Do I have to build my own touchscreen thermostat?

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Alright I'll check it out. Tnx:)

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All of that is handled by the HVAC (if there's anything to handle) and not the thermostat

Thermostats can be (and most often are) a bimetallic strip that bends one way as it cools and bends the other way as it warms, and that flips some switches that you set for temperature ranges which then demands cool or hot from your hvac

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Raspi is overkill. Mine runs off an esp32 using code I wrote in Arduino. The web interface takes up more space than the code.
Only reason it's an esp32 instead of an Atmega 328p is the wifi support

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Which are all things you can easily do with an RPi and some simple python.

Just like anyone can “easily” rebuild their transmission or patch a piece of leaky copper pipe or bake an apple pie from scratch or hit a bullese from 50 yards out.

What’s easy for you isn’t easy for everyone.

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And deal with breaking updates happening on HA and the thermostat software itself while simultaneously maintaining api keys and policy changes every 2-6 months.

Its hard work

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This is the way.

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Programmers love to oversimplify things, like "do easily with an RPi and some simple Python" is kinda meaningless. For one, UI/UX is actually hugely important for a consumer device and definitely nontrivial, but on top of that, there is way more that goes into creating custom hardware than a bill of materials and choosing a programming language...

A thermostat is controlling a hugely expensive device that runs on a highly flammable gas that costs me real money to use. I want 0 bugs. I also want 100% uptime. I also want my partner to be able to control the temperature in the house. These devices are actually not simple at all and I assume that's the reason there isn't a good open source/open hardware solution.

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I SWEAR it's impossible to make fun of the selfhosting / hacking communities. I made a joke once that they should hack a toothbrush then I found they already did

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That is the simplest possible thermostat and works great for setting a temperature, but that's not the ideal thermostat. The temperature your house "feels like" also depends on humidity. You may also care about the temperature more in a spot further from the thermostat and getting accurate measurements in that location can save you money and waste less gas. There is also the decision of how long you should run a furnace and, in the case of multiple stages, which stage you should run, although some furnaces control the stages themselves. Then there is air flow. Controlling the fan separately is useful if the house doesn't evenly heat. Sometimes you can just have the fan work and use the actual furnace less, saving gas again.

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From my understanding, those days are in the past. I can't speak to that from experience because I only recently got into HA.

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I could see that, but you have to remember that the average consumer doesn't have an automation hub or get deep into the automation sphere, and as such many of these products are designed to be standalone devices that can be controlled from a phone. Often enough they can be the only 'smart' device in a home.

That all said, a dumb thermostat like your suggesting would still require a small CPU, ram, embedded OS, and network stack/hardware to operate and communicate, so I don't know how far the savings would go. I can't imagine the processing power on something like a nest is that powerful as it is.

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Depends on what proprietary WiFi controller you purchased. The one I bought for my electric underfloor heating makes me manually request new api key every 6 months. So I've had to write ANOTHER script to automate requesting a new key via their website.

Now theyve put a captcha in and ive since given up. I'm too old and busy for these games

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Yeah, I use Zigbee with Home Assistant, it's pretty great, except it sometimes bugs out and I have to restart a few devices.

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"Oh so you're telling me it works via the flow of electrons to power motors and sensors? Hold my beer."

Side note: This is why it's infuriating that companies seem to believe what we want is unsecured bluetooth / wi-fi enabled toothbrushes hooked up to our home networks and smartphones via some equally hacky app that tries to link toothbrush usage to buying habits and ad efficiency.

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Or mobile websites that ask you to install "apps"

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Those are all very nice things to have in an improved thermostat, I agree completely

The point I was replying to was making the erroneous claim that basic operation of an HVAC isn't possible with an RPI thermostat because of things the thermostat doesn't handle

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For one, UI/UX is actually hugely important for a consumer device and definitely nontrivial

Hugely agreed.
I'm a huge proponent of DIY / open-source / self-hosting / repurposing etc...but also I realize if I duct-tape-engineer something that "requires a little fiddling until it works" and I'm the only one who can competently use it, I'm setting up the rest of my household for failure when (not if), for whatever reason, I'm not there to babysit it or walk them through it.

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I'm a programmer. I miss my 70s thermostat. Hot/cold/off, temperature, and fan on/auto. Very simple. Just worked.

The smart thermostat is nice, but it's something I'll need to revisit when I have time.

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This made me think:

What about thermal runaway protection? I'm betting that might be easily overlooked in a custom "smart device" if, for whatever reason, the temperature sensor were to fail and keep reporting "Hey it's still only (below_target_F_degrees) in here! Keep that heat on full blast!"

This was an issue that made jank 3D printers catch fire and burn houses down until it was mitigated with open source firmware.

Point being, unless there's a "custom smart thermostat project" that's vetted and trusted, stuff like this might be overlooked, wherein it's bog standard in consumer devices.

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My Ecobee not only has some fairly sophisticated software, a touch screen, and remote sensors, but enough CPU to run Alexa