Climate & Comfort¶

The Thermostats¶

There are two active Ecobee thermostats in the house. A third is on hand and will be installed on the first floor soon.

Each thermostat runs in auto mode — it heats and cools as needed to keep the house in the target range.

What Happens Automatically¶

When Everyone Leaves¶

As soon as both phones leave the home area, both thermostats switch to Away mode. The setpoints relax to save energy — the house won't heat or cool as aggressively while empty.

When Someone Gets Home¶

As soon as the first phone enters the home area, both thermostats switch back to Home mode and return to normal comfort setpoints.

You don't need to do anything — this is fully automatic based on phone location.

Energy Saving During Peak Hours¶

Dominion Energy charges significantly more per kilowatt-hour during "peak" hours. The Ecobee Eco+ TOU feature knows the utility's schedule and uses the house's thermal mass to save money automatically.

What it does:

• Before peak hours start: Pre-cools the house lower than normal (summer) or pre-heats it higher than normal (winter). This stores "cold" or "heat" in the walls and furniture.
• During peak hours: The AC/heat runs as little as possible — the house coasts on what was stored. Your electricity bill is lower.
• After peak hours: Returns to normal setpoints.

You'll notice the thermostat setpoints looking slightly different than usual around peak times — that's normal and intentional.

Peak hours (Dominion Energy Schedule 1G):

Weekends have no peak period — just standard and off-peak rates.

Room Sensors¶

Each Ecobee has SmartSensors placed in individual bedrooms. These measure the temperature in each room independently, so the thermostat can balance comfort across multiple rooms — not just where the thermostat itself is mounted.

Active sensors: master bedroom, bedrooms 1, 2, 3, 4, and the office.

Controlling the Thermostats¶

You can adjust temperature from anywhere:

• Ecobee app — full control, schedule management, all settings
• Apple Home — both thermostats appear; Siri works ("Hey Siri, set the bedroom to 72")
• Alexa — "Alexa, set the bedroom thermostat to 72"
• HA dashboard — Climate tab has full thermostat controls

Any manual adjustment you make overrides the schedule temporarily (a "hold") and returns to the schedule automatically after the hold period ends.

Air Quality¶

The master bedroom has sensors that monitor:

• CO₂ (carbon dioxide) — rises when the space is occupied and ventilation is limited
• VOCs (volatile organic compounds) — can spike from cleaning products, cooking, or off-gassing
• Humidity
• Air Quality Index (AQI)

If CO₂ or VOC levels reach unhealthy thresholds, you'll get a push notification. See Notifications for details.

Bedroom Air Purifier¶

A Winix air purifier in the master bedroom runs automatically and integrates with the air quality sensors.

Automatic VOC Response¶

When bedroom VOCs rise above 500 µg/m³ (Grade C on the Health tab) for more than 2 minutes, the purifier automatically switches to Manual mode at high speed to clear the air faster than its built-in Auto mode would. Once VOCs have been below 250 µg/m³ for 10 minutes, it returns to Auto.

PlasmaWave Schedule¶

The purifier's PlasmaWave ionizer feature breaks down bacteria, odors, and chemical vapors but can produce trace ozone — not ideal in a closed bedroom overnight. It turns off automatically at 10 PM and back on at 7 AM.

The VOC boost automation respects this schedule: if it kicks in overnight while PlasmaWave is off, it will not re-enable it.

Dashboard¶

The purifier tile on the Climate tab shows the current mode and airflow level. The icon color indicates status:

Grafana — VOC vs Purifier Response¶

The Home Intelligence Grafana dashboard has a panel called Bedroom — VOC vs Air Purifier Response that charts VOC levels (orange, left axis) against purifier speed (blue step line, right axis, scale 0–3) over time. This lets you see whether the purifier is actually driving VOC levels down after it boosts.

Speed scale: 0 = off, 1 = low/sleep, 2 = medium, 3 = high.