Smart Thermostats

[RedCal]

Well... When we did HVAC automation it was either Crestron, but that's a full blown automation system and not a DIY product, Or Lutron as it was tied to lighting and shades, and didn't need "full" automation but again not a product that would typically be sold retail

I've been out of that side of the biz for a while, but look at Honeywell ( There is version that is the same as Lutron one, or used to be ) but you may have to get it from a "Pro" The Lutron one was called the TouchPro. A stop to a local HVAC supply shop (not a home depot) might help you as they should know the fine details you are looking for

 

[JSolo]

@boosted1g

Got around to testing the contact sensor. Tested it inside the garage on the near side of the door. Took about 5-6 seconds to recognize state changes but it worked. I'm going to go in there in the day time to see where I can cable tie the sensor and magnet to. I guess that 60' range is actually accurate.

@RedCal I'll play around some more with the existing setup to see how well it works. Here's the data after 5 hours (blue and orange). Furnace run time is pretty good too, about twice an hour for 7-8 min each.

 

[JSolo]

Finally got around to installing the door sensor. Stole a youtube idea of using a door hinge. Mounted near the top of the door so it responds even with minimal door opening.

Door Closed


I will probably replace the sensor cable tie with some other means of holding it down.

The pellet on the bottom is mostly sandwiched between the strap and door panel. That cable tie is there just for security.

Door open about 1'


This is enough to trigger the open state.

 

[Stephen Brubaker]

I have an old Honeywell programable thermostat. It has worked well. You can set 4 different time periods for the day. Monday thru Friday is one temp period while you can set Saturday and Sunday separately. I can't complain about my cost of gas. I am on the budget plan and have been paying about $50 a month for the last five years. I have a gas furnace, stove, and water heater. I also live in a small three bedroom ranch with basement.

 

[bfglitch]

I removed my Nest and installed a Honeywell T6 pro (Z-Wave version). Works perfectly with my Home Assistant automation setup. The main reason why I switched out is because pretty much all of the features the Nest had (and were adding to newer thermostats), I could replicate with Home Assistant and automation. Also the whole Google shutting down the Works With Nest API thing really bothered me.

 

[JSolo]

That's my next step here, probably in a month or so when I get done with some projects. Install HA to the proxmox box and eliminate ecobee cloud as much as possible.

One thing I'd like to implement is when the state changes from closed to open, for the google smart speaker to announce "garage door open", say 3x with a few sec pause in between, then repeat every 5 min until it's closed. Possibly implement some logic so the user can tell google speaker to stop.

Possible with HA?

 

[bfglitch]

That's my next step here, probably in a month or so when I get done with some projects. Install HA to the proxmox box and eliminate ecobee cloud as much as possible.

One thing I'd like to implement is when the state changes from closed to open, for the google smart speaker to announce "garage door open", say 3x with a few sec pause in between, then repeat every 5 min until it's closed. Possibly implement some logic so the user can tell google speaker to stop.

Possible with HA?

Most definitely is, as long as all your sensors will work with HA. Pretty much any Z-wave and Zigbee (provided you have a USB controller for it) as well as lots of wifi devices work with HA. Check out Integrations to check. I actually have an old "dumb" washer/dryer. The washer has no way of notifying me that it's done washing clothes. So I added a Zooz heavy duty z-wave power plug that also monitors power use, and a door/window sensor to the lid to know when the washer lid is open/closed. When the power use goes from 0 to anything over 0, it waits until it returns to 0 (timer stops) and it sends a notification to my phone, and all Google Home devices to tell me that the washer machine is done. It then waits and checks on the door/window sensor to see if it goes from closed to open. If it doesn't, it will remind me in 15 minutes over and over until I open the washer lid. I use Node-Red to create most of my automations, although the new automation system within HA has got LOADS better since I started using Node-Red.

 

[JSolo]

The ecobee door/window sensor uses the ecobee platform to update the cloud to its status. I have some links saved here to configure HA to use ecobee api.

It'll be nice to finally get rid of IFTTT.

If all goes well I may add more sensors later and may actually invest in a zwave dongle & sensors.

 

[boosted1g]

That's my next step here, probably in a month or so when I get done with some projects. Install HA to the proxmox box and eliminate ecobee cloud as much as possible.

One thing I'd like to implement is when the state changes from closed to open, for the google smart speaker to announce "garage door open", say 3x with a few sec pause in between, then repeat every 5 min until it's closed. Possibly implement some logic so the user can tell google speaker to stop.

Possible with HA?

With the ecobee and the google home device integrated into home assistant, doing that is a very simple automation
Trigger = the ecobee sensor state change from CLOSED to OPEN, action = tts.google_say, select the google home device, and type what you want it to say.

I use the home assistant cloud (aka haas cloud) subscription service. However you can connect a google home to HA without it:

Google Assistant

Setup for Google Assistant integration

www.home-assistant.io