Change Ecobee when fireplace is on

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GitHub Link to Gist

The Problem

My fireplace is in the same room as my Ecobee thermostat. When I turn on the fireplace, the Ecobee thinks that the house is nice and toasty warm, so it doesn’t call for heat. The rest of the house, without fireplaces, gets much colder. This is the opposite of cozy!

The Solution

When a temperature sensor on the mantle above the fireplace detects that it’s hotter than the thermostat, it sets a custom comfort mode on the Ecobee that excludes the thermostat, only using remote sensors to detect the temperature of the house. It also runs the HVAC fan to circulate that warm fireplace air.

This automation also detects when the thermostat’s preset mode changes (due to a schedule) and re-sets the comfort mode as long as the fireplace is on.

Prerequisites

  1. An Ecobee thermostat. If it isn’t in the same room as the fireplace, you probably don’t need this automation. It has to be connected via the Ecobee integration since we need to call ecobee.resume_program once the fireplace is off.
  2. At least one more Ecobee remote sensor for the Ecobee to use to measure the home’s temperature.
  3. A temperature sensor somewhere above the fireplace to detect when its on. I would avoid an Ecobee remote sensor because those will deactivate due to the thermal protect feature.
  4. A custom comfort setting on the Ecobee thermostat. Comfort settings are preset modes, by default it includes “Home”, “Away”, and “Sleep”. This comfort setting should exclude the sensor(s) in the same room as the fireplace, and the heat fan mode should be on.

Changelog

  • 1.0: Initial release as an automation