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Author Topic: Smart Vents - DONT GET LEFT OUT!!!  (Read 5986 times)

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Offline Bigalhurl

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Smart Vents - DONT GET LEFT OUT!!!
« on: December 06, 2016, 06:19:32 pm »
Home automation is cool and fun. But how much of this actually saves money. Most have a smart thermostat. but it suffers from the same issue any thermostat suffers from. It suffers from regulating heat from the one location in the home.

OK We all know that Heating and cooling our home is a large if not the largest energy expense we have. Does anyone have any experience with the Keen Smart home Vents. These vents automate your duct work to send heat/air where needed and regulate the temp of your home.

Now with that said it requires their hub and works with our without a smart thermostat.   Currently it works with NEST.

Now thats great BUT Ecobee3 is a smart thermostat with Occupancy sensors.

Now my thoughts are Keen states that there product can keep your home evenly heated or air conditioned evenly . I think theres still waste there.

With the Ecobee3 KEEN integration (in theory) one could only send heat or air to OCCUPIED SPACES of the HOME. This would further reduce the homes energy costs therefore increasing its ROI (Return on investment) even faster.

So what I'm asking ... does anyone know the Keen platform? It mentioned its compatible with NEST and IRIS. I would assume Ecobee3 will soon be inline with this list 

THIS IS HUGE!!!! and will drive alot of people to the Home automation platform / market.

ALMOND LOOK INTO THIS NOW. Dont get caught on the back end of this.
Using the Ecobee3
I would need the ability to automate / control each vent based on an occupancy sensor from the Ecobee3 and or a schedule based on desired day night vacation etc.

Thoughts Anyuone?

Offline fillibar

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Re: Smart Vents - DONT GET LEFT OUT!!!
« Reply #1 on: December 06, 2016, 07:03:22 pm »
I looked at these previously. Unfortunately the savings just was not there once for me when I included the cost of retrofitting every existing vent (20+ which comes to ~$1500 even with their current sale price). This was as opposed to adding in zone heating (which I have no done yet either and obviously would have some limitations, but worked out to ~$1000).

They are interesting if the price came down and being ZigBee it should be pretty easy to add them in (relatively speaking) since they also work on SmartThings and Iris (which means they are not a proprietary implementation).
Almond 3 mesh handling the home.

Offline grouter

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Re: Smart Vents - DONT GET LEFT OUT!!!
« Reply #2 on: December 06, 2016, 07:13:42 pm »
They only seem to be affordable for smaller homes/fewer rooms, which means a smaller blower unit to wear out sooner from blocking air flow and creating pressure/resistance. So in the end I think it would cost more due to the premature hvac replacement.

But I have no real experience with Keen other than following their development and reading up on manual zoning and dampers and such.

Offline mparadis

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Re: Smart Vents - DONT GET LEFT OUT!!!
« Reply #3 on: December 06, 2016, 08:18:32 pm »
As pointed out I wouldn't think the market for these is too big yet because of the price and the issues it can cause with the hvac of a house. It certainly is a neat idea and I thought it was pretty smart when I first heard about it but I don't know that I'd personally every be interested in using it. I wonder what kind of commands it utilizes, if it is generic then support should be pretty straight forward as well.

Offline fillibar

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Re: Smart Vents - DONT GET LEFT OUT!!!
« Reply #4 on: December 07, 2016, 07:03:07 am »
@grouter:
Blocking the airflow should not cause too much problem if you account for it. Same issue exists with zone-control heating. You need an extra air vent somewhere (zone control usually puts one right by the furnace) that vents it to maintain a "good" pressure in the ducts. So if you put smart vents everywhere you could have another in the basement, near the furnace, or some central room that could just be set to release far more air than the rest.

Although this also reminded me I have more vents in the basement that would have cost more money...
Almond 3 mesh handling the home.

Offline Ohiomedic

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Re: Smart Vents - DONT GET LEFT OUT!!!
« Reply #5 on: December 07, 2016, 01:18:36 pm »
I only looked into them for my bathroom. It's such a small room, and due to my cats I have to leave the door closed when the A/C kicks on it gets very cold in there. I didn't go with one due to the type of vent I have it didn't look like it would work.

Offline grouter

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Re: Smart Vents - DONT GET LEFT OUT!!!
« Reply #6 on: December 07, 2016, 01:50:00 pm »
@grouter:
Blocking the airflow should not cause too much problem if you account for it. Same issue exists with zone-control heating. You need an extra air vent somewhere (zone control usually puts one right by the furnace) that vents it to maintain a "good" pressure in the ducts. So if you put smart vents everywhere you could have another in the basement, near the furnace, or some central room that could just be set to release far more air than the rest.

I've read about "bypass damper" ducting that opens as needed to redirect excess pressure back to the return and keeps the pressure in the system constant and dehumidifies optimally. But I've read so much conflicting HVAC theories and everyone claims to "do it right" that I don't know what to believe!

Offline fillibar

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Re: Smart Vents - DONT GET LEFT OUT!!!
« Reply #7 on: December 07, 2016, 03:13:31 pm »
That is the term I could not think of before. A bypass damper.
Almond 3 mesh handling the home.

Offline Bigalhurl

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Re: Smart Vents - DONT GET LEFT OUT!!!
« Reply #8 on: December 07, 2016, 06:03:07 pm »
@grouter:
Blocking the airflow should not cause too much problem if you account for it. Same issue exists with zone-control heating. You need an extra air vent somewhere (zone control usually puts one right by the furnace) that vents it to maintain a "good" pressure in the ducts.


I made a few phone calls (my HVAC manufacturer) and a couple contractors. According to the manufacturer my unit has a VFD (variable frequency Drive fan motor to maintain the adequate pressures).

Only One contractor was familiar with system balancing and he worked more commercial applications than residential. But as the conversation progressed he started asking more questions of me about Home automation, Securifi/almond, Keen etc.

As soon as ecobee3 and keen get thier $hitaki together Ill update on my progress.






 

 

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