Add “heater” variable as per generic thermostat

[striker833]

Hello,

thank you for all the great work on this integration. In a colder county having an intelligent heating system is truly fantastic!

Currently I use a home assistant automation to activate my boiler when any of the BT climate entries set the HVAC mode to heating. However I find this method is often unreliable and can be thrown off by a home assistant reboot etc.

I notice in the generic thermostat configuration variables you can set a heater to a switch to turn on when heating is requested by the thermostat. Please could this be added to BT?

[sanderkooger]

@striker833 Im having the same question. Maybe making a sensor group that collects the positions of all your TRV valves position could work if you use that as a trigger for an automation. This would also allow you to control your TRV manual and switch on heating.

Say you have a group called TRV Valve Position with all your valves and average the position.

Then make 2 automations:

• one if valve positions are < 10 turn heater off
• one if valve > 10 turn heater on

In my case there are multiple rooms with TRV and Better Thermostat per room.

A heater on command would be really cool, except that would probably get messy when one room wants heat and another wants to switch heat off.

@KartoffelToby What do you think would be the best way to control a central heating unit? Especially in a multi room scenario?

[sanderkooger]

Hey @striker833 I did a deep dive, ignore my previous comment as it opens up for heating with all valves closed and is potentially dangerous and disruptive for better thermostat's functionality in case the valve position does not send its update in due time or if an update to state is missed.

I have written 2 automations:

1. Turn on the heater when heat is demanded:

alias: thermostats need heat
description: This automation runs if one of the better thermostat components need heat this triggers if one of your better thermostats asks for heat. and does not check conditions
trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - climate.living_thermostat
    for:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 0
      seconds: 30
    attribute: hvac_action
    to: heating
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - climate.bedroom_thermostat
    for:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 0
      seconds: 30
    attribute: hvac_action
    to: heating
condition: []
action:
  - service: light.turn_on
    metadata: {}
    data:
      transition: 1
      rgb_color:
        - 255
        - 0
        - 0
      brightness_pct: 100
    target:
      area_id: living_room
mode: single

2. Turn off heating when no heat is required

alias: TRVs No heat needed
description: This automation triggers on better thermostat changing from heating to another state, then it checks of other thermostates also do not need heat. If no heat is required, it triggers an action
trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - climate.living_thermostat
    for:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 0
      seconds: 0
    attribute: hvac_action
    from: heating
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - climate.bedroom_thermostat
    for:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 0
      seconds: 0
    attribute: hvac_action
    from: heating
condition:
  - condition: not
    conditions:
      - condition: state
        entity_id: climate.living_thermostat
        attribute: hvac_action
        state: heating
      - condition: state
        entity_id: climate.bedroom_thermostat
        attribute: hvac_action
        state: heating
action:
  - service: light.turn_on
    metadata: {}
    data:
      transition: 1
      rgb_color:
        - 43
        - 0
        - 255
      brightness_pct: 100
    target:
      area_id: living_room
mode: single