I have two remote temperature sensors (living room, family room). The family room is being used as an airbnb. When guests are here, I want the family room sensor to be used to control the thermostat. When there are no guests, I want the living room sensor to control the thermostat. I would like this to be automated if possible.
I can see two options to do this:
- have two virtual thermostats (one for each temperature sensor). Set one to free and one to controlled.
- have both temperature sensors in one virtual thermostat and adjust the weightings.
Is there any way to make either of these changes via a rule triggered by a "guests here" switch?
If not any ideas on how to accomplish this?
Use modes. Create a rule for a mode based when there are guests (call it guest mode) and one when there isn't (Vacant mode)
Just looked at the mode option and that would work. I'm currently using mode for time of day automation (lights, etc...).
I read a long discussion about Thermostat Controller and found how the ThermController switch works. I think this works better for my situation.
I had an issue using the Thermostat Controller Switches. Triggering the switch changed its status (free, controlled), but not the Thermostat Controller. Once I manually changed the Thermostat from free to controlled, then the switch started correctly changing the Controller.
Here is what my solution now looks like
- Two Thermostat Controllers (living room, family room)
- Two Thermostat Schedulers (living room, family room) with temperatures and times tied to variables
- Two dashboards (us, guests). Guests use Fully Kioks Browser running on a wall mounted fire tablet.
- Rule for when guests_here changes to enable the appropriate Thermostat Controller
Controllers
Schedules
Guest Dashboard
Rule
Fix/Feature: The Thermostat Controller Switches use a generic name. So if you create multiple they will have the same name. Having them inherit the name of the Thermostat controller would be nice.
