First thing to know is using the beestat website to get A LOT of information from your ecobee:
And this is for Northern climates, so maybe not applicable to you, but a good guide nonetheless:
https://www.notion.so/Heat-Pump-Electric-Heat-Strip-Auxiliary-04fbdaeccc90468a8215170dc19995e2
beestat.io - a free third party web application for viewing your ecobee thermostat data and analytics. There's an Android app as well.
Aha. I've done this using a current sensor and an Aeon Labs dry contact z-wave module. Here are the details of what I did:
My application was I wanted the sound bar on my TV to increase in volume by three when the HVAC blower comes on and decrease in volume when the HVAC blower goes off. Using HASS, I raise the volume on my sound bar (using Harmony) when the HVAC comes on and lower it when it goes off. Works great.
The process is a bit messy to add it. It's not through the home app. Hold the home button on your phone if it has the Google assistant. Blue button, settings, and it should be in there.
Or do it though the Google assistant app on iPhone or Android.
Android link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.googleassistant
You could probably whip something up using IFTTT. Have it monitor temperature differentials and then run the fan until things equalize a bit more.
Possibly this as a starting point: https://ifttt.com/applets/397810p-turn-the-furnace-fan-on-when-the-temp-is-above-heat-setting
Ecobee, to my knowledge, ignores your Hold Action when set with an external source such as Google Home. If you tell Google Home to set a temperature, it is pretty much set indefinitely. It is the only thing I don't like about the Ecobee and you would think it would be an easy fix. Best way around it is to use IFTTT to resume at different times during the day. Maybe /u/Mikey-A- can confirm.
You can also use IFTTT to connect to the Ecobee (though I haven't tried myself as my Home hasn't arrived).
Here's a list of Home commands.
Hey everyone,
We understand that some people are getting frustrated. But let me follow up some these:
Server Issues: What happened the other day was an unforeseeable issue. And a few months ago, we also had some more frequent server issues. But we recently we made some changes on our end that made our servers much more stable. Until the other day, there hasn't been any server issues since these changes months ago. But our server team is working hard to avoid any issues, like the recent one, from happening again.
Weather Issue: We recently moved away from Custom Weather, and now are using Dark Sky. So far, we've seen some great success!
Smart Recovery: We are looking into this with our ecobees, and currently trying to get a better picture of Smart Recovery all together, and how it can be improved.
We thank you guys, and all our customer reporting these and any issues to us, to help make our products better for the future!
Ok - the following should help you get your thermostat installed:
Get an accurate gauge that measures temperature and humidity, because temperature alone is just half the story. Humidity makes a huge difference to how "comfortable" a given temperature feels.
Here's a temperature/humidity gauge on Amazon that seems to get good reviews.
I have a heat only system as well. My old thermostat only used two wires. I called ecobee and we were trying to get 24v power to the ecobee. I ended up buying a transformer from Amazon and used the power from there.
External Transformer plug into power supply wires coming from this adapter connect to RC and C terminal and thermostat wire R wire to RH terminal and W wire w1 terminal.
This is the transformer I went with bc it woukd be easier for me.
MG ELECTRONICS MGT2420 TRANSFORMER,24VAC 20VA UL APPROVED https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0010GR07O/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_6YxeAbX9XCVRH
Pebble OS != Android. Also, the Hive for ecobee app for Pebble OS to control ecobee thermostats was not developed by ecobee.
There is ecobee Wrap, also not developed by ecobee, that does apparently support AndroidWear.
Edit - corrected "Hive" to "Hive for ecobee" and added link to it.
The only thing it uses your address for is geographic comparison. The third party sharing of that info is just validation so his software can utilize it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ https://www.notion.so/Infrastructure-40ba8b6514284b8cbda804d973b17bbf#1490d84396a840fdbe853e6c54359fcb
I use two; one to set away and one to set home.
When first family member arrives, set ecobee to resume program.
When the last family member leaves home, set your ecobee thermostat to 'Away'.
You can check out this guide from beestat:
https://www.notion.so/Heat-Pump-Electric-Heat-Strip-Auxiliary-04fbdaeccc90468a8215170dc19995e2
Your balance point is where the heat delta is 0°F. This page describes it in a bit more detail.
>After lowering it in stages down to 25F,
Unless the heat pumps they install in Arizona are significantly different than those in the midwest, you should be able to set that to 0°F. Heat pumps work fine and still produce heat at a cheaper rate than your aux at below-0 temperatures.
>if the Ecobee uses an Internet derived temperature to determine the outdoor temperature, it could think it's below the minimum temperature threshold when it's not
Yes, this can happen. Ecobee uses Dark Sky as their weather source to try and produce "hyperlocal" weather. That is, weather at your house, not the weather station. This is sometimes wrong, especially if you live near a large body of water or something where temperatures don't exactly follow normal gradients.
If the weather from Dark Sky is wrong, then your ecobee will be wrong and be following the rules wrong. Ecobee support may be able to tweak this if you're seeing wild differences but I'm not sure. There is no other way to provide this information to the ecobee.
​
I don't know what the resolution is, but I haven't seen this happen. And I have Cox outages at least once a week. I use <em>dnsmasq</em> to provide DHCP/DNS services for my home network, and like u/Tymanthius, have static IPs assigned for the ecobee thermostats. Maybe that makes a difference.
Is this a brand new thermostat? Double check under the plastic packaging. If it did not come with one I’m not sure that would work. Here is a link to one that would work.
Sophisticated Aluminum-Alloy Metal Wall Plate for ECOBEE 4 Smart Wi-Fi Thermostat by Wasserstein (Black) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0759JDTT6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_J06NZB42M6ZWKAC33JPZ?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
Yep, this links to :
https://myidealtimes (dot) com/awesome-deals-at-amazon-now-for-you/#ecobee
Then you get a list of the Amazon links. The one in question links to :
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NQT85FC with this affiliate link attached ^?tag=beshanmix-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1
Is there a way to report affiliate link spammers to Amazon?
One thing I didn't see in the comments(or missed), be cautious about closing to many vents. It can cause too much back pressure on the blower fan and prematurely wear out the fan. Also, it is not recommended to run your fan 100% of the time. It doesn't allow the condensate to drain off the EVAP coil when the AC is running. Which can cause mold and will only put the humidity back in the air. I turned that function off and have saved money and been more comfortable during the summer. What I did to help with temp differences was install a vent fan. It replaces the register cover with a programmable fan to help pull conditioned air in the room. It help a lot. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0792QR5YT/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_X6ME3G3VC1B93YM5M80F
Ah, the story continues! Thanks for doing this additional research.
So if I'm understanding correctly, you need the Y wire to act normally (energize on cool), and the W wire to be reverse logic (de-energize on heating). In addition, you'd like the low fan speed to be energized even when there's no call for heating or cooling. Here's what I'd suggest:
1: Move the Y wire back to the Y1 terminal. That can be set up normally.
2: Get yourself a SPDT (single pole double throw) relay. These can be found for pretty cheap online. It will allow you to make the W1 terminal on the Ecobee reverse-acting. I'd recommend a PAM-1 relay like this one just because it comes with wiring leads. To set it up, here's how you'd want to wire it:
3: To have the low fan speed run all the time, you could try connecting the low fan speed wire to C (common) instead of G. This should make it so that the wire is constantly energized. If it makes it so the fan is running when there's no call for heating/cooling but shuts off the fan on a call for heating/cooling, you might need to jump the G and C terminals together somehow.
Some of this is going to unfortunately require either trying to fit multiple wires in single terminals on the Ecobee or some rewiring with additional wires, wires nuts, and pigtails to the Ecobee wiring terminals.
Try this for your daughters room: works very well
AC Infinity AIRTAP T4, Quiet Register Booster Fan with Thermostat Control. Heating Cooling AC Vent. Fits 4” x 10” Register Holes. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0792QR5YT/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_s2HeGbFEHXYBN?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
Depending on what you're testing, you may want to consider a transformer with an output current higher than 500 mA such as this.
You can get a power adapter for them. https://smile.amazon.com/Transformer-Adapter-Honeywell-ThermostaDoorbell-Doorbell/dp/B07YD9GH94
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0071IWJ7G/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I have the same set up as you. I bought this above and I just got mine running today! I had already installed 18/5, so I just spliced the wires from the adapter and used the reviews on Amazon with the wire configuration.
The two I mentioned both say a hub isn't needed and it's compatible with IFTTT. I was just wondering if anyone had experience with either of those and IFTTT and it's reliability.
https://www.amazon.com/Smart-Wi-Fi-Enabled-Works-Amazon/dp/B01NBI0A6R
If you aren't comfortable, most HVAC professionals are comfortable with these devices now. I actually hired mine through Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DCC4LQQ/ and it was costly, but at least I knew it was done right, with a company to stand behind it (no you don't have to buy it through amazon to use the installation service).
I get mine via Amazon subscribe and for the price tag and specs seems to be not so convenient (20% cheaper on Amazon):
Brand/Model | Size | Performance | price per pair (incl shipping) |
---|---|---|---|
3M Filtrete | 20 x 30 x 1 | MPR 1900, MERV 13 | $30.99 |
ecobee Air filters | 20 x 30 x 1 | MPR 1500 - 1900, MERV 13 | $37.80 |
I don't know if their quality is good enough for the change, tho... so maybe I will keep an eye on it for the future.
> Do you understand that you can't access the ecobee platform because they've made it inaccessible ?
You should clarify exactly what you mean by this. ecobee's API is definitely accessible.
If it wasn't, then beestat.io would not be available. Nor would ecobee integrations for home automation platforms be available. And there are third-party ecobee integrations available for HomeAssistant, HomeSeer, Hubitat, SmartThings and possibly other platforms.
Further, third-party Android apps, like ecobee wrap, which supports widgets, would not be available. Apps like "ecobee wrap" are especially pertinent to the point at hand because your apparent issue with u/JoeDimwit's suggestion is because "you can't access the ecobee platform because they've made it inaccessible".
Are you open to a 3rd party app? Check out Ecobee Wrap, it has the feature you want. You can choose the comfort setting easily with one click from the main thermostat screen. It's pretty decent, but it does have somewhat intrusive ads. Kindly ugly too, but functionality is there. Runtime charts are nice.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.supremevue.ecobeewrap
>A couple of notes on the Ecobee configuration. First, make sure you have configured the Ecobee in 2-wire mode. If you inadvertently configure it in 1-wire mode, I believe Ecobee will put voltage on the 1-wire which could potentially damage your HRV
thank you this is very useful information, i used 1 wire acc+ and bridged the - from the c wire behind the thermostat to use a 24v relay
I could use directly as you said the acc+/- to connect the two-time wires but I may by mistake got power if i mistakenly choose to form the thermostat the 1 wire mode
Assuming you have an outlet nearby to the thermostat location and you didn't buy the cheapest ecobee, you can get this: https://www.amazon.com/Transformer-Thermostat-Competible-Versions-Honeywell/dp/B07DJ7RHS5
The power adapter wires will go into Rc and C. The original wires go into Rh and W1.
If I was you, I would do two things. Buy a simple humidity meter like this. https://www.amazon.com/ThermoPro-TP50-Digital-Thermometer-Temperature/dp/B01H1R0K68/ref=sr_1_4?crid=1H8NGAHHEPW5U&keywords=humidistats+for+home+indoor&qid=1669663597&sprefix=humidistat%2Caps%2C198&sr=8-4 Monitor your humidity as winter gets colder and colder. Your indoor humidity will ideally be between 30-50% but will get lower as winter goes on. Lots of information on the web about proper indoor humidity levels. I would have an HVAC company come out and quote/investigate a humidifier install for you. It won't cost you a thing.
Great! I'm assuming you have a spare wire from the ecobee to your furnace.
Things you will need: 24v fan relay: https://www.amazon.com/Isolation-Certification-Compatible-Humidifier-Sequencer/dp/B09MVXSSP8 Enough 18/2 thermostat wire to get from the end of the your thermostat wiring to the humidistat. Plus a little extra.
The PEK wire from the ecobee will connect to one of the control side terminals on the relay. The other control side terminal will be using a wire from the little extra I told you to get and terminate on the C terminal of your furnace.
Using the load side, normally open terminals, connect each of the additional 18/2 wiring. At the humidistat, find the wire that goes out to the humidifier solenoid. Split that splice. One of the new wires connects to the humidistat output wire. The other wire connects to the wire that goes to the humidifier solenoid. Now, the ecobee is wired in series with the humidifier wiring via the relay. As long as the humidistat is set to the highest level, the ecobee will control the humidifier.
Hey just to let you know, I was able to pick up a relay today and this actually worked! Funny enough, Automag (the manufacturer of my valves) had a diagram showing something very similar to use their valves with a two-wire thermostat. So that's essentially what I did, and just used the original third wire for a common wire.
I just ordered two more Ecobee thermostats! Any idea how many thermostats I can power off a single plug-in transformer? I have this 300mA unit.
That's almost certainly the cookie issue...have you used beestat before? If you clear your cookies on your iPhone it should work. Here's a guide on how to delete cookies for just one domain so you don't get logged out of your other stuff: http://osxdaily.com/2012/06/10/delete-site-specific-cookies-ios/
Yes, You can use external power adaptors for the ecobee. That's how I did mine without the headache of running the wiring(plus don't know how). If you are renting, that might be your best bet. without modding anything in the apartment.
Something like this would work: https://www.amazon.com/Transformer-Doorbell-Competible-Honeywell-Thermostat/dp/B07Z8TXYVC/ref=sr_1_4?crid=2AWR6TQ2TC9JU&keywords=24v+power+supply+thermostat&qid=1667186879&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIzLjMwIiwicXNhIjoiMy4wMSIsInFzcCI6IjIuNzUifQ%3D%3D...
What you can do is get a fast stat common maker. The shared wire will be the W wire. This will allow you to use the original W wire as W and C.
https://www.amazon.com/Fast-STAT-Common-Maker-Popular-Thermostats/dp/B0B4Y6R6V5
The leads go into Rc and C. Your existing wires go into Rh and W1. All set.
Here you go. They come in white now instead of beige: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FCCZ5Q/
Sorry the ecobee isn't working out for you. I'm not sure what device you are calibrating against, but if you share some more detailed info I'm sure you could get some help. Your logs from the time period you were testing would be especially helpful; you can download them from the ecobee website under the Home IQ section.
When I bought my new heat pump, they had to run new thermostat cable and installed my new ecobee right across from my old thermostat. The ecobee was a good 3-4 degrees different, which made me suspicious. I ended up buying the temperature probe I linked below to verify, and I did have to adjust the ecobee by 2.5 degrees. I’m suspicious of the humidity reading as well, but not enough to buy an accurate way to verify that as well.
Temperature Profiles are a powerful and transparent look at how your HVAC system performs across the outdoor temperature spectrum. You can use this chart to identify the rate at which your home will change temperature when heating, cooling, or doing nothing at all.
you can (not ideal) buy a C wire adapter: 24 Volt Transformer, C Wire Adapter Thermostats, Compatible with Ecobee, Nest and Honeywell Smart WiFi Thermostat, Ring Nest Hello Skybell August Doorbell (White)https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MT5VWQN/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B07MT5VWQN&pd_rd_w=VZsv3&content-id=amzn1.sym.3481f441-61ac-4028-9c1a-7f9ce8ec50c5&pf_rd_p=3481f441-61ac-4028-9c1a-7f9ce8ec50c5&pf_rd_r=TSGS048WGMWSQZZ1RYZW&pd_rd_wg=ZuvXs&pd_rd_r=9fbae5d1-9e3c-4005-9dc3-7c15381cd7f7&s=hi&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFHSkpWUE5YMzYwUFEmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA5NzA0NTA5NVc0ODVSUzJNSTImZW5jcnlwdGVkQWRJZD1BMDk0MTkxNlBCSE84M0FNQjhIQiZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2RldGFpbF90aGVtYXRpYyZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=
IFTTT is another app for total smart home integration, it links different smart entities. I used to use it with Life360 for better geofencing on our Ecobee, but have since switched to HomeAssistant.
Basically, you could pick which device you were trying to control, and it had options for various 'triggers' you could use. List
Offhand, it doesn't look like there's a trigger that would work, but maybe take a closer look at them.
I am no expert, but what you are referring to is the Heat Pump Balance Point.
To see when your HP doesn't keep up you should take a look at the Analyze tab then Temperature Profiles. It updates every Friday/Sat as a free user.
​
Some great reading: https://www.notion.so/Help-Support-3d926d0617df437d863a3e869d817008
Does your HP keep up below 45? I would hope so! Have you signed up for Beestat? If not, you should. What model do you have? I can tell you my HP will heat my house down to 6F, that’s the break even point. The outdoor min in my experience should be disabled as a HP is still more cost effective than electric AUX. Comfort may suffer so it’s up to you to find that balance point. What’s your goal, comfort or savings?
Check out this guide. https://www.notion.so/Heat-Pump-Electric-Heat-Strip-Auxiliary-04fbdaeccc90468a8215170dc19995e2
Understand you there! I used 76khw (HP ran for 81810 seconds. Almost a full day!) the other day! I got my Ecobee last March so this is my first full winter. You should sign up for Beestat, it will give you way more information that Ecobee will. Here is a guide that might help you with some of the manual settings: HP & Electric AUX. There are several guides floating around, I would look at everything you can and decide what's best.
Regarding Aux lock out. That depends on your balance point. Can calculate that with beestat.
It's the temperature where your house can handle only heat pump. Aux lock out at 30 may not be too high, you might need a bit of supplementary AUX at 30f.
wow... always had one in the apt somewhere. at the end of the day it's just relay contacts... maybe an external power supply/battery is possible? idk but there is this....
Answered my own question. The Ecobee 4 face plate works just fine with the Ecobee Smart Thermostat Enhanced. The screw holes don't line up perfectly, but close enough for a clean fit. This was using the CaseBot Wall Plate for Ecobee 4. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09BQKGNCK?ref=ppx\_yo2ov\_dt\_b\_product\_details&th=1
I'm assuming this is your first summer there? I'd suggest ordering the following and keeping it for when the Chinese capacitor on your a/c condenser fries on a hot day. The US made ones are much better so when you need service, have them install the good one rather than another Chinese one.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M05L7B3?psc=1&ref=ppx\_yo2ov\_dt\_b\_product\_details
https://ifttt.com/applets/106381485d-rss-feed-to-email
This can be setup easily using ifttt. So if email is your preferred option then use some kind of RSS to email service. Ifttt just makes it super easy to setup.
I clean my evaporator every year with this stuff:
Nu-Calgon 4171-75 Evap Foam No Rinse Evaporator Coil Cleaner
I also drop six RectorSeal A/C tabs in the pan once a year (just before the A/C season starts).
Using AC to dehumidify sounds expensive. Ecobee supports a dehumidifier via the ACC wire.
Look into the AprilAir model. I have the humidifier, and it works perfectly. I suspect the dehumidifier would work equally well.
https://www.amazon.com/Aprilaire-Dehumidifier-Spaces-Basements-Commercial/dp/B094PR3HQ1/
Here you go - ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium with Siri and Alexa and Built in Air Quality Monitor and Smart Sensor https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09XXS48P8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_NJNFKYNSWAT16KK6B8Q3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
I'm not saying I should have, nor if there are long-term consequences, but I definitely had mine (though heating and cooling, so had RC, G, W1, Y1) with an external brick - dashed negative lead into C, other shoved into RC along with the actual thermostat wire. Ran it that way for 3 years in the apt before I moved out and put theirs back in place. Used one of these
You can use IFTTT do do extra things like what you're describing beyond what's possible in the base app. https://ifttt.com/ecobee
Or if you're willing to do a lot more work, alternatively you could install HomeAssistant or OpenHAB on a raspberry pi computer and set up automations.
The IFTTT site has pretty good on-boarding steps. Basically you connect any devices/services you want to work with and then set up little programs to do things. There are a bunch of Ecobee "applets" there that folks have made: https://ifttt.com/search/query/ecobee
So, you'll want to make an IFTTT account, connect IFTTT to Ecobee, and then look for an applet like this one: "Set thermostat comfort profile for X hours". I set it up to trigger when I press a "button" on my phone, which is just a little Android widget that the IFTTT app can generate. Hope that all makes sense!
https://ifttt.com/applets/92122779d-receive-a-notification-if-any-motion-is-detected
​
​
this!
IfTTT has this. You can make a button on your phone or trigger a specific comfort setting using something like Alexa. Here's one I use: https://ifttt.com/applets/XubsXA2P-set-your-comfort-profile-with-the-push-of-a-button?term=ecobee%20button
You can get around #2 by setting an override TEMPERATURE rather than setting "Home for Now" which will abide by the other settings (such as resetting at the next scheduled change, or whatever you have your setting preference).
I agree "home for now" == "home forever"
If it's helpful, I found a task on IFTTT that will automatically restore your schedule if it's still overridden at sleep time (which you can configure) https://ifttt.com/applets/riQ3kmJ5-ensure-that-your-ecobee-is-running-on-its-regular-program-every-day-at-the-time-you-specify
There is an Ifttt trigger for temperature to turn on a Bond fan but I’m not sure how to set a trigger via the active heat cycle.
Start your ceiling fan when your Ecobee Thermostat says it's too hot https://ifttt.com/applets/mNLRfTrn
Not with ecobee. But if you're going to be physically in the room, a regular thermometer updates pretty often.
Under $5 with free next-day shipping for Prime
https://www.amazon.com/Goabroa-Hygrometer-Thermometer-Temperature-Fahrenheit/dp/B07QC7JRDP/ref=mp_s_a_1_14
It's another dollar or two if you'd rather have one that uses AA or AAA instead of button batteries.
If its just for heat you need 3 wires for a ecobee. One red(power) Heat wire and common wire. But it can be done with a add-a-wire kit .
https://www.amazon.com/Venstar-ACC0410-Wire-Accessory-Thermostats/dp/B08R98R5M6
This add a wire take one wire and converts it to 2 wires. you add a module in the
furnace and a splitter at the termostat. Bm 3 wires. Pretty slick.
the documentation and UI both suck, and neither has seen any real improvement in half a decade. I can't wait for a good competitor to knock ecobee out, they're really exploiting their position in the market. I have big hopes for the (https://smile.amazon.com/Amazon-Smart-Thermostat/dp/B08J4C8871)[Alexa Thermostat] - hopefully they start announcing good accessories like room sensors to integrate in.
Do NOT use an AC/DC converter. The ecobee runs on 24VAC.
What you want is a 120VAC > 24 VAC transformer, something like this:
I am not necessarily recommending that particular model, it was the just the first one I found in an Amazon search that met the correct criteria.
Hook the Hot of the transformer to ecobee Rc, and the Common of the transformer to ecobee C.
The T86 connections go to Rh and W on the ecobee.
Assuming that it works with a non-communicating thermostat, you are paying a lot of money for what i call "stupid staging". The system will stage based on time and not actual temperature of your home. The system will spend a fixed amount of time on each stage before ramping up to the next stage. So, 5 mins in stage 1, 5 mins in stage 2, etc etc. And since you can't control staging at all, you might end up running 20 mins before you feel any real cooling, especially if both zones are calling for AC.
With a communicating thermostat, it might still run 5 mins in stage 1, but kick up to stage 3 immediately because it's hot outside. That's one good thing about a communicating thermostat as it can use the outdoor temperature to make staging decisions. You also get dehumidification mode too.
I don't know what zone control board you have. But you might be better served with a simple 2 stage heat pump with a zone control board that supports staging like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-HZ322-TrueZONE-Panel/dp/B008HQ3OM0 With this configuration, your AC will always start in stage 1 when only 1 zone is calling. When a second zone calls, it immediately kicks into stage 2. If one zone stops calling, it drops back to stage 1.
You can use a Smart Management Module or a Load Shedding module to assist with this.
Generac has this SMM which would probably work.
Generac also has this Load Shedding device that takes the inputs from the call for A/C lines and will shed load if necessary. It's designed for use with specific transfer switches but it can be used standalone and is more complicated to deal with.
Just some info when I was looking at options for my generator.
I had the same issue when I set up my Ecobee. What ultimately worked for me was to find a local weather station on weather underground that tracked the closely with my outdoor thermometer. Due to my location, it took me a week or two to find a station and verify that tracked well with my actual temperature.
Once I had the station I wanted to use, it was a quick email to the ecobee customer support guys to have them switch the reference to the new weather station's ID.
Costco has EB3s with three room sensors for $160:
If you don't need all the sensors that come with two of the deals, sell them on ebay and get some cash back.
Sorry for the delay in responding, been under the weather and stuck in bed. Here's the link:
Are you home/away on the same days of the week? If so, then you can create custom comfort modes for you and your wife, then schedule them on those days. If you have a 6 day rotating schedule, then I would look into the IFTT integration and use geofencing (https://ifttt.com/ecobee) to switch modes on the days you're home.
I have quite a bit of experience in this (only with a gas furnace as the aux).
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I set the min threshhold to 16f.
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More importantly..
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I maintain a constant temp of 67f whether i'm home or not.
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Most important..
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I run an IFTTT recipe that will drop my set temp to 64f (yes 64f) when the temperature drop below 16f, to use less gas.
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EDIT: Ifttt recipes:
What profile do you recommend then? Just use https://ifttt.com/applets/44156145d-when-first-family-member-arrives-set-ecobee-to-resume-program
??
By using this recipe, both of us are home now, and the ecobee says "Home until 630pm" which is when the next profile kicks in.
My aux heat seems to be running more than it should, so I looked some beestat tutorials to tune my settings, but my graph looks wrong. Both of my thermostats have been ecobees for over a year. I built my house 16 years ago, and its fairly well insulated.
Also my Heat score is 92 and my cool score is 5 which seems like a large disparity.
There's actually only one...and it only shows up if you have your heat/cool differential at the default of 0.5°F. I do have some other general recommendations for heat pump users, though.
I could afford a plumber, and I'm glad I did. The first thing he did was throw away that saddle valve.
The connection from the kitchen sink (it was closest) to the humidifier valve is 100% copper.
The valve is a good copper one. I start with closed, and slowly crack it open until I get just a trickle to the humidifier. It took a while to get it "tuned".
Now that I have the excess running into the washer drain, I don't worry as much about having a bit extra going through the humidifier. I still keep an eye on it to be sure everything is working as expected.
I also marked the date on the humidifier filter (I note the purchase date from my Amazon account), and change it out faithfully every November when things start to get dry around here.
https://www.amazon.com/Aprilaire-4750-Maintenance-Kit-700/dp/B01DSTBXK0/
My guess is the 2 wires go back to an Equipment Interface Module (EIM) similar to this. Check on or around your furnace/blower for one. The two wires from that Honeywell thermostat are probably going into the EIM. If so, unfortunately, you're going to need more wires for the Ecobee.
I had a similar setup that I was replacing with an Ecobee. To do it, I had to pull a new thermostat wire from the furnace in my garage to the thermostat location. As I needed at least 5 wires (heat pump with aux heat) I pulled an 8 conductor thermostat wire, for possible future use, and just tucked the three unused conductors back into the wall.
I have a feeling you're going to have to do the same if you want to replace that Honeywell with an Ecobee.
I have Life360 on every device working fine but it doesn't work great with IFTTT. I have 2 Ecobee3 in my house one upstairs and the other downstairs.
Downstairs Home: https://ifttt.com/applets/43327504d-set-downstairs-ecobee-to-home-when-any-family-member-arrives-home
Downstairs Away: https://ifttt.com/applets/43327654d-set-ecobee3-away-downstairs-when-last-family-memeber-leaves
The upstairs Ecobee has the same setup.
The only way to get to get it work properly with more than one phone is to also use Life360, because Life360 can track multiple phones at the same time. Once your phones are connected through Life360, the IFTTT recipes trigger when the last phone leaves the fence and when the first phone enters the fence. These are a couple specific recipes that work, but you can always make your own:
https://ifttt.com/recipes/381580-when-first-family-member-arrives-set-ecobee-to-resume-program
https://ifttt.com/recipes/418518-set-comfort-profile-to-away-when-last-family-member-leaves-home
I've been using it everyday for months and they have never failed to work. I use IOS, but I believe Life360 works just as well on Android.
I'm not using Life360 so that may be part of the issue.
These are the recipes I;m using currently: https://ifttt.com/myrecipes/personal/37810006 and https://ifttt.com/myrecipes/personal/37809947
I'll have to download Life360 and see if I can configure it with the same triggers you're using and verify that it's working.
EDIT: I've had location services on always for both IFTTT and ecobee apps. I wasn't sure if they needed to be enabled as it never stated as such on the FAQ's or on the IFTTT site so I did enable them both prior to testing.
Can you share what recipes you're using?
I've been using (along with wife) the IFTTT geofenceing for quite some time now and it works flawlessly daily.
But from what I understand, if you're using multiple phones you also have to intregrate it with Life360. I don't see any mention of Life360 in your post and that may be your issue.
Here are the recipes I use:
https://ifttt.com/recipes/255352-set-ecobee-to-away-when-last-family-member-leaves-home
and
https://ifttt.com/recipes/268195-set-ecobee-to-home-when-any-family-member-arrives-home
(Except, I changed the second recipe to "resume program" rather than set to "Home"... as it will put a home "hold" on your thermostat for some reason, that doesn't allow the thermostat to then change to "sleep" when it should.)
Let me know if you have questions.
EDIT: Also just noticed that you asked if you needed to enable location services on your phones... yes, for a location based geofence system to work it needs to constantly know your location, and it can only find that out if your location services are turned on.
I use it almost every night. I have my sleep schedule set to start at 11:00pm. But most of the time we head to bed before 11, so I'll just quickly tell Siri "Goodnight" and she throws it into an early sleep setting for me.
The problem though is that Siri puts the ecobee into an indefinite hold that does not let the ecobee come out of sleep mode automatically in the morning.
The solution (until Apple/Ecobee figure their shit out) is use IFTTT and this very simple recipe (https://ifttt.com/recipes/268233-resume-ecobee-program-at-night) which will run every night (at whatever time you select) on it's own and resume your normal program so that your home program kicks in as normal in the morning.
But yes, generally, that is the only thing I use Siri for, sometimes when I'm downstairs I'll use it to check the temp. The geo-fencing is useless because it will only follow one phone. Again I've rectified that by using Life360 and IFTTT which allows the following of multiple phones.
I'm hoping future updates will allow more/better functionality. Also as we get more into Home Automation and it gets cheaper (switches, plugs, lights, etc) you'll need/want the homekit integration for everything to work together.
I ended up returning the ecobee and getting a Sensi wifi thermostat instead which worked in my setup.
I used two of these to make my four wire thermostat wiring into 6 wires.
Venstar ACC0410 Add-A-Wire Accessory for All 24 VAC Thermostats (4 to 5 Wires), White https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01IF3QXMC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_NDEZZ5DFQFAT8AMQGAR9
Wow, I had never heard of IFTTT, I didn't even know the ecobee would be compatible with outside apps, but according to their website, it can do exactly that, use your google calender to schedule heating times:
But really, you shouldn't need that, because the ecobee comes with occupancy sensors, I think right now you still get 3 for free in addition to the one on the thermostat. I'm not exactly sure how they work but they probably use a combination of passive infrared body heat detection and ultrasonic scanning, as most occupancy sensors do. You can easily set up the ecobee to just go in "away" mode any time all of the rooms are unoccupied, and only heat/cool the home when at least one of them senses you're home.
No, don't do this. /u/pachieh, you need to swap your W1 and W2 wires in your Ecobee.
You appear to have a heat pump with single-stage cooling, 2-stage heating, and emergency heat (usually auxiliary electric radiator strips).
"E" wire is "Emergency" heat; i.e. if your heat pump can't keep up.
Right now, you are preferencing Heat Pump Stage 1 -> Emergency Heat -> Heat Pump Stage 2.
This is because your old thermostat used a combined terminal for W1 and O/B. Because the Ecobee uses separate O/B and W1 terminals, you need to "shift the order up", i.e. what used to be W2 becomes W1, and what used to be E becomes W2.
Then your order becomes Heat Pump Stage 1 -> Heat Pump Stage 2 -> Emergency Heat
Make sure you set your staging and reverse-staging settings as described here to make the most of your heat pump and minimise your energy use!
Good luck!
To change this setting, from your ecobee, go to:
Main Menu > Settings > Installation Settings > Thresholds
Set Configure Staging to Manually
Find the Cool Differential Temperature value and change it
They're the newer ones (I believe, not an ecobee expert). They're the ones that come with the ecobee4 (and probably others):
ecobee4 Smart Thermostat with Built-in Alexa, Room Sensor Included https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B08BZTPMW1/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_A8KXJG8HR5AGASZYBZDG
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I have not been able to get them to link to my WU station. They tell me they can only link to a station on darksky.net, I am working on it but have not figured it out yet.
The time you're looking at is consistent with the outage yesterday/this morning. With the ecobee servers down your thermostat has nowhere to send it's data to, so you get gaps like that.
Outdoor temperature is monitored 100% by ecobee on their servers using Dark Sky. That service must have been working correctly.
This clearly isn't the response you desired, but here goes anyway.
I've had ecobee thermostats since 2012. I've gone through several routers, and two service providers, in the last 6+ years and have never run into the issue you describe. The one constant during that entire period that is that I use dnsmasq for to provide dns/dhcp services for my home network; all my IOT devices are on their own subnet, and because it was more convenient for me to monitor them, I configure DNSMasq to assign them names that resolve to static IPs (and I ensure that rDNS works).
These days I use a FingBox to monitor my home network. It doesn't require me to configure dnsmasq the way I have, but doesn't hurt either.
I don't know what hardware you have - but why not assign static IPs? Doing that doesn't adversely affect network reliability or stability?
Download Link - only good for a week.
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It's a work in progress. let me know what you think and if i've missed anything important.
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Copy/paste your data dump into the red cell on the "Import" tab then click the "31 Day Log" tab to see results.
Sure:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/wddvVeFY1lwlWzbl662BweiLD3NWizYNys6B2TEkELh
Note that I only have one ecobee thermostat, so the script assumes that. If you have multiple thermostats you’ll have to address that.
It’s a shell script running on a Synology NAS, but should work on most flavors of Linux, I would expect. Obviously the API calls should be the same no matter what platform you use.
You’ll need to add the integration on your ecobee account and put your ID into the code near the top where I’ve put a placeholder.
One thing to note, since your using POST's for all your calls, instead of adding a JSON query parameter you could put that in the request body.
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Another thing I would suggest following the general restful patterns with regard to http methods and their meanings. Very few API's actually do this right.
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GET - should not modify server state if you are not modifying anything on the server eg: no writes your api method should be GET.
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POST - non item-potent updates, you likely won't have many of these for something like beestat really the only ones i could think of would be the sync operation. Mostly because POST is non-idempotent eg: calling the same POST request multiple times will have different results even with the same arguments.
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PUT - I don't think you will need this, but PUT's are idempotent meaning that if you call it n number of times with the same parameters it's the same as having called it only once.
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One last thing to note: Although somewhat un-known it is not illegal to include a body in an HTTP get in fact this is just how you query one of the most popular indexing tools elastic search https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/search-request-body.html So even GET calls that need to pass JSON really should put that json in the request body.
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I hope this didn't come off as rude, it is intended as genuine feedback that I hope is constructive.
If you use beestat.io there's a graph that will show you exactly where it is. More info on that here.
Otherwise you're looking for the point at which your heat pump keeps the temperature in your home steady without the use of auxiliary heat. For most people that's going to be between 20°F-30°F.
If you post some graphs of your usage over a few days I could let you know if I notice anything out of place. Again, beestat.io would be helpful here but regular HomeIQ graphs work too.