I’m a bit out of my depth here and the plumber doesn’t know either. I have a combi boiler with OpenTherm support. What thermostat/controller should I get if I am a typical Mastodon user, i.e. don’t want to use some proprietary app, someone else’s cloud, or pay a subscription for my own hardware?
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@Gargron Do you have something already, or this is a new install? I'm asking in case you have a Nest.
I bought one with the boiler add-on before Google borged them, and refused to "conveniently" convert it into a Google Home account. Now that they've added Nest ≤ gen3 to the "we want more money now" scrapheap via an API model number check, it's still going fine for me.
Furthermore, Nest ≥ gen2 now also has a FOSS firmware replacement (nolongerevil on GitHub, I think) that lets you manage everything locally, and integrates with HA if you have it.
Bit of a long shot/niche case, but thought it worth mentioning, just in case. The same might also be true of Hive and other pre-enshittification era devices. 🤷♂️
@Gargron I can’t see anyone recommending Tado but I’m in my fourth home where I’ve installed it. (In the first two I literally installed it myself and still do all the TVRs).
@Gargron I do not have a recommendation for a controller for this particular unit, but if you decided to go down the Home Assistant route (to interact with the controller), then I'm more than happy to show my set up etc. should that help.
@Gargron get a normal thermostat. What does OpemTherm have to do with anything? Do you already have an automation system? I assume not?
@jason I don’t know what it has to do with anything, but I figure it might be relevant for fine-grained control and sensor readings from the boiler, since the more general control is basically just an on/off switch from what I understand.
@Gargron It seems to be out of stock currently, but the DIYless OpenTherm V3 is BY FAR the best nerd-friendly option. I have one and it's fantastic.
It talks OpenTherm to the boiler and connects via WiFi, pushing all sensor data to your local MQTT broker, from where Home Assistant can interact with it. It supports external temperature sensors, via Bluetooth or MQTT. No cloud dependency at all, fully local and made in Europe.
“What you’re asking for doesn’t exist, you should get a dumb thermostat” is also a valid answer to my question, just to be clear. I don’t know what I don’t know.
@Gargron I'd probably get a non-IoT thermostat, yeah. But I am NOT an expert on thermostats. I'm laughing at your description of the typical masto/fedi person tho. 😂
@Gargron note that I can't vouch for this cause I haven't gone down that route yet (I know someone who runs a Zigbee Bosch thermostat at home which sorts that for him, but not opentherm).
However I've came across this before. AFAICT this is very much how you'd do it with a simple ESP32 micro controller and the ESPHome firmware. They even seem to have a neat controller for the wall, but you can probably even quickly cook up the DIY version on the cheap just to test.
@Gargron if it helps btw, what my friend uses is this Bosch Thermostat. Works as a dumb thermostat, but because it's zigbee you can hook it up to home assistant with a radio. Or something like a Hue bridge if you want a branded one.
https://www.bosch-smarthome.com/rom/room-thermostat-230V-manual
@d3x7r0 Does it support scheduling?
I’m getting some promising leads from this thread but also a number of frustrating responses. If I could get the answer from googling or reading the HA forums or subreddit, I wouldn’t be asking. I’ve already done all that. The plumber usually installs Hive. The boiler manual suggests Halo. Both of those seem to require using the cloud. The old boiler was plugged into a Honeywell that didn’t have a temperature sensor. If you don’t know, just move past it.
We have this ClimaPro thing.
It communicates directly with the boiler (or any heating appliance, I guess.)
No internet or wifi connection needed.
@Gargron None of the methods I suggested required the cloud or third party. If you can do Z-Wave or Zigbee, then both of the solutions in the thread I copied to you apply. I just wanted to give you context. Sorry if i offended you by asking you to read a short thread that stated it worked. Wow your reply is kinda not nice.
Can I show you this ... Hugz
I will take no responsibility for any obsession it causes
Oh, it not the thing you really want but you want to control it and play around
Hugz & xXx
@DenOfEarth Having it running all the time would not be economical, so it needs to at least have a programmable schedule.
@Gargron
I personally have an Ecobee, but I deliberately did not connect it to the internet. It still supports weekly or daily programming and separate programs for heat or cool.
@Gargron
The first gen Drayton Wiser stuff is capable of running over the LAN with their app, and has also been widely reverse engineered - I poke mine with an assortment of manky python scripts. They're onto 2nd gen now I believe which I know nothing about, but might be worth researching?
@Gargron Here's a great thread on that:
@Gargron imo, browse Zigbee2MQTT's support list and pick the one with the highest amount of community support. don't bother with anything that has an app, just work on bare metal zigbee. easy to route, and easy to connect into homeassistant.
@Gargron I’m shocked nobody in this thread has suggested installing Linux.