Thermostat Scheduler Eco Mode

I seem to have an issue with eco mode in the thermostat scheduler, or maybe it's just not behaving the way I thought it should be.

Here what's happening. I have the eco mode offset set to 2.0 deg C, I put the thermostat scheduler in eco mode via a RM rule, the thermostats controlled by the scheduler get their setpoint lower by 2 deg. So far so good. Now about 6 hours later the scheduler is set to increase the thermostats setpoint to 21 deg. I was under the impression that because the Scheduler is in eco mode, it will set the setpoint to 19 deg (21 - 2) but it does not. It send an heating setpoint of 21 ignoring the eco mode.

Is this the normal behavior?

Thanks,

@bravenel, I think you build this app. Do you have a quick answer for me?

Thanks

Good question. I will look into it.

Yes, this is a bug. It will be fixed in the next release. It should offset thermostat settings by the EcoMode offset while in EcoMode, and it does not.

Thanks @bravenel

@bravenel I think I might have stumble onto another bug. This is happening on scheduler with multiple thermostats. If between 2 schedules time period the setpoint on a thermostat is manually set to the value of the next period then when that next period arrives, none of the thermostat receive their new setpoint. It's like the scheduler looks at the current setpoint of that thermostat and see that it's equal to the scheduled setpoint and skip the command.

On a single thermostat settings, this would be fine but with multiple thermostats it's annoying.

You can kind of simulate this by changing the setpoint of all thermostat except the first one then hit the "Set Schedule Setpoints" button. Nothing will happen because the first thermostat is already at that scheduled setpoint.

Those are my observations.

Thanks!

OK, I will look into. It should be only not setting the one, not not setting all of them. We have that other bug fix coming out soon in 2.2.4, so I can hopefully get this one in too.

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I think I found another bug as well, EcoMode was enabled in a certain mode, then the mode transitioned and the new setpoint was set, EcoMode is not adhered to like the bug report above, then EcoMode is turned off while being in that new mode, the bug however is that the EcoMode off temp was from a reference point when EcoMode was originally turned on as opposed to the reference point for the given mode it is currently in.

So for instance take this example:
EcoMode: 10 degrees
Evening: 70 heat setpoint
Night: 55 heat setpoint

Evening:70 --> 60(EcoMode on) --> Night:55(previous bug due to EcoMode not being adhered to [should be 45]) --> 70(EcoMode now off [setpoint backup from when EcoMode was originally turned on]) --> 60(EcoMode now on [again from the wrong setpoint for the given mode])

Note: I bolded what I think is a bug.

I tried to make that as clear as possible, but let me know if you have any questions.

This has been fixed in the upcoming 2.2.4 release. Once that comes out (soon!), please check again to see if this works as expected.

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I’m turning blue from holding my breath while waiting.

I am seeing a couple of unexpected behaviors related to TS EcoMode:

5-Feb-2022 - Switch from Away to Day messes up the heat setpoint - I have enabled TS to “use EcoMode for Away”. At 10:55 I used remote admin to switch the hub from “Day” to “Away” mode, and verified that the thermostat tile showed that the heat setpoint dropped from 69F to 61F (as expected as my EcoMode offset setting is 8F). At 21:12, I used remote admin to set hub “day” mode. When I next looked at the system (locally) at 22:30, there was odd behavior: The Heat setpoint on the thermostat tile was showing 61F, the ambient temperature was at 68F and the furnace was actively heating. The hub mode settings showed the mode was “day” as expected. At 22:31, I switched the hub mode to “Away”, and the heat setpoint on the thermostat was then immediately observed to be 53F (!), and the furnace went idle. At 22:32, I switched the mode to “day” and the heat setpoint on the thermostat tile showed 61F. Furnace was still idle. At 22:33, I manually set the TS heat point to 69F, and the system then behaved normally (furnace became active). I checked the TS logs to see what transpired at 21:12, and I did NOT see an entry for raising the heat setpoint from 61F to 69F, though there were 21:12 entries for: changing the cool setpoint, and the furnace switching to active (the ambient temperature was 66F).

7-Feb-2022 - Just opening the TS settings causes EcoMode to prematurely terminate - Set hub “away” mode at 13:07. Observed at 15:15 that the thermostat heat setpoint was 61F, and that the state of the TS app was in “EcoMode”, as expected. At 15:16, I opened the settings on the TS app, but made no edits. At 15:16, unexpectedly: the furnace became active, the TS logs show that the TS EcoMode switched to Off, and the heat setpoint was set to 69F. At 15:24, the hub settings showed that the hub mode was still in “away” mode, and then I set the hub mode to “day”. The hub location logs show the expected mode changes at 13:07 and at 15:24. I have included snapshots of the TS log, and the mode log.


modes

I am having a similar problem as @duane.and with eco mode.
First, I have a virtual switch, named "I am here" that is controlled by phone presence and is available
for other triggers.
Second, the virtual switch change triggers a RM 5.1 too either set or reset ecomode in TS.
I AM HERE on:


I AM HERE off:

I see the virtual switch change state:
The rule that runs when the switch turns off seems to run fine:

but what actually is happening in TS is that the ecomode setpoints are commanded then right away ecomode off is commanded when the rule does not turn ecomode off, so the scheduled setpoints resume.


I can see it in the thermostat.... the setpoints change then less than a second later, they change back to the schedule that is running.

Is this something I am missing? or is the schedule that is running over write the ecomode settings, and I need to set TS to hold mode first before setting ecomode?

I tried setting HOLD and the schedule still returns to the scheduled setpoint less than a second after setting the eco temps, but the scheduler does change to hold:



(different scheduled setpoints)

Anybody have any ideas, please?

Why do you need to set HOLD? Wouldn't you just have different temps for EcoMode? I have the following for when doors are left open and then subsequently closed. This is for a Honeywell thermostat that needs the cloud to change.

Dunno if that helps or not. I know it doesn't address your specific issue but maybe just setting it up a bit differently will work for you. I do know I had to fight with it a bit to get it to finally work the way I wanted but it seems rock solid for me now.

I should add that on the Thermostat app itself I have a restriction set to disable it when the Eco Mode is on.

I just tried setting a hold to see if that would force the stat scheduler app to keep eco mode on as a test.

The original rule just turned eco mode on when "i am here" turned off, but that wasn't working either.

Still trying to find out why the rule that is triggered by a "change" of "i am here", that runs the actions (minus the hold step), doesn't keep the stat scheduler in eco mode, but (as my logs show) turns eco on then immediately turns eco off.

You can see this happen in my log screenshot in post 11

I have tried a few different things..
I tried changing the trigger to a real switch rather a virtual... no difference.
Made sure the stat is in "no schedule / occupancy".... no difference.

I am going to try a new rule that ONLY changes the stat to ECO then a rule to AWAY/ECO.

Well I was misinterpreting the stat scheduler instructions (it would be nice to see an example of how to use the eco function).
Rather than setting the eco function directly, I had to set the mode to "away" which would turn on the eco function.
Now, I need to find out how to "capture" the initial mode when "i am here" was first triggered, so that it can be restored when I return and "i am here" turns back on.

What do you disable? The stat scheduler?
I think my problem with eco mode is that IF the scheduler is still enabled, Eco mode tries to set the setpoints, but is cancelled immediately because the scheduler overrides it.

This is kinda verified because when I change the mode to "away",, things work because the scheduler does not have an entry for "away" mode.
Your idea makes sense and I'll give it a try!
Thanks!

I have a virtual switch called Eco Mode that, if you look at the rule I posted earlier, gets turned on and off as needed. Then on the Thermostat app there is a restriction to disable when that switch is on.