MIDAS Knowledge Base

How to automate heating control with Inspire Smart Thermostats

MIDAS can integrate with Inspire Smart Thermostats to automatically control the heating of your rooms based on when they're booked.

There are two options for setting up Inspire Smart Thermostats to control heating based on bookings in MIDAS...

The first option is available as standard in every MIDAS system. It involves manually exporting bookings and then uploading this data to your Smart thermostat.

The second option automatically reads data from your MIDAS system every 24 hours, so that any changes to bookings since the last check can be automatically captured and the heating schedule automatically adjusted accordingly. The second option requires our optional Data Feeds addon.

Automatic room temperature and heating control based on your MIDAS booking calendar

Here's how the two options work....

Option 1: Export Bookings

Step 1: Export bookings in iCal format from MIDAS

In MIDAS go to MIDAS Admin Options → Export → Bookings. Select the date range of bookings you wish to export, and ensure that the export format is set to "iCal Format". Click "Export" and you'll be prompted to download an .ical file of your bookings.

Step 2: Upload bookings into your Inspire Smart Thermostat

In your Inspire control panel, go to Setup → Calendar → Calendar Setup:

Select the "File" calendar option, click the "Choose File" button, select the .ical file you downloaded in the previous step, and then click the "Reload" button:

Upload an event calendar to Inspire Smart Thermostats

Step 3: Configure additional thermostat settings

The "Default Settings" are on the Calendar Setup screen allow you to configure how your thermostat will respond to the calendar events you've uploaded. See the "Additional Configuration" section below for more information.

Option 2: Sync Bookings

Step 1: Add the optional Data Feeds addon to your MIDAS system

Add the Data Feeds addon to your MIDAS system here.

Step 2: Create a Data Feed

Create a new iCal data feed.

Step 3: Copy the Feed URL into your Inspire Smart Thermostat

Once you've created your data feed, copy the Feed URL. Then, n your Inspire control panel, go to Setup → Calendar → Calendar Setup:

Select the "URL" calendar option, paste in the Feed URL from the previous step, and then click the "Reload" button:

Sync an event calendar with an Inspire Smart Thermostat

Step 4: Configure additional settings

Additional Configuration

The "Default Settings" are on the Calendar Setup screen controls how your thermostat will respond to calendar events.

Setting	Description
Check In	This is start time of your booking.
Check Out	This is end time of your booking.
Function	This is the function that the thermostat will change to.
Time	If the calendar doesn't include a start or end time, then you will need to specify one.
Override	If you want to ignore the time within the calendar and use the time specified in the setup page, then check this box.
Offset	This is the time before the check in, or check out, that you would like the thermostat to activate.
Negative	This will give you a negative offset. With this ticked, the offset will be the time AFTER the check in, or check out.

Example

Your calendar has an event at 10:00 on Monday until 17:00 on Friday.

Configure heating schedules from a MIDAS booking system

For Check In, the time is used from the calendar. The offset will be applied to this meaning that at 8:00 on Monday the thermostat will switch to Auto.

For Check Out, the override is flagged, so the time used will be 16:00 rather than 17:00. The offset will still be applied to this, meaning that at 13:00 the thermostat will switch to off.

Advanced Configuration

There may be times when you need different temperatures for events. For instance, a hall booked for a Spin class would require a different temperature to one booked for Bingo.

To handle this, you can add any (or all) of the following into the "Booking Notes" field in MIDAS for the booking:

InspireFunction='Man'
InspireTemperature='22.5'
InspireProfile='2'
InspireEndFunction='Auto'
InspireEndTemperature='15'
InspireEndProfile='3'

This would override the default check in (or out) function, and allow the temperature to be changed.

When the event starts, the above settings would switch the function to 'Man', activate Profile 2 and put the set point to 22.5 degrees. At the end of the event, the Thermostat would be set to 'Auto', profile 3 activated and the temperature lowered to 15 degrees.

The available functions are:

Off
Auto
Man
Boost

Note: If using the Data Feeds addon with your Inspire thermostat, when creating your Data Feed, ensure that "Item Description" is set to "Notes" if you wish to use any of the above advanced configuration options.

More Information

For more information on Smart Thermostats products, please visit the Inspire Home Automation website.