Help Making A Blueprint

Configuration Blueprints
1

Okay to I would ultimately like to create an automation that controls my house heat pump. I want to use some z-wave multi sensors I have in different rooms to do this. I’m beyond a noob when I comes to making code, I barely understand the basics. But in short I want the ac or heat to come on if the temperature between any of the sensors falls below or rises above a set range of temperatures.

More specifically if say one of three sensors reports that the room its in is 64 degrees, then I would like to heat to come on until all three sensors reach a set target 68. Then the same if one sensor read and temp is too high, I would like the ac to come on and run till it gets to 71.

I really hope that makes sense, I’ve been beating my head on my keyboard try to figure out how to do this.

Additionally this blueprint come really close to what I want, but only supports one sensor and only controls heating.

2

In that case, I strongly recommend you avoid creating a blueprint and focus on creating the automation first. It can be converted to a blueprint later. Blueprints add another level of complexity.

I assume you already have a climate entity defined that you use to control your HVAC system?

Post the names of all the entities that will be involved in this automation. It helps to create better examples when the actual entities are used.

3

Yes I have a climate entity. It climate.thermostat, and the sensors are
sensor.zooz_zse40_4_in_1_sensor_temperature
sensor.zooz_zse40_4_in_1_sensor_temperature_2
I’m going to be adding a third sensor in the near future.

4

The first order of business is to determine how you intend to use the three temperature sensors to control the climate entity’s operation.

A climate entity monitors the ambient temperature and compares it to the target temperature (also known as setpoint temperature).

  • If the ambient temperature falls below the heating setpoint temperature, it activates heating.
  • When ambient rises above the cooling setpoint, it activates cooling.
  • In both cases, it turns off heating/cooling when ambient is equal to setpoint.

Now how do you intend to use those three temperature sensors to control the climate entity’s operation?

5

My intention is to just monitor all three sensors, and if any one of them goes above or below to set point then have to system act accordingly.

6

If the blueprint you linked to comes close, but only handles one sensor, consider creating two min/max sensors (one for min for heating, and one for max for cooling) and then point the blueprint at them.

7

What if one sensor reads below and another above?

8

For the OP’s purpose, of controlling heating and cooling, a limitation of the suggested blueprint is it’s designed to control heating only.

          - service: climate.set_temperature
            data:
              entity_id: !input 'heating'
              hvac_mode: heat <------------ This
              temperature: "{{ set_temp }}"
9

Excellent question and one that I hope the OP has considered. Depending on how the HVAC system distributes heat, it’s possible that while trying to satisfy one sensor’s need for heating, it overheats the area monitored by another sensor that proceeds to call for cooling.

10

This is apparently not going to work.
My intention was simply to utilize my existing Honeywell wifi thermostat that is connected to home assistant. Then add the additional sensors as a sort of “whole house” temperature probe to trigger it on and off. Instead of it being triggered by just the reading in gets in a singular point in the house.

11

There may be a way to make an averaged sensor with templates. Not sure how it’s done though

12

That’s often done by averaging the sensor values. That’s easily done with a Template Sensor.

Your climate entity is configured to use the Template Sensor as its source for ambient temperature. Done! No automation required.

The Template Sensor’s value_template will be something like this:

    value_template: >
      {{ (states('sensor.zooz_zse40_4_in_1_sensor_temperature') | float +
          states('sensor.zooz_zse40_4_in_1_sensor_temperature_2') | float) / 2 }}
13

This is why I seriously consider just throwing all this shit out the window. People just don’t get it when you say to don’t understand code.
I don’t have a fucking clue what a template sensor is, or what any of the crap mean. I seriously just spent the last half hour trying to google all of it and came up with nothing. I’m just expected to already know this shit.

14

Here’s the documentation for a Template Sensor.

I have already provided you with the template to be used with the Template Sensor.

If learning about Template Sensors seems too much then your original intent, to create a blueprint, underestimated the difficulty of this even more challenging goal. Configuring a Template Sensor is far simpler than composing a blueprint.

It’s clear that you are frustrated and upset. The question only you can answer is if you wish to take the time to learn the terminology and concepts needed to automate your home with Home Assistant or discard it in favor of something else.

If you are willing to learn, we are here to help. If not, I wish you good luck finding something that’s a better fit for your needs.

2 Likes
15

And the OP’s last response is why the devs do a huge disservice to “noobs” (non-programmers) by convincing them (wrongly) that HA is “easy”.

No matter where they want to go with this, unless its just the most basic stuff, they will need to learn to do coding at some point. If they use HA as just another “canned solution” and have expectations to do all of the neat stuff they see on here then they will eventually get disappointed.

It’s better to “scare off” a few users by giving them realistic expectations than to over-promise that HA is for everyone.

16

Don’t kick yourself. No one learned templates overnight. The bulk majority of users come here for template help, if it’s not your thing you should do that. Also you could try Node-Red. It’s a flow chart essentially and it can do pretty much everything that a template sensor can do. Might be more up your ally.

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