Ewelink scenes for temperature control

Ideas & Suggestion Free discussion
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1

Hello everyone,

Just to share my different tests, and get best solution if any.

I want to create an automatic temperature control for the office of my wife. The office is composed of two rooms, each room is eqquiped with an electric heater already controlled by a Sonoff Basic (Basic 1 for room 1 and Basic 2 for room 2).

The purpose is to find the easiest way to activate/desactivate this temperature control of tboth rooms by remote (my wife is not very familiar with technology),

So : one button to activate (one hour before to go to the office),
one button to desactivate (when leaving the office).

I try to use the thermostat function of the THR32 (with scenes “if THR32 on then Basic 1 on” and " if THR32 off then Basic 1 off") but the activation is complicated (select the device, select automatic, switch on), and the dasactivation is worse (select the device, select automatic, switch off, then switch off again in manual if the heater was on before switching off the automatic mode !) → no way.

I try to use the thermostat function of the NS Panel Pro (with Zigbee temperature sensor and Basic 1 as action device) but same problem, activation/desactivation too complicated (with also the obligation to switch off manually the Basic 1, if it was on before desactivation of the thermostat !). More the hysteresis is +/-1 °C minimum and sometime the thermostat desapears from the Ns Panel Pro (bug ?).

I try senes “if temperature sensor 1 <= 20°C then Basic 1 on” , “if temperature sensor 2 <= 20°C then Basic 2 on”, " if temperature sensor 1 >= 21°C then Basic 1 off" and “if temperature sensor 2 >= 21°C then Basic 2 off” but the both firts scenes must be activated/desactivated one by one.
I try to create manual scenes to activate/desactivate the both firts scenes above with only one butoon but activation doesn’t work : it seems Ewelink app can’t
use the result of a scene like a condition for an other scene in the same time.
For example if you create scenes “if device 1 on then device 2 on” and “if device 2 on then device 3 on”,
when you switch on manually device 2, the device 3 automatically switches on, when you switch on manually device 1, the device 2 automatically switches on but not the device 3.

Finally, I used senes “if Basic 3 on and temperature sensor 1 <= 20°C then Basic 1 on” , “if Basic 3 on and temperature sensor 2 <= 20°C then Basic 2 on”, " if temperature sensor 1 >= 21°C then Basic 1 off" and “if temperature sensor 2 >= 21°C then Basic 2 off”.
My wife has only to control the Sonoff Basic 3 : if on temperature control on, if off temperature control off. More i add scene " if Basic 3 off then Basic 1 off and Basic 2 off" in order to switch off the heaters as soon as leaving the office (without this scene the heating continue until to reach 21°C then stops).
The only problem is the use of the device Basic 3 only like a “memory” (solution a little bit “rich”)

2

thank you for sharing your case.
The scene feature does have some shortcomings, we will optimize it.

3

I think the quick way is to have two temperature sensors(close to the dest or working tabel) in the two rooms, and set two scenes with BASIC, when Temp > X°，then trun BASIC off, and when Temp≤ Y°, then trun the BASIC on.

4

Hello Yitie,
Thank you for your answer. You’re right, the quick way to do two thermostats is the one you describe, but I want also to switch off these thermostats when the office is not used.
That’s why I add a third Basic, to control the thermostats : if this third Basic is on then turn thermoststs on, if it’s off then turn thermoststs off.

1 Like
5

That’s great, for me, i’m expecting an affordable existing detectiong sensor on the market, when no one in the room then delay X minutes or hours to trun some devices OFF.
Some of the snesors may have this feature but accuracy and delay duration is not that suitable.

6

Yitie,
I think you can do that by adding a motion sensor (PIR3-RF or SNZB-03) in the scenes :
When no motion detected or Temp > X°，then turn BASIC off
When motion detected and Temp ≤ Y°, then turn the BASIC on.
You can also add delays in the scenes.

7

Sounds works, will try later to make my floor fan more smart.

8

Hi Jerome
Just reading through some posts and found yours
Have you managed to sort this?
Can I just check whether you are just wanting to control the heating manually (on with push bottom on app and same for off), or control with thermostat?
Or a combination of both?
I am controlling multiple electric radiators with ZB mini (they are only 800w max so no problem with current) and one central temperature device zb01 linked to NS Panel. I’ve just changed to NS Panel Pro and you’ll see I’ve updated my request regarding slight lack of functionality.
But I have managed to get all radiators linked together (group function doesn’t seem to be an option with zigbee devices) so that I can have fully manual control (all rads on / off) with button scene push on app and on NSPanel Pro and also with multiple scenes to get the zb minis to switch on and off and varying times based on temperature conditions. One big learn I’ve had is due to the +/- 1C, I use a 2c difference between on and off temps. Eg if trying to get 20C I use less than 21 for on and more than 19 for off. I’ve only just done a new schedule using thermostat function on NS Panel Pro so will see how it performs. But since this is for holiday rental I want to be able to switch on heating schedule for when guests are there and then turn off (with frost protection) when they’re not. Energy bills in UK are mad at the minute and since the cottage doesn’t have central heating (at least not yet) I’m really hoping this will give me a bit better control of electric heating.
Let me know how you’re getting on
Cheers
Steve

9

Hello Steve,

Sorry for my late answer.

Yes, that I want is a combination of both : to control heating with thermostat (through temperature sensor and scenes) but also to control manually the thermostat on/off :

  • Thermostat on : heating is working according to the setting temperature
  • Thermostat off : heating is off (whatever the temperature)

More there are two thermostats, one for each room heater of my wife office.

The purpose is :

  • To have the possibility for my wife to start thermostats remotely, one hour before to go to the office, to get the good temperature when she begins to work.
  • To switch off thermostats when she doesn’t use the office (most of time because she have an other job out of this office)

Regards.

Jerome.