I am on the hunt for the perfect HVAC controller - and so far it seems like one may not exist in the consumer market (or I don’t google as well as I used to). I’d appreciate thoughts from anyone out there with advanced HVAC automation, please share your experience on this journey and where you stand today.
Goal List:
- Zigbee/ZWave/Other local protocol required
- Preferably no cloud option at all, but acceptable if optional
- Should still support basic thermostat functions, setting/holding temp, changing mode, maybe schedules etc, from the device itself (so that it can still be operated locally in the event of HA outage)
- Should be able to use any external Zigbee temperature sensor to control the “current temperature”, which would also be displayed as the current temperature on the local device
Ultimately my perfect device is one where I can capitalize on the Zigbee temperature sensors that I already have in every room in the house, combining and averaging their temps to dictate back to the HVAC Controller what the “true” upstairs average temperature is. This would eventually be combined also with either motorized dampers or smart vents/registers to reduce airflow to rooms which are too far outside of an acceptable +/- threshold.
With most of the devices on the market today, it seems I am either limited to using their proprietary sensors (Nest, Honeywell, Ecobee) or there are a few cheaper models out there that seem to support zigbee or zwave (seems mostly zwave, unfortunately), but none seem to support controlling/averaging temperature to then be displayed on the device.
Am I doomed to a future where my HA automations just need to set my AC/Heat setpoints at very high numbers until the HA averages reach my “true” temp, and then have HA turn off the unit? Surely there has to be a better way?
Thanks in advance