Hi,
I just responded to an inquiry about my zoned heating/cooling solutions for SmartThings, and I think that my answer can be instructive for all ST users who are interested in more control over their smart vents and their thermostat.
Smart vents are expensive, so you may want to have the best apps for controlling the vents AND the thermostat.
In my book, the thermostat needs to be controlled in conjunction with the vents, otherwise, it’s not optimal…
So, which apps?
It really depends on your requirements.
If you just need to open (at 100%) or close the vents based on a room temp threshold, then ScheduleRoomTempControl is just what you need.
The smartapp is designed to run with any ST connected thermostat…
If you have an ecobee thermostat (any model, not only the ecobee3) and want more options (especially with many smart vents), and want to direct the airflow towards the right rooms, then I’d recommend ecobeeSetZoneWithSchedule smartapp for the following reasons:
1) The smartapp is designed to run with My Ecobee device, which is the most comprehensive ecobee device for SmartThings. It basically exposes ALL ecobee features for HA.
And, there are many smartapp available at my github for other HA scenarios:
2) The smartapp relies on the ecobee scheduling for setting its programs/climates as the ecobee’s scheduling is usually more reliable than ST. So, even, if your ST hub is not active for a while, there will be some basic thermostat scheduling done by ecobee to control your thermostat.
3) The smartapp will not create successive temporary ‘holds’ at the thermostat. It is able to ‘resume’ your thermostat’s program when needed (ex. when you’re back home).
4) The smartapp is able to set your thermostat to ‘away’ or ‘home’ based on all your motion sensors at home.
5) Contrary to the ecobee3’s follow me feature, you can configure the ‘occupied threshold’ for every room to be different depending on your needs. The ecobee3’s follow me feature is really slow to set your thermostat to ‘away’: it can take up to 2 hours after your departure to set your thermostat to the away program. The smartapp can do it after 5 minutes if you want to set it up this way.
6) The smartapp has many other options for controlling your fan settings, and making adjustments to your setpoints based on all indoor temp sensors (just like the follow me feature on the ecobee3), but with all ST connected temp/motion sensors (not only the proprietary ecobee remote sensors). It can even adjust your thermostat based on an outdoor temp sensor if needed.
7) For controlling the vents, the smartapp is able to adjust them not only when the thermostat is heating/cooling, but also every 5 minutes (if needed) to adjust the vents to the right level (in %) automatically based on the temp differential in each room compared to the average temp differential. So, based on your thermostat’s setpoints, the colder/hotter rooms will always get more airflow…
Finally, I just want to warn you about the ecobee3’s remote motion sensors: do not use them for controlling the vents as they are not meant to be used for real time HA scenarios.
See this known issue at the ST community wiki:
http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=Ecobee3RemoteSensorInit#Known_issues
However, you can use the ecobee3’s remote temp sensors as they are reliable and can be refreshed every 5 minutes.
BTW, all my smartapp are described at the ST community wiki if you need more details:
http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=EcobeeSetZoneWithSchedule
http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=ScheduleRoomTempControl
To recap, for the best control of your ecobee3 and your smart vents, you’d need the following:
- My Ecobee device with remote sensor app (for the temp sensors)
- EcobeeSetZoneWithSchedule
If you do not own an ecobee thermostat, and you own a Nest or Honeywell thermostat (or even a zwave or zigbee one), you can use ScheduleTstatZones if you want more control over your thermostat and your vents. See this thread for more details:
One of my contributor, for example, is a doctor in LA whose wife works from home on certain days of the week, he wanted to control his vents in the office a different way on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays than the other days. On top of it, he wanted to control his guest room’s vent based on a guest presence sensor.
My heating/cooling solutions can do all this, provided that you configure them properly…
My solutions are available now at my store:
Regards.