It actually shows if there’s occupancy…, how do these work?
How do they work in HA, or in EcoBee?
In HA:
They show temperature, humidity, and occupancy.
The temp/humidity updates approx every 15 minutes or so.
The occupancy sensor detects motion fast enough (within 30-90 seconds), but not fast enough to turn on lights imho. The occupancy clears after ~30 minutes of no motion sensed.
The sensor is meant to control a thermostat with pretty rough data, so I wouldn’t consider using it for anything other than HVAC control. I use seperate temp/humidity sensors for actual data gathering, and separate motion sensors for lighting control.
In the EcoBee they work pretty well.
i know why they use and for what purpose, so they are just motion sensors…
Oh, so what their meant for: They talk over RF to the ecobee itself.
The EcoBee is a smart thermostat, and with these remote sensing units, it can do what’s called “follow me” mode, where if you have a home where some rooms are warmer or colder than other rooms, the ecobee will know what room you are in and try to bring that particular room to your temperature setpoint instead of the room where the thermostat is.
It can also use them for schedules, so at night my thermostat only controls to the temperature in the bedroom.
That’s all done entirely inside the EcoBee, and not home assistant.
When you connect your ecobee to HA, HA can read the sensors from the thermostat and all of the remote sensors.
They are just motion sensors, temperature sensors, and humidity sensors, with a slow poll rate basically. They also talk a proprietary RF protocol, so they have to be connected to an ecobee, not directly to HA.
I have a bunch of Zigbee Temp/humidity sensors around the house already. I am considering using ecobee for my thermostat and integrating it with HA. Do you know if I could use my existing sensors to temp average or set target temperatures for ecobee?