Heater Automation

Configuration
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1

My installation:

  • HASSIO (v0.100.2) on a Raspberry Pi 3 B+.
  • No internet access (I can connect through my iPhone hotspot to run updates)
  • Thermostat: climate.radio_thermostat_company_of_america_ct101_thermostat_iris_heating_1 (friendly_name: Upstairs Thermostat - Heating)
  • Fireplace Switch: switch.remotec_zfm_80_switch (friendly_name: Fireplace Flame)

I live in South Carolina and the central heat is electric heat pump. When it gets below 25 degrees the heat pump is essentially worthless and either runs constantly, or worse, activates the auxiliary heat strips which sends our electric meter spinning into the stratosphere.

I have a gas fireplace on our lower level that is an EXCELLENT heat source. When it’s particularly cold outside (below 25 degrees) it can heat the whole house in 10 minutes.

My goal is to create automation that turns on the fireplace whenever the central heat turns on, then turn off when the central heat turns off.

On the main Overview screen I can increase the set temperature on the “Upstairs Thermostat - Heating” panel and get the central heat to instantly kick on. However, the displayed state on the panel as well as the developer tools, stays on “Idle”.

When I look at the z-wave log, I can see the commands setting the temperature, but I don’t see anything from the thermostat reporting the change in hvac_action or fan_action status.

Is there any way to get the thermostat to automatically broadcast any time there is a change in state of the hvac_action or fan_action?

2

That’s strange. Your heat pump should only react when the heating entity changes its state from Idle to Heating or something like that.

Anyway, you can always monitor your heater’s attributes (climate.radio_thermostat_company_of_america_ct101_thermostat_iris_heating_1 ?) using a template binary sensor (which checks them and changes its state) and an automation that forces update of that sensor every say, 1 minute (or set sensor.time as entity_id of your template binary sensor).

3

Is your climate set default to heat mode ? If not set that and restart

4

So checking the value of a template binary sensor forces the thermostat to broadcast its state? But checking the attribute values in the Developer tools does not?

5

Where would I go to check? And where would I go to set it?

6

It’s as written in your config where you set the climate component ???

7

Why ever would you want to do that ?
Change the climate target when the setpoint changes only and let climate get on with the rest

8

Please forgive me. I don’t mean to be difficult, but everything in my settings appears to have been configured automatically when I installed HASSIO. I’m happy to check anything I need to, but I will need a little guidance on where to go and how to get there.

9

just in case it’s as strange as in the OP’s case :wink:

I think it’s a bit difficult for us because we don’t own that type of thermostat.
You can go to Developer tools → States ad post here all that is inside that climate.radio_thermostat_company_of_america_ct101_thermostat_iris_heating_1

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11

it’s when your heater is not heating.
could you post its data when it’s heating?

12

That’s my problem: the states on the Developer page don’t change when the heater is running.

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But let me see if I can get the heater to run, then issue a Z-Wave entity refresh and see if that changes.

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Interestingly enough, when I waited until the heater turned on and refreshed the Z-Wave node, it actually activated an automation rule that I had tried before and the fireplace turned on.

So it would seem that my theory was correct. The problem is not Home Assistant, the problem is that the thermostat is not reporting state change.

So how do I get the thermostat to report it’s state change without having to manually refresh its Z-Wave node?

15

Considering

the only way is to make that Z-Wave node refresh, isn’t it? If you can get in touch with the developers or know how to send it a refresh command, that’s the way to go imho.

16

My Climate Configuration is in my heating package, if you didn’t do it yourself then it most probably (I’m not 100% sure) resides in your configuration.yaml sitting in your config directory
Do you have Samba enabled ?
What OS is your Workstation running ? (Windows, Apple, Linux ?)
Can you reach the configuration.yaml file and open it with … ??? notepad, atom, nano/vim wahatever ?

mine looks like this : -

climate:
  ## Heating
  - platform: generic_thermostat
    name: House Heat
    heater: switch.boiler_switch
    target_sensor: sensor.thermostat_heat_temperature
    min_temp: 6
    max_temp: 24
    ac_mode: false
    # target_temp: 19
    cold_tolerance: 0.2
    hot_tolerance: 0.2
    min_cycle_duration:
      seconds: 20
    initial_hvac_mode: "heat"
    precision: 0.1

Note: my target temperature is commented out because I set this from HA so it will just use that value untill I tell it something different, even through reboots etc.
Also: initial_hvac_mode: “heat” #### <---- This is the bit you ‘may’ need to change
Climate can sometimes get confused if it sees its attributes messed with, that’s why I only ever change the 1 thing (see the first note)

17

What state change ? Are you using the thermostat to change the setpoint ? is the stat in charge of switching the heater ?
I was under the impression you were using the HA thermostat as described in my previous post ?
My post may not help you then.

18

I need to monitor the state of the hvac_action or the fan_action attributes.

19

I’m using a MacBook Pro, accessing the Home Assistant files through Samba.

I can’t find any “climate:” configuration in any of the .yaml files in the config directory.

20

Okay you are using an actual ‘physical’ thermostat rather than a ‘software’ thermostat.
Ignore my posts