Thermostat Controller - Beginner

[maustin002]

Hello Everyone,

I just installed my new Z wave stat. I started to play around with the controller and scheduler..... i am very confused lol. So I though I would explain my end goal and see if anyone could suggest the best approach. I got rid of our nest because I wanted to better target rooms at night (baby room and master bedroom).

First- I have a few temperature sensors in both rooms and around the house. I want to be able to utilize specific sensor through the day to use. For an example at night to take the average of the master and baby room, but during the day to average the living room and kitchen (eventually down the road when I get motion sensor installed I am going to use those to see if a room is occupied). I was thinking to use Rule Machine for this, suggestions?

Second - question is when the stat is in "Free" or "Controlled". I read the help info on this but if I flip the switch to "Controlled" that means that Hubitat is really controlling everything? Does that mean if I walk to the stat and change the temp I wont override the Hubitat? Also, how does the Thermostat Scheduler play into things with the switch is set to "Controlled"

If anyone has any good resources or similar topics let me know. There are a lot of setting with thermostat and I am just trying to learn/figure it all out.

Mark

[bravenel]

@maustin002

I want to be able to utilize specific sensor through the day to use.

You will have to do this through some app or rule you come up with. For example, you could create a virtual temperature sensor, and set it using an RM rule. That rule would have the logic for time of day, and use Custom Action to set the temperature of the virtual sensor. That sensor would then be used by Thermostat Controller.

When you put Thermostat Controller into Controlled, that means that it usurps the normal functioning of the controlled thermostat. If you change the controlled thermostat manually, Thermostat Controller will still put it to what it thinks it should be. So manually setting the controlled thermostat and having Thermostat Controller set to Controlled are incompatible.

Thermostat Scheduler simply adds scheduling based on time of day or modes to a smart thermostat. It could be used to schedule the settings of the controller thermostat created by Thermostat Controller. This would have nothing specifically to do with your idea of changing temperature sensors based on time of day, although could work in concert with what is described above.