@storageanarchy, long time Hubitat user here, but first-time caller to the ES show.....
First of all, your Ecobee Suite must be the single most robust and sophisticated user app available in the entire Hubitat eco-system. Tip o' of the cap, dude. Very impressive work.
You mind if I ask two noob questions?
I have a very large environment spread across 5 hubs using Hubconnect. One hub (we'll call it the "Server") acts as the master, receiving device events from each of the other hubs for dashboarding and global automations. As a general rule, I try to keep custom code "cordoned off" on one of the other 4 hubs for performance reasons and to make the occasional support call to Hubitat support easier for everybody.. But of course I quickly realized that ES will need access to many devices, e.g., temperature sensors, smart vents, door and window contact sensors, personal weather station, presence sensors, etc. etc. Which leads me to the following chicken-and-egg architectural question. Better for me to move the ES codebase to the Server hub? Or better for me to Hubconnect all those devices to the custom hub where ES currently lives? I'm leaning toward the former (cuz it's easier and I suppose I'm lazy), but if there's performance risk, then maybe I should do the latter. Any experienced opinions out there?
I'm a relatively new user of Keen smart vents. They work great for me using Keenect Lite, the community app. Should I think about ES as essentially replacing or augmenting Keenect Lite?
I had a similar configuration (5 hubs), and went through the same situation as you. In the end, the best answer for me was to put ES on the master, and HubConnect any devices you need to use for rules and Helpers to the master. I you could in theory use any of your hubs, but for me having it on my master worked best.
If you pair your Keens to Hubitat, then yes, Smart Vents helper kinda replaces Keen’s automation.
I have Smart circulation to be active during day mode only. When the Hubitat mode changes, the fan run time does not go back down. So lets the last fan run time before mode changing to evening was 55 minutes, the fan run time will remain at 55 mins for the rest of evening and night. Is there way I can set the fan run time to one value after day mode?
Well hello! It's been a little while since we've corresponded (probably because most of my Ecobee Suite usage/questions deal with heating). To jog your memory, I've been using the Smart Vents & Switches Helper to heat my sunroom by linking a gas stove and temp sensor to my Ecobee (bonus point: if the stove is "accidentally" turned on by a rebellious teenager, the helper app turns it back off within minutes...)
Since then, I've made the switch from SmartThings to Hubitat. I don't mind telling you, that the decision was made easier in no small part knowing I wouldn't have to give up ES.
Now that we're heading back into "cooler" months here in WI, I'm reminded of something I was attempting to accomplish in darker coughsmartthingscough times.
I supplement my basement heating with convection wall heaters as a MUCH cheaper (and safer) alternative to the electric baseboards the previous owner installed. I have them all plugged into smart outlets. I would like those outlets to turn on and off based on whether or not the Ecobee is in Heat mode. I'm not concerned with temperature set points, as the Envi heaters are self regulating in that regard.
I was hoping the mode/switches/program helper would do it, but modes are not available as a trigger event.
I'm also beginning to suspect I might be able to accomplish this with HE's rule machine (where I absolutely could not with ST's rudimentary automation capabilities), but haven't gotten that figure out yet either.
Hello, new user here. It seems like you've got a great app here, although alas my system doesn't allow me to take much advantage of the bells and whistles (forced hot water baseboard heat is the only thing going in this house).
Is it possible to disable the fan control function entirely, at least for the heating system? There is no fan for my heat because it's forced hot water. So the control for the fan is just annoying and distracting. (Honestly, I don't know why ecobee doesn't let me disable it either, but I have yet to see any such setting.)
Rule Machine is the best answer for that use case. Unfortunately, I don't have my Hubitat environment set up just yet (I've been moving), but it should be pretty easy to create a rule that triggers when the thermostat's mode changes, and then if it changes to Heat, you turn on the switches, if it changes to Cool you turn off the switches.
Trust me, it is well worth your time to learn Rule Machine - it truly gives you a lot more control over your environment (and it is far simpler to use than WebCoRE).
He is a copy of a Rule I use to change my Thermostat based on Mode. I am using this Suite. Came over from ST where I had it setup in webcore, it worked well there as well.
Interestingly, I also decided to contact ecobee, because a setting for the fan shows up in the app as well. After exchanging some pictures of that screen and my wiring, the support person said it seemed to be a bug in the app, because it doesn’t show up on the thermostat itself, which is true, I just checked.
But is it possible that it might be related to why it shows up in Hubitat as well? If so, it’s not just their app, but I’m not sure how to broach the subject with their support since it’s not an official integration.
See my app on left and the thermostat on the right:
The display of fan mode is handled by the Hubitat "thermostat" tile in the dashboard, and that tile does not seem to have an option NOT to display it. I am pretty sure that the thermostat itself knows that there is no fan, but the Ecobee API still provides a fan mode status (which is apparently always "off").
If you are asking whether I can remove it, nope - there's nothing I can do to remove/edit/change the dashboard tiles. Those tiles pick up and display specific attributes as defined by the author (Hubitat).
Blah, I can understand, but how annoying. It pops up the menu if I accidentally tap it and it lets the fan settings be changed and updates the tile accordingly. Obviously it has no affect on what the actual system is doing, but it seems so dumb it is there.
That usually means that the device didn't initialize correctly when it was installed. Try opening and saving the Thermostat Device, and/or ES Manager - it should re-read the capabilities from the thermostat.
Also, look at the device handler and see what the value of "heatStages" is...
Howdy! I have an interesting question/use case. But before I get to that, I wanted to give a huge thanks to @storageanarchy for all of your work. Many many thanks!
I'm running Ecobee Suite Manager 1.8.47 on my HE. Currently, I use the Contacts & Switches helper to turn off my HVAC whenever a window is open in my house. It works great. I also use the Smart Mode, Programs & Setpoints helper to switch between heat/auto/cool HVAC modes based on the outside temperature. The issue I'm running into is that it'll be hot during the day (HVAC switches to COOL), then the evening brings cooler weather and we open up the windows to let in the cooler outside air. Opening the windows turns off the HVAC, as it should with the contacts helper app. Meanwhile, the temperature outside will fall below the setpoint to switch the HVAC to HEAT, but since the HVAC is set to OFF because of the contacts helper app, when I close all of the windows, the HVAC turns back on but is still set to COOL. Ideally, I'd close all the windows and the smart mode helper app would then kick in to realize the temperature outside has dropped below the setpoint and switch to HEAT, instead of the contacts helper app resuming the previous mode before the windows were open.
I think I could potentially write a WebCoRE script for this, but it will likely get pretty complicated pretty quick. Anyone have any ideas how I could solve this issue using the Ecobee Suite?
First of all, HUGE thanks for such a great Ecobee suite! Is there a way to modify comfort setting parameters (setpoints & time) with this suite and WebCore? My dilemma is that I'm on a time of use plan with my utility provider, and during various months of a year I want different comfort settings based on electrical cost. WebCore has good time scheduling rules, but I didn't see anywhere in the Suite docs that I can program comfort setting parameters.
You can use webcore, or RM, to set your thermostat to any comfort setting you create. So you could create multiple settings and have HE set which ever one you want to use at any time. The Rule below changes the comfort setting based on mode, but it could be done with time or date.
I used to use webcore for this when on ST but switched my simpler automations to RM when I came over. Its basically the same command in webcore.
