Trying to find a hardware (hub, etc) that will allow my automations to see and control the heat pump (Aux) on the Ecobee, HomeKit doesn’t (with no plans to support this, so stop asking), the existing Ecobee Integration is defunct for new users (missed the API signup by 2 months).
What hardware hub is available that will talk to the Ecobee thermostat and expose all of the necessary data and give access to changing the ones that aren’t read only?
My area is already seeing heating usage (past 2 weeks, it is heat in the night time and cool during some days), so I really need to find a solution that isn’t going to be restricted like the aforementioned integrations. The only way I can think of would be a hardware solution that isn’t HomeKit, so if you know of one and have experience in it, please reply with links, pretty sure other people in this situation want something too.
I gave up on ecobee. I moved to Venstar which allows all things to be local. It has an API but you don’t have to use it. It integrates into HA with the Venstar app. I have not looked back and the thermostats have been working for about 3 years. Here is the page for the thermostst - https://venstar.com/thermostats/colortouch/. I know it sucks to have to buy new hardware but sorry to say ecobee is a proprietary system and corporations do what they do to make more money. If you are not in North America these might be hard to obtain. The 7850’s cost about $200 each.
This is no longer an issue in the native integration: since version 2026.3, an API key is no longer required. I can now see and use the sensors and controls that HomeKit doesn’t expose.
That said, it’s not a perfect solution as it’s cloud based. There is (at least for me) about a one minute delay between my AC turning on or off and when it registers as a state change in the integration.
@PecosKidd I seeing the same thing, since they dropped the API Key. I’ve had my ecobee since late 2024. I do see drop outs everyday, it could be due to server loads. Remember how THEY said the cloud was the perfect solutions for everything. It makes me laugh with every outage that happens with the cloud that causes havoc. Give me local control all the time!!!
@k8gg I can’t help you with HomeKit. Mine has always been straight WiFI and HA only. But I’ve got the thermostat and 3 room sensors (occupancy and temperature which is used to give better temperature control in the home
I also have a thermostat and 4 room sensors, and yes I can get occupancy and temperature from those room sensors from the HomeKit Device integration.
… hence my question earlier - what is missing if using HomeKit…?
The value the Ecobees bring to the table is the learning algorithm that is able to formulate the delta-T of one’s house. What I love about the EcoBee is that if I want the temperature at 72F at 6am, I get exactly that because it knows how long it takes to heat or cool the house to hit a target temp. Most thermostats won’t turn on the HVAC until it’s 6am, thus delaying reaching the target temp. And the room sensors help even out the temperature differentials across rooms and pay attention to only rooms where there’s occupancy. All these features save $$.
If there’s another learning thermostat like that I’d love to know about it.
By far, the most useful difference (at least for me) is the “Ecobee Equipment Running” sensor, which lets me know when it’s running at “Cool1” or “Cool2”, and during the winter, if it’s using the heat pump or the Aux heating.
Also worth noting is I’ve had no issues running both integrations at the same time.
I tried before I posted the message here, gets an “Unknown error” when I try to log in, because there is 2FA on the account, or something, but it fails to log in.
