Free Hilo thermostats and hub

Configuration
1

I’m new to Home Assistant so sorry for my dummy questions. For people in Quebec and Hydro Quebec offer to give free Hilo thermostats and hub, I’d like to know what is possible right now with HA. Not sure I fully understand the integration of @dvd-dev. I’d like to know :

  1. if it will work with actual Hilo states and periods (not flex-d).
  2. If I can stll control all my thermostats inside and outide the period using HA
  3. Do we know in advance if there is a peak period tomorrow so I can take action.

Thank’s

2

i haven’t been able to find anything on the Home Assistant integrations list for Hilo thermostats. I’ve looked into them and I assume you mean this. I found an post on the forums that might assist you with this. I look forward to see what you make! (As I’m reading over this I realise how much it sounds like AI…)

3

I read that post but I’m not sure exactly what we can automate or not.

Thank’s

4

You might be able to control them with Home Assistant.
The clue is “and hub”. My guess is that this is Zigbee and if ZHA (Zigbee Home Assistant) or Z2M (Zigbee 2 MQTT) will connect to it, you’re good to go.

You do not have to use the manufacturer’s hub. Ever. Use a Zigbee USB or Ethernet “dongle”. (Technically, there is no such thing as a Zigbee Hub- It is a coordinator. But marketing people like to call it a hub).

But as you fall down this rabbit hole that we call Home Assistant, you will be adding more Zigbee devices anyway. So, buy a coordinator.

We had a similar offer here with Nest learning thermostats for $9. I like the Nest thermostats, but they are cloud-based.

5

In this case, I believe Hydro Québec needs control of the thermostats (during the contract period) so that’s why they supply a hub (a Zigbee coordinator with Internet access).

After the contract period, the devices they supplied (thermostats, switches) effectively become yours and you can pair them to whatever Zigbee coordinator you want.

During the contract period, there are “energy reduction challenges” offered. You must participate in at least a few of them to remain in good standing with the program (i.e. keep the free equipment you were given and avoid having to pay for it).

When you accept a challenge, the hub automatically sets back one or more thermostats, for a certain period of time, to reduce electricity consumption (there are far more details, like you can optionally preheat a room before the thermostat is set back, but that’s the gist of it).

When you participate in a challenge, you also earn money. So it’s not just the money you save by reducing your consumption, or the free equipment and remote-access it provides, but also a cash incentive for participating. Some people have reported earning hundreds of dollars (obviously they must have agreed to participate in most, if not all, of the offered challenges during the heating season).

@JBil
There’s a discussion about it (where some people have asked about integration with Home Assistant, notably on page 4 of the topic) in the following forum:

6

Thank you for your answer but I’d like to know if in HA we know that tomorrow there will be an event so I can make some actions before the event.

7

I don’t see that feature listed here:

EDIT

Upon closer inspection, it might be this one.

Sensor pour les défis et la passerelle Hilo

1 Like
8

That looks good.

I just ordered 11 free thermostats and one hub. We have to stay in Hilo for one year to get them free. I’ll see next winter how it goes. If I don’t like it I will possibly return to Flex-D I guess.

9

After it’s all installed (hardware and software), keep us informed about your experiences. Other users may also be interested to learn how to integrate Hilo with Home Assistant.

1 Like