Climate & Comfort¶

Temps (Desk dashboard tab)¶

The Desk dashboard has a Temps tab that shows every room's current temperature at a glance, arranged as large colored comfort rings on a dark glass background. (Switch to it using the nav toggle on the Desk display — the Desk runs in full-screen kiosk mode, so there's no sidebar to tap.)

• Green ring — comfortable zone (68–76°F)
• Amber ring — a bit outside the comfort band
• Red ring — too hot or too cold

The three main rooms — Office, Bedroom, and Dining Room — are shown as larger "hero" tiles. Each hero tile also displays CO₂, VOC, and humidity readings, and tapping one opens the full Ecobee thermostat control so you can adjust setpoints without leaving the dashboard. A small green dot on any tile means that room currently has someone in it (occupancy sensor active).

The remaining five sensors (the four upstairs bedrooms and Kitchen) appear as smaller tiles below. Tapping any of those opens the standard sensor detail.

House Temperatures (Command → Climate tab)¶

The same full-house temperature readout now lives on the Command dashboard's Climate tab, so you don't need the Desk display to see every room. It's a wide band just under the weather hero: the three thermostat zones (Office, Master Bedroom, Dining) as large comfort rings with CO₂/VOC/humidity, and the five Ecobee remote sensors (Henry, Isaac, Vivian, Annie, Kitchen) as smaller temperature rings below. Same color bands (green 68–76°F / amber / red) and the same green occupancy dot. Tapping a thermostat ring opens that Ecobee's controls; tapping a remote ring opens its sensor detail.

The Thermostats¶

There are three active Ecobee thermostats in the house.

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, all three 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, all three 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.

Extra Pre-cool on Hot Days¶

On top of what Eco+ does on its own, on very hot summer weekdays Home Assistant gives the house an extra head start:

• When: the forecast high for the day is above your threshold (default 90 °F), on a summer weekday. The threshold is a dashboard control — the "Pre-cool ≥" value on the Command dashboard → Climate tab (the compact pre-cool row, just above the condenser-runtime strip); tap it to change the number so you can make pre-cool kick in on cooler days (lower it) or only the very hottest (raise it) without touching any automation. The "Active" dot on the same row glows green while a pre-cool hold is running.
• At 1:00 PM (two hours before the 3 PM peak) all three thermostats are set to a 70 °F cool target, so the AC runs hard and banks extra "cold" in the house while power is still cheap.
• At 2:59 PM (one minute before peak) Home Assistant lets go, handing control straight back to the Ecobee's Eco+ TOU logic, which then coasts the house through the expensive 3–6 PM window.

You'll see the setpoints drop to 70° early afternoon on hot days, then return to normal right before peak — that's this feature working. It only ever runs in the early-afternoon pre-peak window and always releases control before peak begins.

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, the office, the dining room, and downstairs.

Controlling the Thermostats¶

You can adjust temperature from anywhere:

• Ecobee app — full control, schedule management, all settings
• Apple Home — all three 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)

These readings are shown on the dashboard and logged to Grafana. There are no CO₂/VOC push alerts (they were removed as too noisy) — instead, high bedroom VOCs automatically boost the air purifier (see Automatic VOC Response below).

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.

Food Temperature (Garage Fridge & Freezers)¶

Three Zigbee temperature sensors monitor the garage appliances so a failing fridge or freezer doesn't quietly spoil your food. The 🧊 Food Temperature section at the bottom of the Climate tab shows a live, color-coded tile for each one.

Each tile shows the current temperature (rounded, in °F), a status word (Good / Warm / ⚠️ FAILING), and turns red exactly when the critical-alert range is reached. A tile reads "No reading" in grey if its sensor hasn't reported yet.

When a unit runs too warm, you'll get a phone alert — see Food Temperature Alerts for how the warnings work (and why a quick door-open won't trigger a false alarm).