I've automated one of my natural gas fireplaces but it was controlled by a simple 2 wire switch.
I'd like to automate our other fireplace now but it's a new fireplace with more to it. It has an RF remote where you set the room temperature and it regulates the flame size and whether the fireplace is on or not based on the set temperature.
Ideally what I would like to do is just leave the remote set at a certain temperature we find comfortable but then be able to turn the fireplace on or off through hubitat.
Has anyone automated a fireplace like this and how did you do it?
If I can't automate it by interrutping one of the low voltage wires to turn the fireplace on/off, I could resort to a Bond hub to control it via RF but would like to avoid that if possible.
IRRC, Bond supports these types of devices w/their Bond Bridge.
There is a built-in integration for the Bond Bridge in HE that was recently released, also a community integration (but the developer has left HE community).
As w/their fan control, you teach the Bond Bridge the RF controller that the fireplace uses, and then you can tell HE to have the Bond Bridge to send commands to the fireplace.
One issue is you have to put the original fireplace remote away at that point, as Hubitat won't know if you make changes to fireplace settings w/the original remote. We use Picos (button device) to control all our fans via Bond Bridge/Hubitat, and keep the original remotes in a drawer "just in case."
One thing to watch out for is a "keep alive" dependency on the fireplace's official remote -- your fireplace may or may not have that feature... Basically, it's a safety feature that'll kill the flame within a short period of time if the unit is somehow commanded outside of its official remote.
My fireplace has it, so I can't use Bond or anything else for "outside" control (smart or otherwise). I'm guessing there's some way to get around it, but I'm not that interested in taking it all apart and trying to jerry-rig this type of thing.
Interesting, never had one of these fireplaces so wasn't aware of that type of feature. Makes sense that you wouldn't want a random RF remote (yours or your neighbors) to accidentally turn on the fireplace.
Good point! There is definitely a safety feedback loop built in where if the remote and the fireplace aren't communicating two ways, the fireplace will shut off. I think that defintiely rules out the bond hub as a plan B. So now I'm left with just plan A to somehow kill power to the fireplace and restore power allowing for the remote to communicate directly with the fireplace to control the temp, flame height, etc.
