Resuming Ecobee schedule after an automation turns it off

[HAChris]

Hi,

I have an automation that turns off my A/C when my hourly pricing is high. This seems to work very well. I’m trying to set up the automation that turns it back on, but I can’t get it to work. I’ve tried multiple ideas, but currently my yaml code looks like this. I’ve put some conditions for summer months in there so as to not turn my A/C on during the shoulder months when I don’t want any heating or cooling running. What am I doing wrong or what should I do differently to make this work? I’ve seen some people ask this question, but no answers have come out of it.

alias: A/C Resume schedule (low price)
description: ''
trigger:
  - platform: numeric_state
    entity_id: sensor.comed_current_hour_average_price
    below: '20.0'
    attribute: ''
    for:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 0
      seconds: 0
condition:
  - condition: template
    value_template: '- "{{ 6 <= now().month < 9 }}"'
action:
  - service: ecobee.resume_program
    data:
      entity_id: climate.thermostat
      resume_all: true
mode: single

[AllHailJ (J Gent)]

This is what I have done to control my two ecobee 3 lite thermostats. I use schedule to control but I am solar powered. I don’t use any preprogrammed values or programs in the ecobee.

It looks like this on the UI

The condition on your automation looks incorrect

  - condition: template
    value_template: "{{ 6 <= now().month < 9 }}"

[HAChris]

Well, I do use my ecobee scheduling. Is that not possible? Your setup is very different from mine, but also not dynamic. It’s just the schedule, but set up in Home Assistant instead, right?

What’s wrong with my condition? How can I fix it?

[Sergeantpup]

I use the resume schedule function nearly daily. When you just try to send the resume function does that work and you just need help with the trigger or are you saying resume schedule is not working for you?

[HAChris]

Good question. If I just run action within the automation, it does nothing from what I can tell. What might be wrong there? What does yours look like?

[Sergeantpup]

Well, now that you’ve asked I’ve of course discovered an issue but I confirmed it’s still working.

Here is a script that I run any time I want HA to sweep all thermostats to resume their schedule. Usually this is because I previously set all thermostats to “x” and now I want the schedule to take back over.

alias: Resume Thermostat Schedules
sequence:
  - service: ecobee.resume_program
    data: {}
  - service: notify.alexa_media
    data:
      target: >-
        media_player.kitchen_echo_show, media_player.2nd_floor_hallway_echo_dot,
        media_player.bathroom_1_echo_dot, media_player.bedroom_2_echo_show,
        media_player.bedroom_echo_show, media_player.office_echo_show,
        media_player.garage_entryway_echo_show, media_player.garage_echo_dot
      data:
        type: announce
      title: Thermostat schedule resumption notification
      message: All thermostat schedules have resumed
mode: single
icon: mdi:calendar-clock

From the YAML it looks like this shouldn’t work. They must’ve added something to this service since I configured it and it’s somehow still working.

To be clear, this is resuming the schedules I have set in the ecobee app. Its basically the only control I have outside of HA just because building the schedules is easier there.

[HAChris]

I see you have a bunch of Alexa stuff in there but your code looks a little different than mine. It has the brackets in data, and also no entity_id. Very interesting. I would expect mine to work and yours not to. I don’t understand why this won’t work:

service: ecobee.resume_program
data:
  entity_id: climate.thermostat
  resume_all: true

[Sergeantpup]

that should work. so you’ve given the thermostat a command outside of the value that’s currently scheduled and when you resume program the ‘hold’ doesn’t come off the thermostat in the ecobee app?

[HAChris]

Here is how I am testing. I change the thermostat from Cool to Off. I run this piece of code inside the automation page. Nothing seems to happen, but no error. It says it runs successfully.

[HAChris]

Maybe resume program is not what I need. I’m changing the code to this and seeing if this helps.

alias: A/C Resume schedule (low price)
description: ''
trigger:
  - platform: numeric_state
    entity_id: sensor.comed_current_hour_average_price
    below: '20.0'
    attribute: ''
    for:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 0
      seconds: 0
condition:
  - condition: template
    value_template: |2-
       - condition: template
          value_template: "{{ 6 <= now().month < 9 }}"
action:
  - device_id: 0fe9858eebbafbef4f0c06736aaf0cb7
    domain: climate
    entity_id: climate.thermostat
    type: set_hvac_mode
    hvac_mode: cool
mode: single

[Sergeantpup]

It doesn’t do that and I know it won’t because it failed today when I accidentally shut off all my units and I resumed schedules it did nothing. You would have to initiate a turn on command then a resume program.

[HAChris]

This appeared to work when performed manually. I think my condition is valid (it registers true). So, maybe that solves it. How would you send a turn on command? That could be interesting to do as well if I ever needed it.

[Sergeantpup]

looks like this is what’s doing it: climate.set_hvac_mode

I guess I shouldn’t have said turn on, then resume. Set the HVAC mode to heat, cool, or auto; then resume program

[HAChris]

Yep, that’s what I’m doing now. Although by default it resumes program when you do it this way. So, resume would only be to come out of a hold. I am not holding, so it makes sense to turn off and then back to Cool. My parameters are for when my electricity pricing goes up and down, so that could be long durations. Thanks for your help. I’ll take what I have here and tweak it as necessary. The main thing that was a problem was that it didn’t turn my AC back on when price point came down.