I have been using an Ecobee3 Lite thermostat since 2019. Aside from the issue described in Hydro One's myEnergyRewards in Action, it has met my needs. I can create schedules that minimise furnace and A/C operation without impacting comfort levels. In the summer, I pre-cool the house overnight when electricity rates are low (19:00 to 07:00) and can try to coast until the late afternoon or even until 19:00. The Ecobee has a Fan Minimum Runtime feature that I use to pull cool air out of the basement and improve air circulation to delay when the A/C comes on. I was able to program my OpenHAB home automation system to dynamically change the runtime based on the inside temperature.
I decided to manually test the Fan Minimum Runtime from the thermostat to ensure everything was working but got inconsistent results. Sometimes the fan would cycle, mostly the fan would not run at all, even if I set the runtime to 55 min/hour. Pulling and reseating the thermostat helped, but that was only a temporary fix.
I noticed that the Ecobee app claimed the fan was running. Tapping on the arrow said that "Fan Hold is active until 19:00". Tapping on "Turn the fan off" restored fan operation. There was no indication of any Fan Hold on the thermostat itself.
The Ecobee website only offered support via chat - when signed in, the "Contact Us" link went to a non-existent page. An initial 30 minute chat did not resolve the contradiction in what I was seeing. A subsequent chat that lasted over three hours where Ecobee had me trying the same steps repeatedly also ended without a resolution.
I tracked down a phone number and finally found someone willing to look at the logs and do some research. It turns out that I had been setting the minimum runtime from the Ecobee Main Menu by tapping on the 'fan' icon (lower left in the first image above). There is an "On" setting that turns on the fan for various intervals, defaulting to 15 minutes. When in "Auto", I can set the minimum runtime from 5 to 55 minutes/hour. According to Ecobee Support, this "places a fan hold on your thermostat", contrary to what the the thermostat displays and also what the app shows. What I should have done is to get to the Main Menu, tap on the Settings gear, then tap on "System" and finally "Fan" where I can also change the minimum runtime but not Auto/On.
I was told that Ecobee had introduced the fan icon Quick Change 'feechur' as part of a user interface change. The documentation states that the "On" option results in a "Fan Hold". It says nothing about adjusting the minimum runtime also setting a fan hold that is only reported by the app with wording that is opposite to what actually happens. First level Ecobee Support was unable to escalate this issue to a supervisor but will have someone get back to me in one to three business days. If/when I get a response, I will post here.
2024/06/19 After more calls with Ecobee, one of the support team leads did further research and found that it was a "known issue" (no estimate of resolution). There have not been a lot of complaints, so the report was not easily accessible to first level support. I pointed out that Ecobee makes it difficult to report issues. Every contact with Ecobee creates a new case number. Emails from Ecobee support come from the old [email protected] but replies result in "This email address is not monitored by our support team." I am supposed to communicate via WhatsApp (I would rather use Signal) and Messenger (I have no interest in Facebook). I have spent about two days on this issue, mostly to trying to convince Ecobee that the thermostat did not function as documented. If you need to deal with Ecobee, insist on having support provide a link (only valid for 24 hours) where you can load images and documentation.
Blog comments