How do I detect when heating or cooling with HAI Omnistat RC-80B thermostat?

[johnnynine]

I must be missing something...

Whenever the HAI Omnistat RC-80B thermostat is heating or cooling, a little asterisk is shown on it's display.

But how can I retrieve this state from the Elk M1? I'd like to log when this is occuring and I can retrieve other stats like the heat/cool mode, fan mode, etc... but I don't see how to determine if the heat/cool relay is triggered?

Thanks,
John

 

[johnnynine]

Any ideas on this one?

If it's not possible, is there a thermostat that Elk does support this feature with?

 

[Michael McSharry]

The heat/cool mode is one of the items available over the serial link. I dont have the protocol handy to be more specific.

 

[ricks]

Hey John,

I had this problem as well. Until more recent versions of PCAccess this variable didn't show. I'm running PCA 3.3.0.551 and if you look under Status/Control, Thermostats you should see the status listed on the far right. What was needed was to create flags for each thermostat and an automation rule that set the flags based on the value in STATUS.

For example:
Create a flag called First Floor Heat
Create an Automation Rule that says "Every 5 seconds AND if First Floor System Status is NOT HEATING THEN First Floor Heat Off" and a separate rule that says "Every 5 seconds AND if First Floor System Status is HEATING THEN First Floor Heat On".

What happens is that the panel will check the value of the STATUS variable every 5 seconds and update the flag. You will need a rule for each thermostat for "Heating, Not Heating, Cooling, Not Cooling". Obviously you can set the frequency to anything that meets your needs. Since I use this to track energy efficiency I have it set at 5 seconds.

Your Elk should be able to see all of the HAI flags easily.

Hope this helps.

Rick

 

[johnnynine]

Thanks for the info guys, so it sounds like the thermostat does make the data available.

So what I need to find out is if the Elk M1 exposes this data. So far I do not see it.

I am able to get the current thermostat mode (off, auto, heat, cool) but what I want is at the very least a flag that indicates if the thermostat is currently heating or cooling. Ideally it would indicate that discretely so I knew which it was doing.

The reason I need this is because I have AC issues in my home and I want to log the temperature and when the AC unit is running so I can take it to my home builder and/or AC installer as proof.

So Elk, is this data exposed in the elk protocol?

Thanks so much,
John

 

[Lagerhead]

FWIW, the Proliphix thermostats keep a running total of heating and cooling minutes. These counters increment until you reset them. The M1 cannot readily pull or use this information, but it is a simple matter for your HA system to get this data over the network.

 

[johnnynine]

Thanks for the feedback, unfortunately I can't cost justify the purchase of new thermostats at this time so I am specifically looking for an indication of if and how the Elk M1 indicates when the thermostat's heat/cool relay is closed.

Thanks