First, ecobeeSetZoneWithSchedule (part of MyEcobee bundle) is more appropriate for ecobee tstats. I understand that you’re reusing the same config as the one you had for the Nest, but there are more features in ecobeeSetZoneWithSchedule (and the vents adjustment will follow the ecobee schedules instead of the less reliable ST scheduling).
See my thread that explains the different zoning smartapps here:
In order to avoid too many vent adjustments, just make sure of the following:
A single vent should not be part of 2 rooms (under RoomSetup>VentSettings). If a vent is part of 2 rooms, chances are that they will be conflicting setLevel commands that will be sent to the vent, hence more vent adjustments;
A single room should not be part of many zones. If a room is part of 2 different zones, chances are that there may be conflicts between the 2 zones, hence more vent adjustments;
A single zone should not be part of many concurrent running schedules. If a zone is part of 2 running schedules, then there may be conflict between the 2 schedules, hence more vent adjustments;
Make sure that the 5-minute adjustment setting is not set in ScheduleSetup>VentSettings for all your schedules. By default, the vents are only adjusted when the master tstat’s thermostatOperatingState is ‘cooling/heating/fan only’;
In GeneralSetup, as you have many connected vents, you can set the Safeguard’s Minimum Vent Level to the same value (ex. 15-20%) for both in-zone and out-zone settings. That way, the smartapp will not adjust the minimum value in both cases.
Finally, since v8.8, my zoning smartapps will not adjust the vent level if the target level is within +/- 5% of the current level reported by the vents. So, this is another optimization that has been done to avoid too many vent adjustments.
So, my contributors have to make sure to install the latest zoning smartapp’s release in order to leverage all features & recommendations.
P.S. I have had 16 connected Keen Home vents since 2015, and I have changed the batteries only twice. I use the Duracell batteries as shipped originally.
Regards.
@yvesracine I have a dozen Keen Vents in my home. And a handful of other Zigbee devices which are powered (and therefore acting as repeaters). I bought and installed them all over a year ago and was immediately disgusted–their battery life was horrible! I have recently resurrected them all, putting all new batteries in every unit. Some last a few weeks, some last only a couple days. I have tried using the official SmartThings device handler for the Keen Smart Vent, I have tried using yours, and I have tried a very slimmed down version (I don’t need them to report temp and things, since I have separate (reliable!) sensors for that info. I see you have mentioned you get 2+ years battery life out of these things. So… any tips on what to look for? This seems really odd. It could be a great solution, if they actually worked and had good battery life!!
Hi @JB329, if you use my Keen Home Vents DTH, please make sure to call the configure method in WebCore or press the ‘configure’ tile if you’re still using the ST classic mobile app (as indicated in my github).
@yvesracine Yup, done that. And I watch in the log to ensure it actually is doing the config. Do the battery level reporting features of these actually work? It seems one day it will report 100%, then the next it will be offline. And checking the battery with an actual volt meter indicates they really are dead. I’ve tried using the most expensive Duracell batteries too–doesn’t seem to make any difference.
In general, you shouldn’t rely on any battery level reported in SmartThings. It’s mostly estimated/calculated…
Now, I don’t know how you’re using your vents in your automation.
In my zoning smartapp, the code usually doesn’t poll them more than every 5 minutes…
For instance, if you have developed your own WebCore scripts and you poll them every minute or so, you may go through your batteries faster…
As stated in my previous posts, there also maybe some firmware or hw issues in the latter Keen Home vent batches that cause this battery drain… I was one of the first to get the 1st beta/production batch of vents.
Thanks @yvesracine; so I just moved over to the ecobeeSetZoneWithSchedule app and overall it’s working well except that I can’t figure out how to set my ecobee thermostat to Away mode when ST is away. Nest had a pretty good location-based away mode but ecobee doesn’t see to support that. How can I set my ecobee’s Away mode based on ST’s mode?