Vacation mode

Vacation mode is one central switch: set by hand, by a planned period, or from a connected system. Automations and scenes can react to it — lower the heating, run the blinds differently, sharpen notifications. What should happen while you are away is decided there; vacation mode provides the condition.

When switched on, the function creates the device Vacation mode. The app shows its state on the overview page, and the device page is where you switch it directly.

Period

Enter from when to when you are away — within this period vacation mode is switched on, and both days count in full. The dates can also be changed in the app under Settings; on the device page the current period is printed right on the Change period button.

Without a period, vacation mode is a plain hand switch: "we are leaving for the weekend right now" is one press, not a form.

Switching by hand

The switch can be flipped at any time — in the app, in the Config/UI, through automations and scenes. A manual switch holds until somebody switches again or the period begins or ends: whoever comes home early on the last day and switches off is not overruled by the period that evening — only its end is an event again, and from then on the calendar applies once more.

The State section on the settings page shows the three facts side by side: whether the mode is on or off, whether the period is currently running, and whether the switch was set by hand or follows the period.

Connected systems

Devices that have a holiday or vacation mode of their own — a Wiser gateway, for instance — follow the switch, in both directions: if somebody switches there, vacation mode follows. The synchronisation can be turned off.

Simulating presence

On request, vacation mode simulates presence in the evening: selected devices come on and go off again later, at slightly different times every day, as if somebody were there.

• Start and end — at sunset, at sunrise, or at a fixed time.

• Spread — by how many minutes the times shift each day. 30 minutes means every time wanders up to 15 minutes earlier or later, and no two devices switch in the same minute. 0 turns the spread off.

• Devices — what the simulation switches. Switches and lights are offered; lights visible from outside work best.

The simulation only runs while vacation mode is switched on. When it ends, the devices it switched on itself go off — and only those. Whoever wants the heating or anything else to follow uses an automation with vacation mode as its condition.

Log

On request the function writes a log message on every change — such as The period began or Switched off by hand. That makes it easy to trace afterwards when and why the switch moved.