I recently switched to HA and received my new Ecobee thermostat today. I got it up and running pretty quick and then went to add it to HA to find out I need an API key. I went to the ecobee site and they said they are no longer creating developer accounts or issuing API key. This was even confirmed with their WhatsApp chat channel. I’m almost debating pulling it off the wall and sending it back. It does work with Apple home… Any suggestions?
Remove the Ecobee thermostat from your genuine Apple Home. Then, simply add it to HA using the “HomeKit Device” integration. This is 100% local, and works very well.
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OMG! That worked like a charm! Thank you!!!
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For those of us on Android, are we SOL?
No iPhone is required to use Home Assistant’s built-in “HomeKit Device” integration. If your Ecobee thermostats support HomeKit (early revisions did not), then HA should discover them on your network and suggest adding them via the HomeKit Device integration.
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Wonder if mine is an early one then, 2016 or so. Homekit in HA doesn’t seem to be picking it up. Might be because it’s on a subnetwork? I’ll keep digging, thanks!
That could definitely be part of the issue.
Looks like the Ecobee 3 was their first model to include Apple HomeKit support.
It’s a model 3 - must be the sub network. I’ll move it onto the main network and see what happens 
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Turns out I just needed to enable it in the thermostat settings - hamburger, gear, settings, homekit, enable.
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Great! Glad to hear it was an easy fix.
So, before I go and mess around and possibly wreck stuff: I have an Ecobee3 lite. It’s been installed for a couple of years and enabled in HomeKit. I also use the Ecobee app on my iPhone. I’m new to HA and want to add it. Are you saying I should:
“Remove the Ecobee thermostat from your genuine Apple Home. Then, simply add it to HA using the “HomeKit Device” integration”…
Will this allow me to have it not only in HA but also in HomeKit as well? And, of course, in the Ecobee app?
The Ecobee3 Lite can only be paired via HomeKit directly to either Apple Home OR Home Assistant. It will stay connected to the Ecobee Cloud and Ecobee mobile phone app regardless of whether or not it is connected via HomeKit to another system.
So, if you want it paired with Home Assistant via HomeKit to avoid using the Ecobee cloud, it will have to be removed from Apple Home. You can then pair it with HA using the HomeKit Device integration. After you have that working, you can expose HA devices to Apple Home using Home Assistant’s HomeKit Bridge integration.
What a shame on Ecobee! It’s too bad I bought an ecobee premium just recently.
Unfortunately, Homekit does not work very well. By changing the presets via Homekit, the thermostat does not update reported threshold temperatures back to HA, which results in an incorrect display of threshold temperatures in my dashboards. Also, there are Ecobee-specific settings like fan control, which are handy if one does not want to implement this logic in HA itself.
I wonder if Nabu Casa could pick up developer account and that be part of the monthly subscription?
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Hi, new user here. Could you explain this last part about using homekit bridge to bring the thermostat into apple home? I haven’t been able to get that to work correctly so I only have my ecobee premium in home assistant right now via homekit device.
I am not using that feature currently - so I cannot test anything for you. However, the documentation seems very complete and may help.
Hi @ogiewon . Where and how to do you see Ecobee on the HOmeKit device. Mine is not showing up. FYI, I am not an Apple Home user, so How to add ecobee on HA? Thx
What if they don’t?
What model Ecobee thermostat are you using? It sounds like it may be an earlier model that does not support Apple HomeKit.
Do we lose AirPlay functionality if this is removed from HomeKit and added to Home Assistant directly?