Using the Google Nest integration and looking at the states table for my Nest thermostats, it seems like the update frequency is very variable and random. I have seen it update 2 minutes after the previous meeting and I’ve seen it update more than an hour after the previous reading.
I would have though that it would poll at some regular interval.
Is this “normal” behavior?
Is there a way to get a more regular polling frequency?
Note the same thing happens for my Remote Nest temperature sensors that I integrated using HACS/Nest Protect
Sometimes they provide a reading every few minutes and sometimes no reading for hours.
I do note that a new reading seems to only be provided when the temperature changes but since the temperature is recorded in tenths of a degree, it is hard to believe that the house temperature remains constant within a tenth of a degree for hours.
Possible latency from Google pub/sub would be my thought.
Given it’s a cloud push, I don’t think you can override or set the polling interval.
Ah, just saw this… Yeah, no clue how that works, but I’m guessing because of this:
Custom component for Home Assistant to interact with Nest Protect devices via an undocumented and unofficial Nest API.
Maybe Google is fiddling around on their backend? I’d open a discussion on the integration’s github.
True, but I have the same issue with the standard Google Nest integration with update frequency varying from 3min to 4+ hours.
I would have thought that the standard Google Nest integration would poll the API at a standard frequency…
The Nest integration is a cloud push, not a polling service. So, it’s basically whenever Google’s pub/sub decides to send data is when you will see it update.
So does that mean the temperature “reading” on the Thermostat could be 4-5 hours out of date?
If so, the HA thermostat widget becomes almost useless.
I can see if the time can vary by a few minutes but to have no update after 4 or 5 hours seems truly broken. While Google APIs have their faults this seems surprising?
The only (partial) explanation I can think of is if when the thermostat is not calling for heat/cooling, perhaps it only updates after the temperature has changed by at least a degree or two, ignoring smaller temperature fluctuations.
I don’t disagree with you. I’m not fully convinced that it is Google that’s causing it. But, tbh, I’m not 100% sure what exactly to look for in HA really. Maybe turn on debug logging for the Nest integration and the custom one you’re using as well? That’s about the only thing I can think of.
This is an efficiency win, and intentional. Instead of constantly polling it only sends updates when necessary.
My impression from the discussion on github is that this is not what you are expecting as you have different goals.
(Just replying here to close the loop on the discussion so folks reading this understand why it works this way, and that there isn’t a bug here)
I need to do a little more testing, especially in the summer months where the house temperature changes a lot more than the winter since the heating is off and we don’t have central AC. I want to make sure that it truly does capture all the changes so that the long time between updates is correct.
You may want to consider getting additional temp sensors independent of nest or you want super high accuracy.
This is a zigbee temp sensor nearest the woodburner :
…and this is the Nest which is placed furthest from the woodburner :
You can see an obvious difference but this is because the Nest only reports on changes of 0.5c (in my case) and the Zigbee sensor does every 0.1c
Actually, at least in my case, it seems to report whenever the ‘rounded’ temperature changes – i.e., when the fractional part of the temperature crosses ‘0.5’ though the time between updates can vary from less than a minute to 18 hours. There also seeems to be some occasional oscillation around the ‘0.5’ rounding point, presumably as the temperature naturally varies above and below that number.
The following historgram shows how transtions cluster around the mid-fractional igits (0.4, 0.5, 0.6) as tabulated for the past month across 3 separate Nest sensors.
for i in {1..9}; do echo -ne "$i:\t"; sqlite3 -header /homeassistant/home-assistant_v2.db "SELECT state_id, metadata_id, state, DATETIME(last_updated_ts, 'unixepoch', 'localtime') FROM states WHERE metadata_id=104 or metadata_id=106 or metadata_id=108" | grep "\.$i" | wc -l; done
1: 95
2: 178
3: 278
4: 865
5: 992
6: 695
7: 426
8: 260
9: 184
The following graph shows the Nest temperature sensor plotted against a cheap Accuweather 433MHz sensor about 10 feet away. Clearly the pattern is similar though much less granular for the Nest vs. the Accuweather sensor. Note the fluctuations around the mid-fractional digit rounding point. The difference in absolute temperatures probably more reflects an absolute callibration error in one or both sensors than temperature differences in the room.
The real test will come over the next few months when heating season ends and there is no AC in hall, so the temperature will vary widely between day and night. I will keep you all updated…
