@keithcroshaw, I understand your point of view. You have to understand that the ecobee3’s communication protocol with its sensors is neither z-wave or zigbee: only these 2 HA protocols are compatible with SmartThings. Ecobee3 uses a proprietary communication protocol that is not compatible with ST.
Regards.
Oh I do completely understand that, but with the power of the interwebs the only thing standing it the way of two devices both connected to the same interwebs is the API’s they’re hiding behind.
This opens up a whole other discussion of open protocols which everyone should use, and stop all of the wars too while they’re at it. The Ecobee should say hello Keith! Here are your Ecobee Temps and Humidities! Have fun using them as you desire! At which point I point ST to said sensors and make magic happen.
But for now they sit behind their walls of sad forcing me to buy more crap I don’t need. 
@keithcroshaw, that what Apple’s homekit is promising… We’ll see if they can deliver what they promise… I don’t think that it will be that easy for a while…
Yea I’m cautiously optimistic about homekit. Vaporware as of yet.
@yvesracine – as our resident Ecobee3 expert, would you know whether existing ST temperature and motion detectors can substitute for the Ecobee provided ones? It seems this conversation has been about whether ST could see the Ecobee detectors, but I’m curious about going the other way-- whether Ecobee can utilize data from ST devices to drive state and temperature adjustments. I’ve been thinking about picking one up in the spring.
PS. I would be wary of Homekit… Look what happened to Revolv users. If ST goes belly up tomorrow (or something better comes along) you can move Zigbee and Zwave devices to Wink, or an HA router (Almond+), or some other, better platform. The open system protects users from being orphaned and keeps ST on their toes, innovating. As soon as you buy into a closed system, you’re not a user but a hostage.
@matt, I’ve coded many smartapps that take advantage of the connected (humidity, motion, temperature) sensors in ST.
For example, see this thread:
Another example is the MonitorAndSetEcobeeHumidity smartapp which monitors the indoor humidity and turn on the humidifier or the dehumidifier (if they are connected to your ecobee thermostat) based on some indoor/outdoor humidity sensors connected to ST. It can also trigger your HRV/ERV for a certain number of minutes per hour when the outdoor temperature is not too cold or the outdoor humidity is not too high.
See device-type.myecobee/smartapps at master · yracine/device-type.myecobee · GitHub
Regards
P.S. I don’t have an ecobee3 myself… I use ST connected sensors to control my ecobee STAT-02 thermostat’s scheduling (ex. set my ecobee’s program to ‘Away’ with ST goodbye hello mode or to ‘Home’ when I’m back)
Yea I thought about that approach, but then I thought about priorities. I want to make sure the Ecobee gets its data immediately and I’ve been unimpressed with analog value update times with ST.
Also the direction I started off with would seem to be the “easier” path but nothing is easy in this space yet…
@keithcroshaw, it also varies from sensor to sensor. I’m personally using some wiress tags (http://wirelesstag.net) as indoor humidity/temperature sensors and I’m pretty happy with them.
For external sensors, I use the Aeon Multisensors as they also provide motion activities. Their performance varies a lot from one device to another.
Bye for now.
I guess you need the ENET Tag manager though? I guess it would be cheaper after a while. But if I only need 3 I’ll save $15 and possibly have to deal with compatibility issues…
Neat though, I hadn’t heard of these. Thanks!
Yes, you’d need the Ethernet tag manager ($52). The cost of the manager decreases as you plug in more wireless tags to it.
My 2 cents.
P.S. Another thing that I like about using ST connected sensors (over ecobee’s own sensors) is that I can set my ecobee thermostat to ‘Away’ more rapidly than just using the ecobee3 ‘Auto Away’ mode which actually does it only after 2 hours of inactivity
Yea I was wondering how that worked with ST. So your app, can it work to condition the average of the occupied rooms like the Ecobee would with it’s remote sensors?
Then maybe 2 bedrooms at night?
That would be my ideal control.
@keithcroshaw, I made some changes to the MonitorAndSetEcobeeTemp smartapp to be able to
adjust the thermostat’s setpoint based on the avg temp at multiple indoor sensors.
This is an optional setting.
The logic is a bit similar to what ecobee3 does with its remote sensors, but the smartapp does it with ST connected temp sensors. Based on ST motion sensors, it can also override the ecobee thermostat’s regular scheduling to set its program schedule to ‘Away’ or ‘Home’.
Regards.
Thanks a lot for the info. I’ll take this into consideration when I’m ready to purchase.
Here’s a question. Is there really any benefit to using the Ecobee? If I’m buying z-wave temp/humidity sensors and I buy the standard Honeywell z-wave thermostat can’t it just use the same SmartApp? The capabilities should be pretty much the same.
Hello @keithcroshaw,
No, you cannot use the same smartapp as z-wave thermostats are not smart at all when they are connected to a HA hub like smartThings. They don’t have any scheduling capabilities.
In my smartapps, I usually take advantage of ecobee’s climate settings (or programs) as they are defined in its schedule. For example, you may set your program schedule to be ‘Home’ on the weekends, but ‘Away’ on weekdays from 8h30 to 17h00.
I only use ST to adjust the temp based on ecobee’s program schedule or set my ecobee thermostat to ‘Away’ or ‘Home’ when my schedule is not as usual. The MonitorAndSetEcobeeTemp would use ecobee’s scheduling as much as possible and “resume” the program when a “hold” (adjustment override over the current program) is no longer required.
I think that this ecobee-ST integration is the best way to have better comfort while being energy-efficient.
Regards.
Ok thanks for your input. I appreciate it and will consider it when purchasing. Not looking forward to that part…
Hello @keithcroshaw,
Based on our discussion, I made some further changes to the smartapp.
I modified my MonitorAndSetEcobeeTemp smartapp to adjust the thermostat’s setpoints according to outdoor AND indoor sensors (when occupied).
The logic is a bit similar to ecobee3 with its remote sensors except that you can use any ST connected indoor sensors (with both temperature measurement and motion capabilities) to adjust your house’s temperature. You can also use your old Smart-SI,EMS, or STAT-02 thermostat if you have not upgraded to ecobee3.
On top of it, the smartapp can set your ecobee thermostat to Away or Home (in near real time) based on any number of ST connected indoor sensors.
Finally, it also adjusts the thermostat’s setpoints according to heating/cooling thresholds based on the outdoor temperature.
You can use a physical or virtual weatherStation (such as follows) as input to the smartapp.
To get the smartapp, please refer to
P.S. There is a strange exception (com.netflix.hystrix.exception.HystrixRuntimeException) that can appear in the log, but it does not seem to affect its processing. I think that it’s related to the high number of sensors the smartapp subscribes to. I contacted support about it.
Wow that was crazy fast. At this point what’s the point of the Ecobee3? Or is all of the logic still handled by the Ecobee you just forward the temperature values to it?
Thanks for answering my questions.
@keithcroshaw, well, you can buy a Smart-SI and use my smartapp with ST connected sensors (such as Aeon Multisensors or others) and get about the same ‘occupied’ logic as the ecobee3 with its remote sensors.
I tested it at home with my old ecobee STAT-02 thermostat and it seems to be working fine. It adjusts the thermostat setpoint based on the average indoor temp on all occupied sensors and static temp sensors of your choice (such as the bedrooms you mentioned earlier).
The temps are not sent to the ecobee thermostat; the smartapp calculates the avg temp dynamically every x minutes (interval specified by the ST user as input parameter) and adjusts the temp at the thermostat based on the temp differential between the calculated avg and its own temperature.
This is an interesting option as the ST connected sensors can be used for other automation scenarios at your home.
Bye for now.