Good day everyone,
I’m creating this post because of an issue I’m having with the Aqara W500 thermostat. It’s not a serious problem by itself, but I think it’s something that should be properly implemented.
Basically, the issue is that when the W500 has the Smart Schedule (programming assistant) enabled, the thermostat doesn’t turn off completely — even if you turn it off manually, through the Aqara app, or via an automation. In other words, when I turn the thermostat off, I expect it to stay fully off until I manually turn it back on (or an automation does it). But that’s not what happens: the Smart Schedule keeps running in the background and reactivates the thermostat, even when it’s turned off.
You might be wondering why this is a problem
— let me explain.
I live in a region with four seasons. During winter, heating is used almost every day, around 95% of the time. The issue appears mainly in autumn and spring, when temperatures vary a lot. For example, mornings can be around 12–14°C, but at noon it can reach 22–25°C depending on the day.
On those days, heating isn’t necessary — even if the indoor temperature is 19–20°C, it’s perfectly fine, and during the day I usually open the windows to let the sun warm up the house.
The problem is that the Smart Schedule still turns on the heating every morning, because it’s set to maintain 20–21°C in “Home” mode.
All I’m asking is for the manual “off” command to completely disable the thermostat and the Smart Schedule, until I manually (or via automation) turn it back on. Once it’s on again, it can follow the programmed schedules as usual.
Now, some of you may wonder how I handle heating control during those transitional months.
I’m still refining my setup, but basically I use an automation with three parameters:
- A time trigger (8:30 AM) — it runs daily from October to March, since these are the months when cold days are most likely in my area.
- Outdoor temperature — measured by an Aqara temperature sensor placed outside on my porch.
- Indoor temperature — measured by another Aqara sensor in the coldest room of the house.
The automation decides whether to turn on the heating or not. Currently, I’m testing this logic:
If the outdoor temperature is below 12°C and the indoor temperature is below 18°C → then turn on the heating.
I plan to keep improving this logic over time — for example, by adding more parameters like outdoor humidity or even rain detection, since those factors also affect thermal comfort.
I hope I’ve explained the issue clearly, and maybe my setup will help someone else. I also want to mention that I’ve already contacted Aqara’s technical support this week, and they confirmed that they plan to fix and implement a full power-off behavior for the thermostat, which I believe is how it should normally work.
At the moment, I have the Smart Schedule disabled, because on days when I don’t want the heating to turn on, it’s the only way to prevent it.
However, this is quite inconvenient — I have to manually enable or disable the schedules depending on the day. It’s a hassle, especially when it could be much easier and smarter if the Smart Schedule automatically turned off together with the thermostat.
I also have a few other programming ideas in mind that could make the thermostat even smarter and more convenient.
I believe they could be implemented in the current W500 version, so if you’re interested, we could also discuss these features here — and hopefully Aqara might consider adding them in a future update.
Best regards to everyone — and sorry if my English isn’t perfect!
