Thermostat with custom current temp

Hardware
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1

I’ve got a use case where my current Nest is mounted in probably the coldest place in the house. I’ve adjusted the registers as much as I can but on hot days the second floor just gets warmer than the first. I’ve looked into dual zone HVAC systems but I’m not looking for that level of retrofit.

What I am looking for is a thermostat that will allow me to change it’s current temperature to reflect the value of a separate sensor. In this case, a min/max sensor that averages the temps from all the rooms in the house.

I don’t want to invest in a new z-wave thermostat that will always start the a/c when the device temp is is greater than target temp.

I’ve looked at generic thermostat integration and that looks like the ticket. I’m just not sure what will happen if I make my min/max sensor the target_temp and that conflicts with the current temp on the device.

Short of a total DIY solution that uses a simple switch, is there another, more aesthetically appealing solution?

2

Have a look at my configuration.

I have a dumb A/C that I can only control (on/off) with IR signals from a broadlink RM mini.
I have two xiaomi thermometers from which I get an average value, using the average custom component.
As my target sensor I use this average one.

climate:
  - platform: generic_thermostat
    name: Living Room
    heater: switch.broadlink_ac_cold
    target_sensor: sensor.living_room_average_temperature
    ac_mode: true
    cold_tolerance: 0.8
    hot_tolerance: 0.1
    min_cycle_duration:
      seconds: 5
    initial_hvac_mode: "off"
3

I like the simplicity of that solution. I guess I was hoping for some sort of interface where the user could select a target temp, much like a traditional thermostat.

4

You can have control over the thermostat as you would expect.

thermostat

In the above photo the current temperature is 27.9 (provided by the target_sensor which is actually the living_room_average_temperature). I have set my thermostat at 28.5, so when the target_sensor goes above that, the device will turn on.

I think the confusing part is that it is called target_sensor, when in fact it represents the current temp.
Or maybe i have misunderstood, since i have no experience on how Nest works.

5

That could work if I can find a way to display that card for a user to interface with.

Also curious what sort of hardware I’d need in my case with a traditional HVAC system.

Thanks for the suggestion!