY, the possibilities are limitless.
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The project will focus on the following:
The project will leverage the California Energy Commission’s (CEC) investment in the RATES (Retail Automated Trans active Energy System (RATES) pilot. The RATES pilot optimized connected devices based on real time prices received from the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) and enabled customers to interact with a smart speaker to gain insights into energy use. Modifications will be made to the RATES system to provide the requirements requested in this implementation (optimizing connected devices based on SCE residential TOU rates instead of real time prices).
This project was completed in 1Q 2022. Here’s the link to the final results.
