I have searched, but haven't been able to find an answer yet.
I'm looking to get a Thermostat that will report fan status, or AC/Heat status to Hubitat. I have register booster fans that I want to turn on, when the system is running.
It would be preferable to do this on AC/Heat status, as sometimes I have the fan in constant mode.
I was able to get a Nest to work with HE and report back everything, but it took jumping through more than a few hoops, including setting up a Google Developer account and doing more than a little work in there. It's do-able, but I wouldn't recommend going that route.
Have you considered doing this without involving a home automation controller? For instance, by controlling the booster fans using a duct air-pressure switch? I've controlled a dryer vent booster fan using this mechanism for more than 10 years, and it has worked flawlessly.
I was looking at the T6 Pro since it's a Z-wave thermostat. Is it fairly straightforward to get the status? I'm guessing I would use the advanced driver?
Interesting, I had no idea something like this existed, though, seems a bit bulky for my purposes. Do you put this inside the duct? Doesn't that block off airflow?
It stays outside of the duct; there's just a tiny probe that goes into the duct. Folks mount it typically somewhere close to the air-handler. And then you run wiring to the booster fans. The thing I like about this solution is that it is specifically made for this purpose, eliminates any delays, and is not reliant on a functional z-wave or zigbee mesh to be performant.
Nothing wrong with that. FWIW, don't get the Honeywell T6 ZWave Pro if you have multi-stage heat or cool. I had one for almost two years. Staging control is ludicrously bad. But it will work fine for single stage heat/cool.
If you do have multi-stage HVAC equipment, this 2GIG thermostat works extremely well with Hubitat. Plus it is 700-series - so a wee bit more future-proof.
I have the Honeywell T6 Pro z-wave too. works great.
I have a rule machine that turns on the furnace fan when my 6y old son room door is closed, so he has air circulating in his room all night.
Curious - whats the benefit other than no cloud requirement for a zwave thermostat? I know that in years past it could be a coordinator itself so simple automations were possible. But I'm guessing most people use it as a device now. The 3 smart thermostats I've integrated with ST/HE have all been honeywells via wifi/cloud and they've been rock solid. Then again I don't have any logic tied off them, only integrated for dashboard use or Alexa control.
A lot of us integrate them wholly which means that if they were cloud and the internet went away, I wouldn't be able to trigger any automations built on those triggers. Having anything critical like that as cloud based is a non starter for myself.
I don't use my thermostat as one would conventionally use a thermostat. Instead I use it to maintain a Mode-specific dewpoint (Td) at home with different Td set-points for Home/Away/Sleep modes. I've described an earlier iteration of what I do in this post.
I set this up because I was "bored" early in the pandemic (being unable to go to work). But the comfort levels were so good, that I have since refined that process considerably. My latest version runs the A/C differently depending on whether it is easier to achieve a set dew-point by dehumidification or cooling. When dehumidification is needed, it runs in stage 1 longer. When cooling is needed, it runs in stage 2.
This is, without doubt, the most complicated automation I have at home. But it has worked well for more than 2 years now. The latest iteration of my Node-RED sequence recovers gracefully even if the computer I run Node-RED on reboots or if the thermostat-controlling Hubitat reboots. And because of limits built into the sequence, even if they both crash, the house will not heat higher than 70 degrees, cool lower than 66 degrees, become warmer than 80 degrees, or colder than 60 degrees.