Show HN: PorchWeather – a free site that pings you when it's nice outside

1 pointsposted 12 hours ago
by gregable
(porchweather.com)

4 Comments

mcasson

8 hours ago

I have struggled with this same "notification" issue. Even email at scale isn't a free solution, but the price for SMS gets prohibitive really quick.

I do think this is an interesting concept. Would API integration endpoints that users could configure directly to poll your service with their home automation assistants get past the need to be notified? If they could poll at their own pace, the could alleviate the uncontrolled cost.

gregable

8 hours ago

I think so, but I've not prioritized that so far as I think it's going to be a bit of a niche group of people that would be able to set something like that up.

Furthermore, that group may also just pull weather data directly instead, so may not need something like this.

Originally, this started as a Home Assistant automation for myself. I realized it doesn't actually require any sensors, just a location, so I decided to build something anyone could use.

gregable

12 hours ago

Another interesting element is AQI data. Right now, I'm pulling hourly data from the major AirNow stations in the US. Getting more detailed data would be interesting, especially outside the US. PurpleAir is one data source I'm looking into, and I'd also be interested in allowing folks to push data from their own weather/air quality stations if they have one.

Originally I built this for myself only as a Home Assistant automation and had been using it for years.