Use case: 8 radiators controlled by Better Thermostat & Schedule => target shut off centrale heating when no radiators in action

[BartGysens]

Hello everybody,

First : big thumbs up for the HA- & BT-team - wow... nice work!

Ok, so I have a use case with next setup:

• 8 radiators with Aqara E1 thermostats, in 6 rooms
• 12 Sonoff SNZB-04 window detectors
• 12 Sonoff SNZB-02 temperature detectors
• 1 Nest Thermostat (version 1.0)
• 1 Owon PIR-323-PTH
• a centrale heating system on fuel, which has a Meross MSS310 Wifi plug
• HA is version Hass.IO (latest)

What I already prepared:

• created 6 Better Thermostats (5 individuals, 1 group of 3) where 12 Sonoff SNZB-04 (window) and 12 SNZB-02 (temperature) together with 1 Owon motion detector with temperature sensor and my old Nest-thermostat, act as external sensors (works great)
• created a selection box (Helper) where I can choose 4 modi for my central heater: On, Off (sumer), Time Schedule (testing), Thermal steering (in progress...)
• created 8 Schedules where I set the heating times and temperatures for each room

My purpose: saving money :) by turning my central heater completely off when it is not needed (so when no radiators will heat for several minutes) - my 4th mode "Thermal steering"; side note: we do not use the feature off water heating on our central heater

I'm have two questions:

1. when I look at the Better Thermostat card, I notice that BT sends a lower temperature to my radiators when the target temperature has been reached to stop heating => is that correct? wouldn't it be better to just turn off the thermostat?
2. in my Automation (see below) I want to check if my radiators are in 'off'-mode - I notice on the Better Thermostat card that it is indicated in the middle with a red or gray status heating symbol => how can we use this state in Automations? or do we have to work arround with comparing target temperature with current temperature? and additionally work with a binary sensor? ... the first option where I can just check BT-state red or gray (on-off) seems logical, but how...

Thank you everyone for reading and maybe somebody has a good advice :)
Have a nice day!

My automation (in this code I use for testing purposes a light - light.lamp_1 - which represents my central heater):

alias: Chaudière - schakeling
description: >-
  De centrale verwarming (chaudière) wordt ingeschakeld als op basis van 3
  mogelijkheden
      - als één van de thermostaten wil verwarmen
      - op basis van het schema 'Chaudière - verwarmingscyclus'
      - continu actief
  Indien geen van deze modi geactiveerd zijn, dan wordt de chaudière
  uitgeschakeld
trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - sensor.ambiant_sensor_1_camomille_temperature
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - sensor.ambiant_sensor_2_aneth_temperature
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - sensor.nest_thermostaat_temperature_2
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - sensor.bewegingssensor_1_sanitaire_temperature
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - schedule.chaudiere_verwarmingsschema
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - input_select.chaudiere_verwarmingsmodus
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - climate.thermostaat_1_badkamer_prive
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - climate.thermostaat_2_salon_achter_links
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - climate.thermostaat_3_salon_achter_rechts
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - climate.thermostaat_4_salon_piano
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - climate.thermostaat_5_block_sanitaire
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - climate.thermostaat_6_kamer_lavande
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - climate.thermostaat_7_kamer_camomille
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - climate.thermostaat_8_kamer_aneth
  - platform: time_pattern
    seconds: /10
    enabled: true
condition: []
action:
  - if:
      - condition: state
        entity_id: input_select.chaudiere_verwarmingsmodus
        state: Aan
    then:
      - type: turn_on
        device_id: ea5771db53a31a34d0d5ec691340bf7b
        entity_id: light.lamp_1
        domain: light
      - stop: ""
  - if:
      - condition: state
        entity_id: input_select.chaudiere_verwarmingsmodus
        state: Thermostatisch
    then:
      - if:
          - condition: or
            conditions:
              - condition: state
                entity_id: climate.better_thermostat_verwarming_prive_badkamer
                state: heat
              - condition: state
                entity_id: climate.better_thermostat_verwarming_aneth
                state: heat
        then:
          - type: turn_on
            device_id: ea5771db53a31a34d0d5ec691340bf7b
            entity_id: light.lamp_1
            domain: light
          - stop: ""
  - if:
      - condition: state
        entity_id: input_select.chaudiere_verwarmingsmodus
        state: Tijdsschema
    then:
      - if:
          - condition: state
            entity_id: schedule.chaudiere_verwarmingsschema
            state: "on"
        then:
          - type: turn_on
            device_id: ea5771db53a31a34d0d5ec691340bf7b
            entity_id: light.lamp_1
            domain: light
          - stop: ""
  - type: turn_off
    device_id: ea5771db53a31a34d0d5ec691340bf7b
    entity_id: light.lamp_1
    domain: light
mode: single

[wtom]

You can use the attribute hvac_action from BT to know if it's heating or note.
I use it also to turn off the boiler when all BT go to != heating. Turning it back in if == heating.

[BartGysens]

Hey @wtom,
I tried this setting but... for example in this case (whem I manually turn off radiators) it seems not to response how expected; meaning cut off the heater

[wtom]

Did you use hvac_action or hvac_mode?

[BartGysens]

I did try both, because it was not clear which one to use; both didn't do anything different...

with the action:

- condition: state
                    entity_id: climate.better_thermostat_verwarming_prive_badkamer
                    attribute: hvac_action
                    state: heating

with the mode:

- condition: device
                    device_id: 1d367c9c5e58bc0fb478cbd247ab67ee
                    domain: climate
                    entity_id: climate.better_thermostat_verwarming_prive_badkamer
                    type: is_hvac_mode
                    hvac_mode: heat

I also tried call_for_heat but there is no dropdown for state showing up...:

- condition: state
                    entity_id: climate.better_thermostat_verwarming_prive_badkamer
                    attribute: call_for_heat
                    state: "on"   <= my own guess, tried also "heating", "heat", "1", "yes", true

[BartGysens]

UPDATE

I have found a working sollution, but I don't know if this is a good one. In my opinion when you turn off hvacs_mode from 'heat' to 'off' , it should also return hvacs_action as 'off' or 'idle'

- if:
          - condition: state
            entity_id: climate.better_thermostat_verwarming_aneth
            attribute: hvac_action
            state: heating
          - condition: device
            device_id: 5982c7fad56fde335913bbe32e482b23
            domain: climate
            entity_id: climate.better_thermostat_verwarming_aneth
            type: is_hvac_mode
            hvac_mode: heat
        then:
          - type: turn_on
            device_id: ea5771db53a31a34d0d5ec691340bf7b
            entity_id: light.lamp_1
            domain: light
          - stop: ""

[TLA020]

UPDATE

I have found a working sollution, but I don't know if this is a good one. In my opinion when you turn off hvacs_mode from 'heat' to 'off' , it should also return hvacs_action as 'off' or 'idle'

- if:
          - condition: state
            entity_id: climate.better_thermostat_verwarming_aneth
            attribute: hvac_action
            state: heating
          - condition: device
            device_id: 5982c7fad56fde335913bbe32e482b23
            domain: climate
            entity_id: climate.better_thermostat_verwarming_aneth
            type: is_hvac_mode
            hvac_mode: heat
        then:
          - type: turn_on
            device_id: ea5771db53a31a34d0d5ec691340bf7b
            entity_id: light.lamp_1
            domain: light
          - stop: ""

Did u find a better solution? And does everything work as expected? Also with the nest thermostat. How do you turn on the boiler

[jakobmoessner]

I wrote a sensor which itterates for each climate entity and checks if the set point is greater than the current temp. The result evaluation is not fully done, but for me it was enough so I didn't put more effort in it.

`
#Heizstatus

• name: "heizungen_aktiv"
  state: >-
  {% set result = namespace(ActiveHeater=[], Errors=[]) %}
  {% for state in states.climate %}
  {# {{ state }} #}
  {% set thermostat_id = state.entity_id %}
  {% set friendly_name = state_attr(thermostat_id,'friendly_name') %}
  {% set currentTemp = state_attr(thermostat_id,'current_temperature') %}
  {% set setTemp = state_attr(thermostat_id,'temperature') %}
  {# {{ friendly_name }} #}
  {# {{ currentTemp }} #}
  {# {{ setTemp }} #}
  {% if states(thermostat_id) != 'unavailable' and currentTemp != none and setTemp != none %}
  {%- if currentTemp|float < setTemp|float and states(thermostat_id) != 'off' %}
  {% set result.ActiveHeater = result.ActiveHeater + [friendly_name ~ ' is heating (' ~ currentTemp ~ ' < ' ~ setTemp ~ ')'] %}
  {%- endif %}
  {%- else %}
  {% set result.Errors = result.Errors + [friendly_name ~ ' has an error (state = ' ~ states(thermostat_id) ~ ', current = ' ~ currentTemp ~ ', set = ' ~ setTemp ~ ')'] %}
  {%- endif %}
  {% endfor %}
  {{ result.ActiveHeater }};{{ result.Errors }}
  attributes:
  ActiveHeater: "{{ states('sensor.heizungen_aktiv').split(';')[0] }}"
  Heating: "{{ states('sensor.heizungen_aktiv').split(';')[0] != '[]' }}"
  Count: "{{ states('sensor.heizungen_aktiv').split(';')[0] |count }}"
  Errors: "{{ states('sensor.heizungen_aktiv').split(';')[1] }}"
  `