Feature request: sense between heating/cooling operation mode

[kramsevan]

This is more a feature request instead of an issue.

When using watts vision in a setup which allows for cooling and heating operation modes, it would be very usefull to identify which mode the system is currently on. Currently this information is not available, and would be very valuable to, for example, properly control a heatpump based on the thermostat status.

I am not sure though what the best approach is, either sense the current operation mode of the entire system (cooling / heating mode), or detect the actual operation mode of the individual thermostat(s) (which change between heating or cooling mode depending on the system setting.

[pwesters]

Not sure is if the mode for the entire system is available in the api that watts is providing. I'll have to look into this.

[kramsevan]

It seems the "climate" entity for each thermostate already containts the current operation mode (either cooling, heating, off or unknown), which can be retrieved from the entity's "state". So this entity can be used to retrieve the current operation mode via one (or more) of the individual thermostats.

However, changing the operation mode has to be done at system level and is locked within the individual thermostats (at least when connected to a central wifi unit). This is the case for both the actual BT-D03 RF, as for the climate/thermostat entity in home assistant. In this case, the central unit is in control of the operation mode. The desired feature would in that case become to control (write and read) its cool/heat operation mode. For now, this has to be changed via the menu at the central wifi unit (note the official watts vision app also does not have this feature)

It has to be noted that when the the BT-HCM02 RF heat/cool module is used, and configured to be in control of the heat/cool operation mode via external inputs, the heat/cool mode can not be changed via the central unit or thermostat.

[mirakels]

see my fork for this.
It also has a 'sensor' showing the number of rooms demanding cooling/heating.