Looking for help on what is probably something very simple for those smarter than I.
I have a contact sensor that I'd like to set the mode on my Ecobee thermostat. To work as follows.
Contact closes
Wait 1 minute
Set Ecobee to auto
Contact opens
Wait 10 minutes
Set Ecobee to off
I've set up a rule that does exactly this. The problem in practice is that if you're going in and out of the room within the 10 minutes you could come back and be sitting in a room where the AC is set to off, as correctly so the hub waited 10 minutes then set the thermostat to off.
For now I've just set the closed rule delay at 1:15 and open 1:00 so that closed would take longer and set to auto.
Ideally I don't want the compressor going on and off a bunch of times but also want the AC going for a long time when there's no occupants (door open).
I had a rule like this to turn the thermostat on/off if a window is open. It occurred to me that I've had incorrect contact sensor states in the past with my zigbee or zwave contacts -- so I converted my "is a window open" rule to a triggered rule. This way, it only runs if a contact changes state. If a contact sensor state is incorrect, the rule won't run but I can still turn the thermostat on/off manually (e.g. through the Ecobee app).
The potential failure is that all windows are closed, but a sensor state doesn't update and remains open, so the thermostat remains off. My fear was that I would be 1000 miles away, this failure could orruc, and wouldn't be able to manually turn the furnace on because a rule would just turn it right back off. We get random cold snaps, so it isn't entirely implausible.
