Setting Fan to 'Always On' resets stat to minimum

[SMUSEBY]

I am trying to both heat my house and set the fan to Always On to purge the house air of forest fire smoke. I am able to do this from the thermostat, but not with the plug-in.
In Indigo, I am setting the thermostat with an action group that includes setting the fan mode to 'auto on'. If the air is bad, I would like to set the fan to 'Always On' without changing the thermostat setting. I am unable to do this. I suppose it might be possible to do this with a script - that tested for stat setting and reset it after changing the fan mode, and a second set of scripts that tested for fan mode before changing the temperature, but I'm hoping there might be an easier way..

[FlyingDiver]

Can you turn on debug logging and then run the commands again (both the auto on and the always on). Then post the log. That'll help me figure out if it's something in the plugin doing it, or the Ecobee API.

[SMUSEBY]

With everything off, I ran an action which sets the fan to 'always on' and verified that it was successful at the thermostat. I then ran an action that set the temperature to 20C, and verified that the fan mode was now 'auto on'.
In my Ecobee account, I have 2 thermostats at 2 homes. The one at interest here is labeled "stairs"; ignore "Front Hall" and "North Office".

Sep 16, 2020 at 12:16:09
Ecobee 2 Debug logLevel = 10
Ecobee 2 Debug updateFrequency = 900.0
Ecobee 2 Debug setting temperature scale to C
Ecobee 2 Debug Ecobee Account (1345636757): Ecobee Account Update OK, got info on 2 thermostats
Ecobee 2 Debug Ecobee Account (1345636757): getting data for 'Front Hall', 521703550260
Ecobee 2 Debug Ecobee Account (1345636757): getting data for remote sensor 'North Office', C5SW
Ecobee 2 Debug Ecobee Account (1345636757): getting data for 'Stairs', 521781046633
Ecobee 2 Debug Ecobee Stairs: Updating device

Sep 16, 2020 at 12:17:57
Action Group Fan ON-60min
Ecobee 2 Debug Ecobee Stairs: action.thermostatAction: SetFanMode
Ecobee 2 Ecobee Stairs: set fan to ON, leave cool at 26.1 and heat at 7.2
Ecobee 2 Debug API 'set hold temp with fan on' request completed, result = <Response [200]>
Ecobee 2 Debug Ecobee Account (1345636757): Ecobee Account Update OK, got info on 2 thermostats
Ecobee 2 Debug Ecobee Account (1345636757): getting data for 'Front Hall', 521703550260
Ecobee 2 Debug Ecobee Account (1345636757): getting data for remote sensor 'North Office', C5SW
Ecobee 2 Debug Ecobee Account (1345636757): getting data for 'Stairs', 521781046633
Ecobee 2 Debug Ecobee Stairs: Updating device



Sep 16, 2020 at 12:19:10
Action Group htrSetpt_20C
Ecobee 2 Debug Ecobee Stairs: action.thermostatAction: SetHvacMode
Ecobee 2 Debug Ecobee Stairs (521781046633): Mode set to: auto
Ecobee 2 Debug API 'set HVAC mode' request completed, result = <Response [200]>
Ecobee 2 Debug Ecobee Stairs: actionActivateComfortSetting
Ecobee 2 Debug API 'set climate hold' request completed, result = <Response [200]>
Ecobee 2 Debug Ecobee Account (1345636757): Ecobee Account Update OK, got info on 2 thermostats
Ecobee 2 Debug Ecobee Account (1345636757): getting data for 'Front Hall', 521703550260
Ecobee 2 Debug Ecobee Account (1345636757): getting data for remote sensor 'North Office', C5SW
Ecobee 2 Debug Ecobee Account (1345636757): getting data for 'Stairs', 521781046633
Ecobee 2 Debug Ecobee Stairs: Updating device

[FlyingDiver]

OK, I'm going to have to dig through the code to see exactly what's going on. I'll get back to you on this.

https://github.com/FlyingDiver/Indigo-Ecobee-2/issues/8

[SMUSEBY]

Thank you.

[FlyingDiver]

Ok, here's the deal. There's no independent control of the Fan setting in the Ecobee API. Fan mode is controlled by the settings for the current Comfort mode. The only way to change the fan setting without editing the comfort mode is to set a temporary "hold" on all the settings. When it does that, it needs to specify the heat and cool set points along with the fan mode. It's using the current set points as it knows them. It appears that your comfort mode set points are 26.1 and 7.2. If you previously set the cool set point to 20 manually (using the action), then you already have an active hold in place. Changing the Fan mode just cancelled that hold and put in a new one.

You can't treat the Ecobee like a traditional thermostat. It just won't do it.

What you probably need to do is set up additional comfort modes (with or without Fan on, for example), then use the plugin to change the comfort mode.

[SMUSEBY]

OK - even better would be for the firefighters eliminating the smoke at the sources.
Can only hope.
Thanks for looking into this.