The view from April, Daylight savings time adjustment for your RTC

The boiler has worked flawless all winter, I am happy with the software and hardware but with all things mechanical there is room for improvement. I have just started my 7th ton of pellets. And I really don’t want to get into my 8th and don’t think I will have to, especially if I institute some energy conservation in the software. This is the time of year that I would normally burn what my grandmother called a “trash fire”. In her case it was some cardboard boxes from the trash and maybe an odd shaped piece of wood or two. Just enough for 3-4 hours in the evening, letting it burn out overnight since the days get up to 40°F or 50°F there’s no need for more fire than that. Later in the month most of the nights will be above freezing. But I still want to light the boiler in the evening mostly for the hot water and then turn it off at 2-3 am, so I wrote that into the software and it has gotten the consumption down to 1-2 bags per day. I also added a function in the software to change the real time clock for Daylight savings time and back automatically. It’s not fully tested but I think it will work OK.

void DaylightSavingsSchedule(){//start function
if (Year ==2013 && Month ==11 && Day ==2 && hour ==2&&DaylightTest ==0)//fall back an hour
FallBack();
if (Year ==2013 && Month ==11 && Day ==4 && hour ==2&&DaylightTest ==1)//reset flag
DaylightTest =0;
if (Year ==2014 && Month ==3 && Day ==9 && hour ==2&&DaylightTest ==0)//spring forward an hour
SpringForward();
if (Year ==2014 && Month ==3 && Day ==10 && hour ==2&&DaylightTest ==1)//reset flag
DaylightTest =0;
if (Year ==2014 && Month ==11 && Day ==2 && hour ==2&&DaylightTest ==0)//fall back an hour
FallBack();
if (Year ==2014 && Month ==11 && Day ==3 &&DaylightTest ==1)//reset flag
DaylightTest =0;
if (Year ==2015 && Month ==3 && Day ==8 && hour ==2&&DaylightTest ==0)//spring forward an hour
SpringForward();
if (Year ==2015 && Month ==3 && Day ==9 && hour ==2&&DaylightTest ==1)//reset flag
DaylightTest =0;
if (Year ==2015 && Month ==11 && Day ==1 && hour ==2&&DaylightTest ==0)//fall back an hour
FallBack();
if (Year ==2015 && Month ==11 && Day ==2 &&DaylightTest ==1)//reset flag
DaylightTest =0;
if (Year ==2016 && Month ==3 && Day ==13 && hour ==2&&DaylightTest ==0)//spring forward an hour
SpringForward();
if (Year ==2016 && Month ==3 && Day ==14 && hour ==2&&DaylightTest ==1)//reset flag
DaylightTest =0;
if (Year ==2016 && Month ==11 && Day ==6 && hour ==2&&DaylightTest ==0)//fall back an hour
FallBack();
if (Year ==2016 && Month ==11 && Day ==7 &&DaylightTest ==1)//reset flag
DaylightTest =0;
}//end function

void SpringForward(){//start function
DateTime now = RTC.now(); //get the data from the RTC
now =now.unixtime()+3600; //subtracts an hour from the time
RTC.adjust(DateTime(now.unixtime())); //resets the time to an hour earlier
DaylightTest =1; //flag variable so it won’t go back in time continously
}//end function

void FallBack(){//start function
DateTime now = RTC.now(); //get the data from the RTC
now =now.unixtime()-3600; //subtracts an hour from the time
RTC.adjust(DateTime(now.unixtime())); //resets the time to an hour earlier
DaylightTest =1; //flag variable so it won’t go back in time continously
}//end function