Getting state of Venstar Thermostat

Configuration
1

Hello All,

I am recent convert from perceptive automations Indigo, and while it has served me well over the past 6 years, it is time to move on! I recently got all of my Insteon devices running on HA OS and it is very stable. I also updated my old Venstar 1700 thermostat to the new ColorTouch version. My question is this:

I got the device and all of the entities available to me in HA and I can see tons of info, but what I am trying to do is to turn on/off my ceiling fans whenever the Venstar calls for heat or cool. I know that I could do it for a fan state change, but I cannot find that sensor anywhere? Do I have to write custom YAML config for it? If so, what would that look like (I am pretty new to YAML since using HA), so not very proficient in it. Thanks for your assistance!

here is my setup

  • M1 Mac mini 16Gb RAM
  • Running HA OS in VM which is served up by the UTM application
  • (Looking to get a Yellow box soon so I don’t have to depend of the UTM app)
2

Follow the fan_state attribute of the thermostat. 0 is fan stopped, 1 is running. No need for configuration.yaml. On your automation place this trigger:

platform: template
value_template: "{{ state_attr('climate.my_thermostat', 'fan_state') == 1 }}"
alias: Thermo Fan Turns On
1 Like
3

However, if what you are watching is the Venstar starting to heat or cool checking the hvac_action attribute may be more appropriate.