More automation

[G4RHL]

More and more devices are coming on the market to operate “stuff” remotely. I think I am right saying that with Evohome we are stuck with the Panel and the app and of course the web connections philchillbill has kindly created. Other systems can link with Apple Home or Alexa where you can simply ask Siri or Alexa to turn up a radiator etc. Does anybody know of a system that can link with the app to make such changes orally? It may be that because of the limitations Honeywell give us it would need to be done via the connection philchillbill has given us.

[philchillbill]

As luck would have it, I have a new more native skill already in invite-only beta at the moment with 7 testers from this community. It has way fewer commands than the existing Smart Heat skill by nature of using a voice model pre-built by Amazon, but the commands it does support can be spoken more easily and directly to Alexa. There's no prior invocation like "Start/Open/Launch/Ask/Tell Smart Heat". Also, all your thermostats appear in the Alexa mobile app on iPhone and Android exposing them for automations like routines. EvoControl Lite will soon be available in en-GB, en-US, de-DE, nl-NL, fr-FR, and it-IT spoken languages in the whole EU. If you want to receive a beta-invite then please DM me with the email address associated with your Amazon account. I will then email you a deeplink that will open your Alexa app and install the skill. Inside the Alexa app itself you'll need to login to your EvoControl account. Stay away from PC/mac/iPad while installing .

Now that the cat's out of the bag anyway, here's an excerpt from the Amazon skill-store description:

Some example commands:

Set bathroom to 20° for 30 minutes
Set the livingroom to 18° until 5PM
Set TV room to 21°
Increase the office temperature by 1°
Lower the bedroom temperature by 2°
Set the garage to OFF (zone-specific 5° permanent override)
Set the office to ECO (zone-specific 15° override until next scheduled switchpoint)
Set the livingroom to HEAT (zone-specific return to scheduled operation)
What's the livingroom mode?
What's the kitchen temperature?
What's the temperature in the bathroom?
What's the office set to?
What temperature is kitchen set to?
Resume the bedroom schedule (en-US only)

Set the heating mode to Auto
Set the heating to Eco/Boost (or Economy, or Boost)
Set the heating mode to Away
Set the heating mode to Day Off
Set the heating to Custom
Set the heating mode to Heating Off (or Turn off the Heating)
Set the heating mode to Reset (or Turn on the Heating — cancels all permanent/temporary zone-overrides,chooses AUTO as system-mode)
Set the heating mode to Manual (a new quick-action that sets all zones to 5° permanently but leaves the system mode set to AUTO)
What's the heating mode?

Switch on Hot Water
Switch off Hot Water
Turn on 60-minute boost
Turn off 60-minute boost
Is the 60-minute boost on?
What's the hot water temperature?

(if you have created scenes/activities in EvoControl Smart Heat or the PWA):
Activate {scene-name}
Turn on {scene-name}

Note that if you set/adjust the temperature in a zone that currently has a Permanent Override, that permanence will be maintained and only the setpoint will change. If you set/adjust a zone which is currently in Follow Schedule mode and you omit a specific UNTIL or DURATION, a Temporary Override will be initiated until that zone's next scheduled switchover time.

Up to 4 Evotouches can be added for operation of up to 48 zones plus 4 DHW controllers without having to verbally switch between controllers (i.e. the hierarchy is fully flattened here). Your Evotouch controller appears as a device called 'Heating', with an additional 1-4 appended in multi-location systems. The same goes for DHW which is called 'Hot Water' (plus 1-4 if relevant). Your zone names are copied as-is unless there are clashes across locations/panels, in which case 1-4 is also appended to conflicting zone names so as to disambiguate. Any of these names can be changed as desired from within the Alexa app.

Unlike the legacy Honeywell Home Total Connect Comfort International skill (TCCI), EvoControl Lite allows you (1) to change between all system modes from within the Alexa app, (2) lets you select DHW 60-min boost mode (and not just DHW on/off), (3) exposes zone-modes HEAT, ECO and OFF for every zone, (4) exposes FollowSchedule for every zone (en-US only), (5) exposes a new quick-action called MANUAL (see above), and (6) it lets you specify a DURATION or an UNTIL when specifying setpoints. It will also allow you to activate any scenes/activities defined in the EvoControl custom-skill or web-app. If you are using EvoControl Lite then you should disable the TCCI skill to avoid control conflicts. Also delete the old TCCI devices in the Alexa app (if present) before installing.


EDIT: Added the green colour to indicate the limited set of commands the TCCI skill (stuck in 2014) supports.

EDIT2: Found a workaround for the Amazon bug that was causing the Alexa mobile app to regularly miss state-updates.

[G4RHL]

Thanks. You are way ahead already! It is a shame Honeywell don't do this already.

[bruce_miranda]

Thanks. You are way ahead already! It is a shame Honeywell don't do this already.

They do but Phil's skill is better.

[philchillbill]

FYI the closed beta for this will automatically terminate on April 21st. The new skill will then be submitted for certification and it will certainly be in time for the next heating season as this one is practially over (at least in NL where it will hit 20 degrees today).

[Somebody]

Great work, Phil, again! A question - on the hot water, can I do a 20 minute boost instead of 60? Thanks

[philchillbill]

Not with this skill. The ‘other’ skill allows you to specify X minutes in the utterance because it has a custom voice model. This one suffers from the limitations of the Amazon smart home skill paradigm.

[bruce_miranda]

Great work, Phil, again! A question - on the hot water, can I do a 20 minute boost instead of 60? Thanks

The way I do this is via a Voice enabled routine in alexa. "Turn On the Hot Water" in turn makes Alexa do a "Tell Smart Heat to turn on the hot water for 20mins".