I would like to have all thermostat setpoints exposed as number entities, or in the climate entity. This would allow us to set the each setpoint’s value regardless of the thermostat’s current mode.
The current behavior of zwave climate devices is that it only ‘activates’ the setpoints for the currently active mode. For example, when the thermostat is set to heat mode, only the heat setpoint is activated and thus you can only set the target temperature for the ‘heat’ setpoint. Another example is when the thermostat is set to off, none of the setpoints are activated, so you can’t set the target temperature for any setpoint.
By exposing all setpoints (as number entities or in the climate entity) it will enable users to set any setpoint’s target temperature regardless of the current thermostat mode. For example, when the thermostat is in the off mode, the user would still be able to set the target temperature for the heat mode, or the cool mode, etc., without having to first set the thermostat to the mode.
This creates a potential for energy savings. For example, suppose the thermostat is set to off mode, the heat setpoint is set to 75F (it was set last time it was on heat mode), and the current temperature is 70F. The user now wants to set the heat setpoint to 65F to prevent the current temperature from dropping below that value. For the user to accomplish that they first need to set the thermostat to heat mode, which would start heating and consuming energy (because the current temperature is 70F and the heat setpoint is set to 75F), and then set the heat setpoint to 65F, which would then cause the thermostat to stop heating.
Now if we expose all setpoints regardless of the current thermostat mode (as number entities or in the climate device), in the above scenario the user wouldn’t need to first set the thermostat to heat mode to then set the target heat temperature. The user would first set the target heat temperature, then set the thermostat to heat mode. This way the thermostat would not consume energy unnecessarily just to set the desired target heat temperature.