[RELEASE] Advanced vThermostat - Virtual Thermostat HVAC control

That is 120V circuit like many small space heaters that people add as a supplement to the main heating.

ok, so this app does have an emergency stop function and goes in to it when it does not get a temperature update for a max of 90 minutes but can be set to be lower as you wish, this will only be active if the heater is heating, if it's idle, it should not go in Emergency stop.

This is your choice and whatever works best for you is good, the perfect sensor would be mains powered and report every minute but those are hard to find unless you make it yourself.

Not exactly sure whet you mean here, sorry.

Hope so but also hope to get more free time to implement a bunch of stuff that was asked from users of the app, I'm also looking into using the builtin virtual thermostat and have the app control it just like it's doing right now, the main reason is to make it Homekit compatible. I will have to test things out, but after some research here and there, I think it would be possible.

thanks for the quick reply again. if I clicke here =>
Screenshot 2023-01-06 at 14.33.45

(on the heat Mode) then nothing happens, and the up/down arrows also stop working until I reload the dashboard. Assume I'm missing something.

That might be related to this. Check out the thread.

Look on the device page of your thermostat and make sure the supportedThermostatModes is shown in the format below. Must have "".

thermo

@terminal3 yup, that's the issue. I can correct it in the code not on the thermostat's device page right ?

yea this is not something I can do on the hubitat side. I believe it needs to be merged to master if I'm right.

You don't need to code anything, use this procedure.

I am running this app with very old fibaro Zwave plugs. I am seeing them failing now and running the heater for too long, in turn heating up and making me really nervous.

I am going to replace these plugs with ones that have current and heat protection. I hear Aeotec work, but I'm thinking of Frient plugs ( Zigbee)

The app works great though!

Hi everyone. I have the Advanced vThermostat controlling a fireplace relay. It's a Shelly Switch with a temperature sensor. It works very well, thanks for the app.

I have a routine to disable the thermostat (as a disabled device), with the intention that my spouse can then control the fireplace manually, using the wall switch to turn on and off the fireplace. But, I found that there's a recurring job "setOutletState" that runs even if the device is disabled. So, my spouse turns on the fireplace, and then this recurring job from the disabled thermostat turns the fireplace off a few seconds later. She hates that.

Someone in another thread suggested I could turn the thermostat mode to "off" instead of disabling it. But in my mind, turning a thermostat to mode "off" should indeed be turning my fireplace off aggressively. And, disabling the thermostat should be the correct way to let my spouse control it manually instead, using the switch.

Does this make sense?

Can we update the app so that disabling the thermostat device also cancels the recurring job "setOutletState"?

one more question from me too: can * thermostatThreshold : **0.5** be changed after the child is created? I have created 3 thermostats one for each room and I just realised that 0.5 is just too much. I want to try 0.3 and 02 instead. I have an electric heater and its better to turn off and on more often than have it go for 30-35 min in a single run.
I see its a one time thing and after the child is created, this setting is invisible.

If you were using a regular physical thermostat, this would be the only way to do it.

Can we update the app so that disabling the thermostat device also cancels the recurring job "setOutletState"?

Not really, better to just turn the device to off.

At the moment no, it can't be changed after the child is created, you will have to remove the child and create a new one, a new "Advanced vThermostat Controller app" that will be compatible with Homekit is in the works and will allow this to be changed. Stay tuned...

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@nclark, would you be willing to add an option to disable the safety feature? I’m trying to use this for a fully virtual use-case where the safety feature is not only unnecessary (no physical device to protect), but also potentially problematic in a few edge cases. If it’s hard or maybe controversial, I’ll retract the request as it’s not truly critical.

Separately, just for my context, does the built-in Hubitat virtual thermostat device still not behave as a real thermostat would? I’ve been playing with it recently and I get odd behavior from time to time.

Any chance the ability to use a contact sensor with this? So for example if a contact sensor is opened, the thermostat turns off?

I'm completely rewriting it to now use the built in virtual thermostat (won't be able to upgrade, will be an all new app), there will be an option to not use the safety feature for those special cases where risk is very low or non existent like hydroponic heating.

Not exactly sure what you mean, it does behave like a real thermostat as long as you have some way to feed it temperatures via RM or an app like mine. Let me know if you see something weird that I might not have seen.

You could set the device to off via RM, not sure it is really needed in app. But after my rewrite and testing is over, I might consider it.

I've been seeing odd behavior with the operating state not changing when the temperature and setpoint cross (even accounting for hysteresis). But I can't seem to reproduce it now, so maybe there was something else going on.

I'm also a bit confused about how/if fan mode and thermostat mode relate. But I doubt that's a problem with the driver.

Let me ask you this way -- if the regular Hubitat driver for vThermostat works fine, why have an Advanced driver. What does this driver solve/address that the built-in one doesn't.

TIA....

even if I modify it while creating the child, it remains 0.5c for some reason. its fine, I can live with it just though I mention

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I'm sorry to report that turning the thermostat to "off" does not disable the thermostat's control of the switch. When I turn the thermostat to "off" it first turns off the fireplace. Then, when my wife goes to the wall switch to turn on the fireplace, the thermostat turns the fireplace back off a few minutes later.

So, it seems there is no way to switch a device back to manual control once a vThermostat is installed. Neither "disabling" the thermostat nor switching to to "off" will disable the background process that turns the switch back off every few seconds.

Sorry to here that, I sent you a PM so you try something for me.

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I'm new to Hubitat and shortly after posing this question i realized i could just create a quick rule that sets the thermostat mode to off if a contact sensor is opened, and set it back on if contact sensor closes. On a side note would it be hard to create a "Virtual Humidistat" that largely functioned the same, but took a humidity sensors reading to control a plug which a humidifier was plugged in to?