Yes. You're right on that.
Ditto.
I have. Several brand-new Generac whole-house generators failed during Hurricane Ida.
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So, if we are looking into switching away from Ecobee, what's everyone's thermostat of choice for Hubitat now?
I don't have much need to integrate my thermostat with hubitat - the ecobee largely just takes care of itself the way I use it. I haven't had a need to force modes/status from hubitat. But where I am in Texas, there are only like 2 weeks I can open the window, so there isn't much "turning off" the air/heat.
If I had to, though, I'm not sure what I would go to. Maybe back to GoControl.
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I'm with you on that. I've long had a Honeywell TCC stat, and I've never come up with any good reason to integrate it into my larger home automation.
I programmed it many moons ago with a very typical HVAC schedule, and we just let that run... If we want to bump up/down the scheduled temp for some reason, we just get up and do it (or use the Honeywell app). I don't want to stress out my HVAC equipment with a bunch of willy-nilly on-off-on-off-on-off moves based on motion, presence, etc.
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Just for the sake of presenting an alternative, my thermostat is completely dependent on Hubitat modes. I find it very convenient.
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Any “dumb” smart thermostat that works with z-wave or zigbee can work with hubitat if you use hubitat to set thermostat setpoints and modes. I have centralite Pearl thermostats because they’re zigbee and pretty inexpensive.
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I am an in-betweener. I very rarely use Hubitat to make scheduled changes to the thermostat. I don't do regular setbacks or scheduling or anything like that. I also do like having all my smart devices on one dashboard, in one central location. It saves having to use multiple apps. So there is that benefit to integration too.
The only exception I make to thermostat scheduling is that I work what you might consider a 2nd shift, and the thermostat sets back after everyone leaves early in the morning. So in the winter I occasionally schedule the heat to come back up through Hubitat before I wake (and unrelated, my table light dims up with this same rule). If my thermostat had 6 instead of 4 setback periods per day, I wouldn't need to do this one thing. But it is nice to have that option.
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I use HomeAssistant for real-time monitoring of the Heating/Cooling/Idle state combined with some motorized dampers to send air where I want it. The main benefit there is I send almost no air to the basement which is generally unoccupied. I could find other ways to make this work if needed.
My other automation would be trickier to duplicate. I use the Ecobee's comfort settings and remote sensors to ignore my unoccupied areas (basement) on a day to day basis. But I do have some other comfort settings that I use when we have company in the basement bedroom. Ecobee has no way to select these comfort settings (not from the thermostat or the app) unless I build a new schedule for the day. However, the Universal Ecobee Suite let's me select the right program and hold it as long as I want.
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Re: Choice of other Tstats: We've switched over to mini-splits as the primary HVAC for our buildings, so we're forced to use the control systems built into them. But for the backup boiler in one of those buildings and the garage heater in another, I've been impressed by GoControl (z-wave). There's nothing fancy about them, but they "just work", leaving all the automation to the controller (e.g., Hubitat).
I wonder if you can't make the mini-splits smart...
Maybe.
Some minisplit accept normal thermostat wires, but most don't. In that case you could use a Zwave thermostat.
The other option is usually a cloud connected dongle that makes them smart. There are a couple community based drivers for a couple brands on here. Midea Mini Split Wifi Support and [RELEASE] Unified Thermostat Driver - MELCloud, MELView, Kumo Cloud and more if you want as a couple examples. There might be others, but these were the first two that popped into my head, so forgive me if I forgot one.
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I would think the big names like Mitsubishi, Daikin, etc. would support BACNET, which could be translated to MQTT with something like this...
https://store.chipkin.com/products/protocol-conversions/mqtt-gateways
I once used something like this to integrate an older JCI system using N2 into a BACNet system and it seemed fairly straightforward.
Not practical for a residential application, but maybe useful in light commercial spaces.
Some mini-split systems have accessories that allow for a connection to a standard thermostat. My Fujitsu mini-splits do, that’s what I have connected to the Pearl thermostats I mentioned above.
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In response to @dylan.c and @marktheknife: I am unaware of any way to connect a smart thermostat to our Daikin mini-splits. It might exist, but not to my knowledge. I use a driver that appears to be from @bendews to control those units using Hubitat, but I don't see that individual's name pop up as I type it here. @eriktack has also created one that I intend to try this weekend.
For our Mitsubishi mini-split in another property, I've been experimenting with a driver from @sburke781 . It shows great promise, but Simon is still trying to figure some things out with upper and lower temp limits and the way these are set and interpreted between the local device and Mitsubishi's Kumo Cloud service. Manufacturers don't make that easy, and the C to F conversion necessities don't help. Simon is working on local control for those units, and when that's set I hope to use it. At some point that will be sorted out and work well, I feel sure. I've no idea as to whether I can connect an external Tstat to that unit.
Frankly, I don't see a big need for an external Tstat on these units, as I think about it. Temp monitoring is done by the unit itself and can be replaced or augmented by external sensors read by Hubitat. Control functions are also built into these units and just need "instruction" from a "brain", e.g., Hubitat. So, I don't really see the need for the external Tstat for Hubitat owners that have mini-splits.
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A third-party thermostat was certainly a foreign concept for me, even growing up in the 80's we had a ducted system that detected the temperature of the air coming back through the return upstairs and kept heating / cooling until it maintained the set point. The same was true for the split-system we had as well, you set the temperature and get on with enjoying the cooler temperature than outside.
I can kind of get the idea of separating these into components that heat or cool and then components that focus on the smarts (the thermostat). Whatever works.... For those using the Mitz systems like me, I feel like it is more about control and rules that augment the smarts already built-in.
One day I'll drag myself away from my distractions and finish the local control 
Simon
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Most mini-split manufacturers, including Daikin, make interface modules to connect a mini-split to a conventional thermostat.
Here's the interface module for Daikin mini-splits
https://daikinac.com/content/commercial/accessories-and-controllers/dkn-plus-interface/
As @marktheknife indicated, many other manufacturers (Fujitsu, Mitsubishi etc) make similar interfaces for their mini-splits. And permit the control of a mini-split using a zigbee, z-wave, or WiFi thermostat.
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Ben Dews wrote the user-contributed Somfy myLink driver (and others) for SmartThings, ported to Hubitat by community members here. He has never, to my knowledge, been on this forum or used the Hubitat platform.
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In addition to what @672southmain wrote, the driver i "created" is actually the bendews smartthings driver ported to hubitat by @johnwick. My contribution consisted of adding some energy measurements and putting the code in an easier-to-find GitHub repo. So the driver you use is likely a precursor or very similar to the one in my github repo.
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Good to know, @eriktack and @672southmain . Thanks.
That driver is "OK", but I do wish an alternative, written more for those who use Fahrenheit, was available. Temp adjustments can be a bit clunky, as well as fan changes. But it's far better than I could do (which is nothing) so kudos to the original developer.
