EcoBee to Honeywell T6 - migration questions

Get Help
1

Good Morning guys!

I have a few technical questions and nerdy thermostat and HVAC stuff to go over with you guys.

Goal - Migrate from EcoBee 3 to Honeywell T6 pro for granular custom control of HVAC cooling stages.

Problem:
The EcoBee 3 is not consistent in it’s staging logic, despite either manual or auto staging.

Long version:

I have a 3 year old fully open celled home in central Alabama, HVAC is a 5 ton Dual Stage Carrier unit with Infinity variable air handler and Aprilaire E100 home dehumidifier.

EcoBee is set to maintain 73º and trigger ac if 0.5 above setpoint, and max stage 1 runtime is set for 35 mins, and stage 2 temp delta is set to 1º

In the summer months, I’m noticed the EcoBee has inconsistent staging, here are two examples from the same day.

2:15pm to 4:30pm:

  • tstat senses 73.3, and triggers stage 1
  • Stage 1 runs for 26 mins
  • During Stage 1 time temp climbs to 73.9
  • Stage 2 is triggered at 73.9

4:50pm to 5:55pm:

  • tstat senses 73.4, and triggers stage 1
  • Stage 1 runs for 2hr 11 min
  • During that time temp climbs to 73.7 and slowly tapers to 73.1
  • Stage 2 is never triggered

image
image1220×517 18.9 KB

In the above two examples, my max stage 1 runtime is set for 35mins, yet in the first cooling cycle the Ecobee completely ignored it and never triggered stage 2, even after 2 hrs. In the second cooling cycle it triggered stage 2 early (in 26 minutes) instead of the preconfigured 35 minute max runtime for stage 1.

While I don’t mind getting tips from the community regarding how to best setup my Ecobee, I’ve tried every possible staging configuration and I’ve yet to find consistent results, presumably due to some hidden Ecobee backend logic that I can’t control.

This leads me to the possible purchase and migration to the Honeywell T6 Pro.

Here’s what I’d like to know from other Hubitat users on the C7 hub, or maybe even C8 if it applies, have you guys been able to write custom Hubitat rule machine rules to precisely control the Honeywell T6 Pro while being able to graph/report HVAC system performance, including staging info (think Beestat) AND be able to

Example rules I’d like to write and control via Hubitat:

  • If outdoor temp < 90 and indoor temp above setpoint, trigger Stage 1 cooling
    • If stage 1 cooling runtime > 30 mins, switch to stage 2
  • If outdoor temp > 90, skip stage 1 cooling, go straight to stage 2

Again, I’m looking to do the above, and graph system performance similar to Beestat to include staging info.

I am simply looking for full control of my staging, for better or worse, I understand I need to watch for short cooling cycles that can damage my heat pump, so I’ll be careful, and since I have an Aprilaire E100 home dehumidifier, I’m not worried about needing long runtimes to ensure humidity is controlled.

2

Tagging @aaiyar

3

Same with @oldcomputerwiz ...

4

I would not recommend using a Honeywell T6 for multistage HVAC equipment. Honeywell’s staging control is via cycles per hour (CPH) rather than a temperature delta, which is what ecobee uses.

My experience in switching from an ecobee3 to a Honeywell T6 with a 4H/2C system was discomfort that I endured for a year before pitching the Honeywell. If you want a z-wave thermostat that supports multiple stages and switches stages using a temperature delta, then consider getting a GoControl or a 2GIG.

Personally, I went back to using ecobee thermostats. I have an ecobee premium controlling a 2H/2C system in the house I moved to 3 years ago. No issues such as those you’ve encountered. For example, look at the Beestat profile below for today.

There are several marked examples of the system cooling in Stage 1 for 30 mins before switching to Stage 2. There are also examples where the system goes straight to Stage 2 based on the cooling demand (temperature delta).

Screenshot 2026-06-14 at 7.22.24 PM
Screenshot 2026-06-14 at 7.22.24 PM3294×992 289 KB

Edited to add:

I went back and re-read your post. I used to have an ecobee3 in my old house - I’ve never seen the anomalies you report. At this point, I am inclined to believe that either your ecobee3 is defective, or there’s two (or more) conflicting install settings.

5

I'm using the Honeywell with a single stage package unit.

Hubitat controls the setpoints but I let the Honeywell do it's own thing.

I really have nothing meaningful to contribute here.

6

Can you post your settings if you don't mind?

Mine only really does this when stage 1 struggles to lower the temp, so basically right around the balance point of stage 1 we are taking less than 1 full degree for hours.

So if temp stays the same, or barely goes down, it will stay at stage 1, but if it climbs during stage 1 it will typically switch to stage 2.

7

I’d suggest following up with the question on the ecobee sub-reddit. Be sure to indicate what HVAC equipment you have and include photos of the wiring at the t-stat and furnace control board.

8

Sure, but I'm still interested to know if there is another zwave based thermostat that we could utilize that would allow us to write custom rules to control staging behavior like I mentioned in my original post.

Venstar, t6, or the others you listed, can they be used in that fashion that we as a community are aware of?

9

I have linked to the only two zwave thermostats that permit the user to control staging using the same parameters as ecobee thermostats. AFAIK, there are no others (there is also a Trane thermostat but that requires a specific Trane air-handler). And even those two do not permit reverse staging.

There are no zigbee thermostats that work well with multi-stage equipment.

If you search my post history, you’ll find an elaborate node-red flow to control multi-stage HVAC equipment with a multi-stage zwave thermostat. It mimics the control that ecobee provides. However, I no longer use that flow. After switching back to ecobee thermostats, I just set the desired temp and thermostat mode using RM, and let ecobee staging handle the rest.

10

i use the older honeywell prestige with redlink .. it has ocntrol of staging but the driver is iffy whith the hubitat total comfort interface.. i believe the staging points can only be set in the firmware through the menus on the therm.

it also has other stuff i like and need and wish they would add it to a newer model.

it has sensors in the ducts to alert me of issues as well, as direct control of my steam humidifier for winter.

11

I had the same experience with the T6s on even single stage equipment. The cycles per hour in many cases just can't be dialed in in settings for some zones. It seems to be very specific to expecting how the zone heats and cools, and I could never use it for my heating zones to maintain any type of consistent temperature. I tried every option for cycles per hour, none of them worked for my heating zones to not get large temp swings between cycles.

12

Same here. I could never get my house comfortable with the T6s I had. No matter how the CPH settings were configured, the heat or AC either ran too long or short with the house temps never truly at the desired comfort levels.

13

There are z-wave thermostats that do work well with 1H/1C systems and even 2H/2C systems. But the T6 is not one of them.

The larger issue I had (even with the GoControl and 2GIG z-wave t-stats) is that creating an environment as comfortable as the one created by ecobee took a complicated Node-RED flow. Such increased complexity increases the points of failure. I also didn’t want the comfort level in the home to be dependent on Node-RED running 24/7, and in this decision, I was influenced by @ogiewon’s thoughts to keep thermostat automation to a minimum. For one thing it keeps the WAF high.

So I went back to using ecobee. And the house is very comfortable.

14

I’ll also point out Ecobee can now be locally controlled by Hubitat.

15

Likewise.