Feature Request: Improve Climate View — Heating Controls, Device Status and Quick Actions

Ideas & Suggestions
1

Summary

Homey Pro’s Climate view provides a useful way to see heating and climate-related devices within a zone. However, it currently seems focused on thermostats and heating equipment, rather than the broader set of devices and controls used to manage a heating system.

I’d like to suggest three related, but independently useful, improvements:

  1. Allow heating controls to appear in Climate, without requiring them to be classified as thermostats, heaters or heat pumps.
  2. Display device status, particularly the On/Off state of switches and the selected mode of heating controls.
  3. Support Quick Actions, allowing devices to be operated directly from Climate without opening their detail views.

Each improvement would be valuable on its own, and they could be implemented separately.

1. Allow Heating Controls in Climate View

Not everything that controls a heating system is itself a thermostat, heater or heat pump.

For example, I use Heating Scheduler to manage heating modes, alongside virtual devices that trigger Flows to set predefined temperatures.

These are heating controls, but they aren’t heating equipment.

Currently, to make these devices appear in Climate, I have to assign them an inappropriate device class, such as thermostat, heater or heatpump.

This creates several problems:

  • The device is incorrectly represented.
  • Other apps and automations may act on devices based on their class, causing unintended behaviour.
  • Developers have no obvious way to identify a device as a heating control without pretending it is heating equipment.

Suggested improvement

Allow apps or users to identify devices as relevant to the Climate view independently of their device class.

This might be achieved through:

  • A new heating_control device class.
  • An optional capability or property indicating that a device belongs in Climate.
  • A user setting to include a particular device in Climate.

The exact implementation is less important than allowing heating-related controls to appear without misclassifying them.

Examples include heating mode selectors, schedule controls, boost functions and fixed-temperature presets.

2. Display Device Status in Climate View

The Climate view already displays certain device values, particularly thermostat target temperatures.

However, other capabilities are not represented consistently.

For example, an On/Off device classified as a heater or heat pump appears in Climate, but its current On/Off state is not displayed in the same way as on a normal device tile.

This means that the Climate view can show the devices in a heating system without showing whether they are active.

The same issue would apply to heating mode controls, where knowing the currently selected mode is important.

Suggested improvement

Display relevant device status information in Climate, including:

  • On/Off state for switches.
  • Selected mode for heating controllers.
  • Active/inactive state for virtual controls.
  • Other relevant primary capability values.

Ideally, Climate would reuse the status information already available on normal device tiles.

This improvement could be implemented independently of any changes to device classification or Quick Actions. Even for the existing heater and heat pump classes, displaying their current state would be valuable.

3. Support Quick Actions in Climate View

Normal Homey device tiles support Quick Actions, allowing devices to be operated directly without opening their full control interface.

However, these actions do not appear to be available in the Climate view.

For example, I created an Advanced Virtual Device classified as a heat pump with an On/Off capability.

It appears in Climate, but tapping it opens the device rather than switching it, and there is no visible Quick Action.

Similarly, a virtual thermostat with a target_temperature capability appears in Climate, but Homey automatically presents the adjustable thermostat interface. This is appropriate for a thermostat, but not for a control intended to activate a fixed-temperature preset.

Suggested improvement

Support Quick Actions within Climate, using the same principles as ordinary device tiles.

Examples include:

  • Direct On/Off switching.
  • Buttons that trigger Flows.
  • Heating boost and fixed-temperature preset actions.
  • Other primary actions defined by the device or its app.

This would allow Climate to become a practical heating-control interface, rather than primarily a way to open individual devices.

This improvement could also be implemented independently. Existing heaters and heat pumps would immediately benefit from Quick Actions, even without adding support for new device types.

Example: How Climate Could Work

A room might contain the following devices and controls:

Device Displayed status Available action
Room thermostat Current 20.5°C, target 21°C Adjust temperature
Radiator heater On Toggle On/Off
Heating Scheduler Schedule mode Select heating mode
Heating Boost Inactive Activate 22°C preset

This would provide an at-a-glance overview of the heating system, together with direct access to its most useful controls.

Why This Matters

These limitations are particularly noticeable when using Homey Pro with virtual devices, Heating Scheduler and Advanced Flows.

In my own setup, I found that:

  • A virtual device classified as thermostat did not appear in Climate until I added a target_temperature capability.
  • Adding that capability caused Homey to display the thermostat adjustment widget, even though the intended function was a fixed-temperature action.
  • Changing a device’s class to heater or heatpump made it appear in Climate, but its On/Off status and Quick Actions were not displayed.
  • Classifying a virtual control as a heater can also cause other heating automations to interact with it unintentionally.

These behaviours suggest that Climate currently makes assumptions about which devices belong there and how they should be presented.

Conclusion

The Climate view is already a useful feature, but it could become significantly more capable with three relatively distinct improvements:

  1. Flexible inclusion: Allow heating-related controls to appear without requiring an inappropriate device class.
  2. Status visibility: Show the current state of switches and other relevant capabilities.
  3. Direct interaction: Expose Quick Actions so users can operate devices without opening them.

These changes don’t need to be delivered together. Each would improve the existing Climate experience, while collectively making it a much more effective interface for managing a heating system.

I’d be interested to hear whether others have encountered similar limitations, and whether Athom has considered extending Climate in this direction.

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