How to set up a heating and cooling schedule in Control4

One of the most common things our customers ask after we’ve installed a Control4 system is, “Can it just sort the heating and cooling out for me so I’m not constantly fiddling with it?” The answer is yes — that’s exactly what climate scheduling is for. Set it once, set it properly, and your home quietly looks after itself: warm when you wake up, cool by the time you pull into the driveway, and not wasting a cent heating an empty house all day.

In this guide we’ll walk you through setting up a heating and cooling schedule on OS 3.4 or newer, the difference between Home and Away behaviour, how to programme a pre-cool before you get home, and a few Melbourne-specific tips we’ve picked up from years of doing this locally.

Before you start

A scheduled thermostat in Control4 only works if your heating and cooling gear is actually integrated — whether that’s a ducted reverse-cycle system, split systems, or hydronic heating talking to the controller. If your system was installed by our team, this is already done. If you’re not sure, give the climate tile a tap on your T3 or T4 touchscreen (or the Control4 app) — if you can see set points and mode controls, you’re good to go.

Understanding set points

A set point is simply the temperature you want the room (or zone) to hold. In Control4 you’ll usually set two: a heating set point (the system warms the space if it drops below this) and a cooling set point (it cools if the space climbs above this). The gap in between is your comfortable “do nothing” zone — and a sensible gap saves you a surprising amount on the power bill.

For most Melbourne homes we recommend something like 20–21°C for heating and 24–25°C for cooling when you’re home. Every degree you push past that costs roughly 5–10% more energy, so resist the urge to set it to 26°C in winter.

How to set up a heating and cooling schedule

Here’s the process on the Control4 app or a T3/T4 touchscreen running OS 3.4+.

1. Open the Comfort or Climate tile from your home screen and select the thermostat or zone you want to programme.
2. Tap the Schedule tab (it sits alongside the main temperature controls).
3. Choose the day or group of days you’re setting up. Most people start with “Weekdays” and “Weekend” rather than doing all seven individually.
4. Add a set point event for each part of the day — typically Wake, Leave (Away), Return (Home) and Sleep. For each one, set the time and the heating and cooling temperatures.
5. Set your Wake event a little before your alarm goes off so the house is comfortable when your feet hit the floor.
6. Set Leave to ease off once everyone’s out — wider set points like 17°C heat / 27°C cool mean the system barely runs.
7. Set Return 30–45 minutes before you actually walk in, so the place is already comfortable (more on pre-cooling below).
8. Set Sleep to your overnight preference — a touch cooler for heating is better for sleep and the wallet.
9. Save the schedule and repeat for any other zones or for the weekend group.

Home vs Away

The smartest schedules don’t just run on the clock — they react to whether anyone’s actually home. Control4 can use a Home and Away state, and you can tie your climate set points to it.

When the system is in Away mode, it relaxes the set points so it’s not working hard for an empty house. When it flips to Home, it brings the temperature back to your comfortable range. We typically set this up so that:

• Your phone’s geofence or the alarm system arming triggers Away.
• Disarming the alarm, or your phone arriving back in the geofence, triggers Home.

This is where Control4 earns its keep — instead of a dumb timer that runs whether you’re there or not, the house adapts to your actual movements. If your weekend plans change and you head out, the climate eases off automatically. If you’re working from home on a Tuesday, it stays comfortable. We set most of this logic up during your install, but if you’d like us to add or fine-tune Home/Away triggers, just get in touch via our contact page.

Pre-cooling before you get home

This is the feature everyone loves once they’ve felt it work. On a 38°C Melbourne afternoon, the last thing you want is to walk into a sweltering house and wait an hour for it to cool down. With a Return event in your schedule — or a geofence trigger — Control4 starts cooling before you arrive.

Here’s how we usually approach it:

• Clock-based: set a Return event for, say, 5:15pm if you’re usually home by 6. The system has 45 minutes to bring things down to your comfortable 24°C.
• Geofence-based: when your phone crosses into the geofence radius (we set this a few kilometres out), the system kicks the cooling on so it’s pleasant by the time you’re through the door.

The same logic works in reverse for winter — a warm house waiting for you instead of a cold one. The trick with pre-cooling is giving the system enough lead time. A split system in one room cools fast; a whole-of-house ducted system on a stinking-hot day needs more of a head start. We can help you dial in the right timing for your specific gear.

Melbourne climate tips

Melbourne’s “four seasons in one day” reputation is real, and a set-and-forget schedule from Brisbane won’t cut it here. A few things we’ve learned doing this locally:

• Use the cool change. On hot days the southerly buster usually rolls in late afternoon or evening. There’s no sense running the aircon flat out at 9pm when the outside air has dropped to 18°C — programme your evening cooling set point a little higher so the system backs off as it cools down outside.
• Mind the morning swing. Spring and autumn mornings can start at 8°C and hit 28°C by afternoon. A schedule that heats in the morning and cools in the afternoon, with a generous dead band in between, keeps you comfortable without short-cycling.
• Watch the humidity, not just the temperature. Our muggy days feel hotter than the number suggests. If your system supports a dry/dehumidify mode, it’s worth using on those sticky February afternoons.
• Don’t overcool overnight. Melbourne nights cool off nicely most of the year. Letting the house coast a degree or two warmer overnight in summer saves energy and you’ll barely notice.

If you want to pair your climate schedule with automated blinds — closing them on the west-facing windows during a hot afternoon makes a genuine difference to how hard the aircon has to work — have a read of our guide on automating blinds and shades, and our lighting scenes article for tying it all into your daily routines.

A note on the wiring side

If your heating or cooling system isn’t yet integrated with Control4 — or you’re adding new ducted gear, a thermostat or hardwired zone control — that’s licensed work. Any mains wiring, switchboard changes or fixed circuits must be done by a licensed electrician under AS/NZS 3000, and our team handles all of that as part of the install. You just enjoy the comfortable house.

And that’s the lot. Once your schedule is dialled in, you’ll mostly forget it’s there — which is exactly the point. If you’d like a hand setting up Home/Away triggers, geofencing or pre-cooling for your specific system, give us a yell. We’re always happy to jump on and get it humming for your routine.

Cheers,
Adam and the DUKE team