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Comment by gruez | Hacker News Reader

What type of smart theromstat allow local only operation? The popular ones I've looked at (nest, ecobee, honeywell) all look like they require internet connection to work.

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https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/#climate

Look at this list and go into each page to see the “IoT class”.

“Local push” is the best but “Local polling” would satisfy your requirements as well.

Ecobee works with HomeKit, which works without an internet connection. You don’t need an Apple device either, as HA has a HomeKit bridge.

I have an ecobee and I actually wonder whether it needs an internet connection. For setup, certainly. But I have it connected to Apple HomeKit, which all runs on internal networking. My Apple TV then exposes HomeKit for use outside the house.

Either way, HA lets you use a whole load of random ZWave/ZigBee/whatever thermostats:

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/latest-and-greatest-th...

I have the Honeywell T6 Pro Z-wave. Works great but any Z-wave will be fine.

I would not recommend ecobee, it does not allow you to apply simple actions you may want to do. For example, using HA I am monitoring co2 in the bedroom, if the level rises above 1000ppm I wanted to turn on house fan until level reaches a value. You cannot simply turn central house fan on/off at will, you can only apply a hourly duty cycle controlled by ecobee. I wish I would have purchased a thermostat with basic api controls.

Do you have a one hour hold duration configured within your ecobee? I have a Home Assistant switch entity that turns the ecobee furnace fan “on”. Turning the switch off returns the ecobee to “auto”, or it will do so on its own after the two hour hold duration I have set in my ecobee. I believe you could accomplish what you want by setting your hold duration to “until I change it”.

Thanks for the info, I will give that a shot.

The Venstars have been good to me and have a local api that integrates with HA. They are more basic in appearance, but that’s never bothered me.

Any Z-Wave one will operate locally. I just set one up the other day in Home Assistant.

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