HVAC Auto Mode

[BadgerLoaf]

I have recently started using the HA Thermostat Card, and couldn't work out why there seems to be slightly different behaviour between the two different heating systems I am using.

The downstairs of the house is underfloor heating, and uses your Wavin Sentio integration, whilst the upstairs is radiators, and uses the Tado integration https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/tado

As per the attached screenshot. When the room is at temperture and heating is at idle, the Wavin climate sensor (in this example, Playroom) does not have any colour on the temp dial. But under the same conditions, the Tado sensor show a green dial up to the target temperature (in this example, Office).

The only difference I can see, is that the Wavin integration seems to set the entity to “Off” when not heating, whereas the Tado integration sets it to “auto”. I therefore believe the correct state for the sensor should be auto, rather than off. Which would make sense, as the heating automatically starts once the thermostat triggers.

Could the state behaviour be changed please to use "auto" rather than "off"?

Thanks for all your work on this integration.

[djerik]

I will have a look at this, maybe already this weekend

[BadgerLoaf]

Thanks, appreciate all your help and work on this integration.

[djerik]

This is a tricky topic, not least because the documentation is not very precise https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/climate/

I have however decided to change hvac mode to always be Heat, at least until I get to implement support for Cool as requested in another issue. My reasoning is, that hvac mode describes the mode of the climate sensor, and the hvac action describes what it is doing now. For Sentio all climate entities are either in hvac mode heat or cool. Each entity can hvac action be either idle, heating or cooling. It would not be correct to have hvac mode to always be in "auto", nor would it be correct to interpret "not heating" as "auto", as the entity is in fact not in auto mode and cannot start cooling.

I hope the above makes sense?

[BadgerLoaf]

Yes totally makes sense, and thank you very much for making the time to look at this 👍

[BadgerLoaf]

Thanks, I have just updated the integration and can see it working as per your above description: (Playroom = Sentio integration, Office = Tado integration)

So this is alot better than before, and thank you.

Just to share where my head is currently at.... Looking into this more, I'm thinking that there are three valid "states" for a Sentio Device, no matter whether it's for a heating or cooling device. These would be:

HVAC Mode = Auto and HVAC Action = Idle HVAC Mode = Heat and HVAC Action = Heating HVAC Mode = Cool and HVAC Action = Cooling (Though obviously the Heat and Cool variations would only be used as per the devices capabilities).

But maybe this is more complicated than I am thinking, and I might have missed something!

Once again, thank you for all your work on this integration, it's much appreciated and a fundamental part of my smart home.

[BadgerLoaf]

Hi @djerik

I just wondered what you thought about my proposal of the above three "states" for a Sentio Device?

Thanks again!

[djerik]

I have been thinking, and my idea is to hardcode the climate mode = Auto. My argument is, that it will always follow to overall mode of the controller, and hence that is best translated to Auto.

Would that work for you?

[BadgerLoaf]

I'm not 100% sure if that would work when the Action is Heating or Cooling, but possibly.

Happy to try it if you are happy to?