What do you use to control them?
Is each Vent its own damper controlled independently based off the temperature sensor in each room?
How do you control the temp in each room?
Yes
I use two apps, zStat Manager and an app called Keenect, (original version by @Mike_Maxwell)
You can read more about my project here…
My new house (2500sf, 2 level on slab) is in need of dual zone system I think. The past few months it has been cold downstairs and hot upstairs (much more so than other houses I’ve owned). I have had most of the upstairs manual vents closed (bad for the HVAC???). I have an ecobee but honestly don’t like it that much, or maybe its just the lack of dual zone that is frustrating me. But I feel like I’m always over-riding the temperature and/or controlling it from smartthings. I really don’t want to go the smart vent route (too many and they are all in ceilings).
Just starting to research dampers and read through most of this topic. My simplistic/cheap idea is to have two normally open dampers and smart relays (as discussed here), one that closes to send all hot air downstairs in the winter, one that sends all cool air upstairs in the summer. I don’ think I need dual thermostats and dual-zone controllers if I had that, I don’t know??? I have one ecobee remote sensor upstairs but again I haven’t really been happy with how it works so far.
First problem after peeking at the attic ductwork on top the HVAC, is there are a bunch of ducts all coming off one big box… so I will need a bunch of dampers. Or should I have a HVAC pro ($$$) re-work the big box so I can split into 2 big ducts (up and down), each with damper before all the small room ducts?
I’m dreading how hot its gonna be upstairs this summer 
You know WebCore along with Nest Manager works great. I have multiple temp sensor in a room and made adjustment to them such they are all about the same temp. I then use WebCore to control my vents based on who is in the room, time of day and time of year. I have followed the recommendation on leaving all the vents at least 10% open. I have three Nest Tstats and with Nest Manger I have made everyone more comfortable and based on electricity have made my pocket happier. It has been a warmer year than the past but seems to be better than it has ever been.I have tried multiple apps and always the best one is the one you put together. You can make changes as you see a need using WebCore.
I am in the process of doing this now… to address some of the concerns…
Whenever you do a zoned system like this, at a minimum you should do the bypass damper as some have mentioned. The easiest way to just put a duct from your heating/cooling duct, to your return duct. Then you just put a “dumb” pressure damper in. It’s like a pressure release valve. You get one that is set to the peak pressure your system was designed to. That way, if for some reason too many vents/dampers are closed, it will just open when you hit peak pressure bleed off the air to keep the system from over-pressuring and causing an eventual blower failure.
The other thing to consider is Dampers are way more efficient than smart vents. A smart vent is at the very end of the circuit. All the air going to that “closed” vent has the opportunity to leak out through the system. Closing the zone right at the junction will dramatically increase the overall efficiency of the system.
Finally, the ideal way to zone your system is to have a ECM blower that has multiple blowing speeds. Then add a smart pressure sensor to circuit. Then you can tell the blower to slow down if the pressure is high due to closed vents, and speed up if most vents are open and pressure is low. You still want that bypass, just in case. An ECM Blower will also provide its “primary” purpose, which is to use a lower speed when “maintaining” the temperatures, and a higher speed when a temperature change is needed.
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I found this conversation looking for alternatives to $3000 - $5000 zoning systems that HVAC installers in Australia and New Zealand want to sell. AirTouch and iZone are examples of the commercial systems, I have an estimate of about NZ$3200 for an AirTouch 4 with four rooms and 5 dampers. An advantage of these systems as they attach directly to your HVAC unit, changing mode, changing fan speeds, etc, but the units themselves have limited automation available.
I’m wanting to do some simple zoning for my home, using ceiling mounted dampers rather than wall vents. Damper position control would be sufficient, full automated temperature control is not essential. I really only need to control one or two dampers, the rest are fine on their default position.
I happened across this Z-Wave Damper for AU$335, which if you need say six of them is approaching the cost of a full system. If you need just one or two it might be cost effective. These motorised 24V dampers are about AU$150 but have no control system.
Is there a smart damper that is moderately priced where you can set it to open, closed, or somewhere in between? Or is there some kind of unit you can attach to a 24V damper to make it “smart”?