Shut-off A/C if window or door is open

Other Devices & Integrations Climate Control & Temperature Sensors
1

I have an Ecobee smart thermostat and it’s controllable by my VeraLite with a 3rd party add-on.

I would like to install sensors for windows and doors around my house, so that the A/C only comes on when all the windows and doors are closed. If a window or door is open for say, more than 1-minute, then I’d like the A/C to shut-off until the window or door is closed again.

Is there a way to do this with the VeraLite?

Particularly, the 1-minute grace period because there may be times when someone has to open the front door or patio door for just a minute, but that shouldn’t shut-off the A/C system. There should probably also be a delay in restarting the A/C system after the window or door has been closed.

2

You can do that with PLEG, or you can create scenes that change your thermostat settings if the windows are opened.

3

Thanks. I don’t have the window sensors yet, but I’m experimenting with using my z-wave deadbolt as my “trigger”.

I’ve got it setup so that if the deadbolt is closed, then the AC resumes cooling. If the deadbolt is opened, then the AC shuts off. Works good, but needs further testing because sometime when the AC is shut off and then is resumed, it comes back with the cooling temp set to 120-degrees. Not sure where it gets this number from. “Resume” is supposed to resume the programmed temperature for that time of day.

My question is – would it be better to raised the thermostat set temperature to something that will never hit, like 100 degrees, rather than shut off the AC unit when a window or door is opened? In other words, the thermostat never shuts off the AC, it just raises the set temperature when a window or door is opened, and resumes the programmed temperature when all the windows and doors are closed.

Also, if I have multiple sensors for multiple windows and doors, I could see how when 1 window is opened then closed that the triggers would fire off the scene correctly. But how would it work if 2 windows are opened, then 1 window is closed (but the other window is left open)? I don’t want the AC to come on until ALL the windows and doors are closed.

4

Hi Scott,

I have no idea why you would get 120 degrees as your cooling setpoint. The ResumeProgram action against a thermostat sends 3 resumeProgram function calls to the API, which, per the documentation, “will resume the thermostat to its program in all instances.”

A different approach would be to change the mode with the UPnP action SetModeTarget { NewModeTarget = “Off” } or { NewModeTarget = “CoolOn” } . This simply changes what the thermostat should be targeting, and leaves setpoints alone completely.

Hope this helps,
watou

5

I would adjust the thermostat up, it is just consistent with the way I do things, but a hard off/on works too.

Remember too that it will stay running (if it was) for some time and that they usually have a lockout for several minutes to prevent it from coming back on if you go through a power cycle like this too quickly.

With PLEG you can create a condition such that the thermostat will be set to resume after all of the windows are closed, very easily I would add.

Of course it could be done with Lua programming as well, but if you are not familiar with Lua, it will be more of a challenge.

Start with the PLEG basics manual while you accumulate your sensors. there is always help here as well.

6

A further alternative with the Ecobee plugin is to use the home/away device like a switch. When you set it to off, it will use the quick-save setback and setforward offsets defined in your ecobee.com portal, so the cooling setpoint is set to however many degrees hotter, and the heat setpoint is set however many degrees colder. When you switch the device to on, it resumes the previous program, moving the setpoints back. So if your door/window contacts aren’t all closed, flip the home/away switch off, which will set the cooling setpoint forward to a hotter temp. Flip the home/away switch back on when all the doors/windows are closed.