What is your self-hosting setup for home thermostat?

[rivalarrival@lemmy.today]

You can set up a simple, dumb thermostat in parallel, to act as a failsafe. Set it 5 degrees below your lowest heat setpoint, and even if your server crashes, it doesn't let your house freeze.

[a1studmuffin@aussie.zone]

Best place to start would be to look at the thermostat hardware you've currently got, and start searching online if anyone has integrated it into Home Assistant.

I've lived at a few houses now with Home Assistant. In all of them I was able to integrate my HVAC and automate it, but some brands and hardware are definitely easier than others.

I think the most extreme of them required a custom esphome device connected to its PCB to talk to Home Assistant, and another required me to write my own custom component.

Hardware and brands make a huge difference, but sometimes you're stuck with what you've got.

[abeorch@friendica.ginestes.es]

@atzanteol @aubeynarf Clarification here There are ZigBee thermostats that are integrated sensors and switches where you can control the switch, read the sensor and control the set point both on the device and via ZigBee so they are controllable locally in two senses - on the device and with the home. There are proprietary Smart thermostats that may be local on the device but rely on external servers for any off device control. then there are Proprietary thermostats that are totally dependent on an internet connection to do anything - Its important to check

[cyber@feddit.uk]

Feel free to ask over at [email protected] too.

But to echo some other comments here, whatever you do, keep it simple and ensure a botched HA update doesn't freeze / cook you by using standard components as a backup / failsafe

[gedaliyah@lemmy.world]

So which was the easiest?

[tburkhol@lemmy.world]

Does the Honeywell T6 give you separate control of temperature and fan? That is, can you turn air circulation on/off, even when the temperature wouldn't trigger heating/cooling?

I've been watching pm2.5 in my house, and the HVAC filter does a pretty good job of keeping it down if I run the fan, but that fan takes a lot of energy, and I'd like to turn it off when the air is pretty clean.

[atzanteol@sh.itjust.works]

I believe so, my system is baseboard so I didn't use a fan. There is a fan control option on the device. The instructions say it can do auto, on, of, circ.

https://digitalassets.resideo.com/damroot/Original/10011/33-00181EFS.pdf

More details here:

https://www.honeywellhome.com/us/en/products/air/thermostats/programmable-thermostats/t6-pro-programmable-thermostat-up-to-3-heat-2-cool-th6320u2008-u/

[tburkhol@lemmy.world]

TY. Looks like the T6 is pro-only. Googling around, it looks like ventilation control may be one of the things that separate their pro-level T6/T10 from their DIY-level T5/T9. That's disappointing.

[justenoughducks@feddit.nl]

It really really depends on what you have for heating.

Floor heating + heat pump? You don't need to mess around with target temp much because the principle behind it is thermal mass buildup and maintaining that. You have to tune thermostatic valves on the room level. Then you can have one central thermostat simply slightly change the target temperature with many hours of delay. That doesn't seem too useful to me to automate.

Do you have radiators? Then you can get zwave or ZigBee valves and tie them together with whatever thermostat that you want in home assistant. Then you can set per room/zone heat depending on whatever sensors you have.

Do you have central forced air heating and air conditioning? Then you have pretty much target temp and on/off control unless you want to put in motorized automatic registers or redesign your entire duct system for per-room duct valves.

Individual heat pumps/airco units with radiator based heating is the most "per room" customizable and probably the most useful to put automations on in Home Assistant.

Ventilation can be useful by monitoring CO2 levels and humidity. Then you can use either the fan units themselves or socket switches to actuate those and put whatever sensors you want wherever it is useful.

I am probably missing some stuff here, but there are only a few HVAC setups that actually benefit from automation, in my opinion. Mainly ventilation, infrared, and non centralized forced air heat pumps.

[abeorch@friendica.ginestes.es]

@gedaliyah @JustEnoughDucks When I got a notification you had commented - I thought it was about this - friendica.ginestes.es/display/…

[Guest]

Dead link

[atzanteol@sh.itjust.works]

Is it? I guess I don't know the difference... I installed mine myself but my system is also dead simple - only 2 wires. My first thermostat was just a bi-metallic strip.

[foggenbooty@lemmy.world]

I have an EcoBee thermostat which is typically web managed, however it also supports HomeKit. Using the homekit plugin for HomeAssistant I now get best of both worlds.

If I were to do it again I might consider a Z-Wave or ZigBee thermostat, but living in a cold climate I really appreciate knowing that if for some reason my home auto fails there is a backup service to alert me, or vice versa.

[gedaliyah@lemmy.world]

I live in a hot climate, so it's really the expense of air conditioning.

Small adjustments to the temperature based on whether or not we're home, pre-cooling versus cooling during the heat of the day, etc. makes a big difference on the bill potentially.

I've seen some scenarios where people were able to save hundreds of dollars a year just by adjusting the timing of systems. The price of electricity can go up and down during the day.

Maybe those cases are outliers and it's actually not worthwhile, but it seems compelling. If I can put a system in place for under $100, that will be at least as good as what I have and possibly a significant improvement, I'm interested in trying it.

[phughes@lemmy.ca]

I have a homeassistant instance connected to a no-name Z-wave thermostat. It's been flawless for almost 10 years.

[a1studmuffin@aussie.zone]

I had a good experience with Daikin split systems, but it's really going to depend on your region and what's available in your area, or what you've already got. If you're looking for inspiration on what works well, check the Home Assistant forums.

[surph_ninja@lemmy.world]

Do the Ecobees have any issue if you block their access to the internet? Any issues making it lan only?

[bmcgonag@lemmy.world]

I use an ecobee termostat with Wifi and three extra sensores places around my home. Home Assistant already has an add-on for it, add the thermostat card and it goes to work. Set whatever automations you want.