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Using iCal Feeds for Inspire Calendar Thermostats

3 min read

You can configure an iCal feed from MyHallWizard to Inspire’s Calendar Thermostats, automatically switching on your heating in advance of any booking and switching it off again at the end. In addition, you can override your default heating settings if you need to for certain bookings.

Setting up an iCal feed to work with Inspire calendar thermostats #

If you have multiple heating zones in your venue, you need separate thermostats in each zone, each with a separate calendar in Inpire’s software. Each calendar needs a separate iCal feed to be set up in MyHallWizard for the rooms in that heating zone.

Step 1 – configure the iCal feed in MyHallWizard #

  1. Click on Settings in the navigation bar then click on Integrations.

2. In the Integrations screen, click on the iCal card.

of the iCal feeds you have set up. To set up a new feed, click the New Feed button.

4. Complete the New iCal Feed form as follows:

  • Name – choose a name for your feed
  • Incude bookings up to 0 days in the past
  • Include bookings up to 7 days in the future
  • Show Private Details
  • Confirmed bookings only
  • Show Administration Notes in the DESCRIPTION field
  • If you have a single thermostat covering the entire building, you do not need to check any of the rooms. However, if you are setting up multiple feeds because you have different heating zones, tick which rooms which apply to this particular zone.

5. Once you are happy with the setup of the feed, click Save. The next screen summarises how the feed is being set up and tells you the URL of the feed. You need to copy this, as you will need to input the URL into Inspire.

Important: The iCal feed includes the internal Administration Notes . Do not give the URL of this iCal feed to other people, as you will expose your own confidential notes.

Step 2 – Subscribe to the iCal feed in Inspire Home Automation #

Please see https://www.inspirehomeautomation.co.uk/client/help.php?help_page=calendar for detailed instructions on setting up the calendar in Inspire.

  1. Log into Inspire Home Automation.
  2. Click on Setup then on Calendar
  3. On the right of the screen is the Calendar Setup option. Click this.
  4. In the Calendar field, click URL, then in the URL field paste the URL you copied from the feed when setting it up in MyHallWizard

5. Change any of the settings as appropriate. In particular, you may wish to set up the Check In Offset field to switch the heating on before the start of the event. In the following example, we have set the heating to come on 30 minutes before each booking.

6. Finally remember to click Save.

That’s it! Your MyHallWizard bookings will now load into Inspire Home Automation’s calendar, and your heating is automatically controlled. Saving your time, money, and the constant worry of whether you remembered to switch the heating on.

Overriding default settings #

If you wish to override the default settings for a specific booking, you can add any or all of the following into the Administration Notes field of a 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