I’ve been trying to figure out the behavior of the Status variable on the 2GIG CT30 linked to my vera 3 (firmware 1.5.254), as well as the Normal and Energy buttons in UI5. The conclusion is that it does nothing.
I realize that with other thermostats (e.g. Trane), you can switch between Normal and Energy modes by using the Status “switch”. From my testing, the CT30 instead is always in Energy mode once linked to a Z-Wave controller. This means that you can never use the CT30’s built in schedule.
This also seems to be confirmed by the Z-Wave USNAP documentation: “NOTE: the SAVE ENERGY function is disabled with Z-Wave operation.”
Here’s a summary the behavior of my externally powered CT30 that I confirmed (some issues first mentioned in another thread):
[ul][li]Once you link your vera 3 to the CT30, you can not use the CT30’s internal schedule (aka Normal mode). You have to rely completely on your vera 3 automation to control temperature setting schedules. The CT30’s docs refer to this as Simple Mode; vera 3 refers to it as Energy mode.[/li]
[li]Changes made to target setpoints are not reflected back to the vera 3; forced polling does not help. In fact, the variable serviceId=urn:upnp-org:serviceId:TemperatureSetpoint1_Heat CurrentSetpoint doesn’t even exist until you make an initial change.[/li]
[li]Sometimes UI5 lags behind actual Luup variable values. e.g. sometimes current temperature is correct from Luup before reflected in UI.[/li]
[li]I’ve seen a couple occurrences now where vera 3 has required several retries to communicate with the CT30.[/li]
[li]Family members seem to like the touch screen UX when manually setting temperature at the CT30. NOTE: this isn’t like a touch screen you’re used to by today’s smartphone standards; it’s more like a stylus, “press hard screen” UX.[/li]
[li]CT30’s clock is updated by vera 3 – cool.[/li]
[li]Luup via http (port 3480) works great with the CT30 also. If you have some developer skills, you’ll enjoy this simple http interface to your thermostat. e.g. you can change temperature setpoints, and read ambient temperature.[/li][/ul]
In short, I’m a little disappointed with this ~$90 Z-Wave device. But it does fit my most important scenarios: 1) remotely read current ambient temperature, 2) remotely set temperature setpoints, 3) allow family members to override easily at the device.
Thanks.