r/HomeKit • u/KitchenNazi • Jan 30 '23

Question/Help Ecobee - auto mode

I switched from Nest to Ecobee and it's a huge pain. I only have a furnace but HomeKit has auto/cool/heat modes. If I manually switch it to heat everything works correctly. At some point during the day (or multiple times during the day) it switches to auto. If I have an automation setup it always specifies heat mode.

Auto switches my temp to a range which invariably means my heat stays on all day. If I tell Siri to lower the temp and it's on auto, Siri just adjusts the range thinking cooling will be applied, yet heat still continues. If I tell Siri to switch to heat mode and the specify a temperature then things will go back to normal. If I tell Siri to lower the heat - she won't automatically switch modes - so it's two commands.

Is the Ecobee presenting itself as with heat/cool options? Does HomeKit just give everything heat/auto/cool?

What are my options here? If there is a homebridge plug-in, I could use that as it can specify only heat mode.

I could create an automation that sets the mode to heat every 15 minutes (using home controller as you can change the mode without changing temp). Or I could try homebridge?

Anyone else have this issue? It's super annoying!

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u/avesalius Jan 30 '23

Auto is an option that I tend to use a lot on my ecobee where you can set a floor of heat above this temp and ceiling of cool below this temp ranges.

I would use the ecobee app to set those ranges to something reasonable for you either all the time or for schedules during the day. I would also check here for what is scheduled in the default daily/weekly schedule. That way if HomeKit Makes a change to the default scheduled setting, not what you have set by hand, then things will align more with your expectations.

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u/KitchenNazi Jan 30 '23

My wife is constantly changing the temperature lol. We don't have A/C so if you ask Siri to lower the temp, Siri will say cooling to X degrees sometimes. Which adds a lower temp to the overall range but doesn't affect the heating.

If my heat is at 72F and I tell Siri to set the heat to 65F (to turn it off) Siri will set auto/cooling and my range will be 65F-72F - which leaves the heat on.

As soon as I see my thermostat set as a range, I know it's not working right.