I missed it in earlier the thread thanks for these! They will have the biggest impact on my purchase.
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Noted! Iāve updated your pre-order. Weāll get you your Smart Vents ASAP!
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I guess I was just hoping for something more empirical than anecdotal feedback provided by a few recent beta testersā¦ Presumably Keen Home has had prototypes in founders home since Disrupt in 2013. Even assuming the technology has changed quite a bit since the seed funding arrived this time last year, Iād hope there to be some quantifiable experimental data proving out the technology.
I mean not my place to tell you how to market your product, but from my perspective as a consumer, most the automation equipment I purchase is relatively inexpensive and I know the value it will provide . The light switch will turn on, the system will detect the door opening, etcā¦ In order to spend $300+ to do more than just āscratch the surfaceā as you say, itād be nice to see some raw data substantiating the productās claims.
I got my 4x10 keen smart vents in a few days ago. I order 5 4x10ās and 5 4x12s. Iām pleasantly surprised and impressed with the packaging and build quality of the units. These things are very cool! Operability is very good with the exception of the temperature sensor (see more below). The units were quickly found by the Smartthings 2.0 Hub. Without a Keen hub or software, Iāve been using them with smartthings with @yvesracine smartapp along with an Ecobee 3. @yvesracine work is very cool, although its a little more than I need at the moment, I just need to be able to set the vents to open a close at a specific temperature. Iām looking forward to seeing future software releases as more of these vents show up int he wild.
My biggest problem with the Keen Vents is the temperature sensor. Being incorporated into the unit the temperature readings swings drastically based on the temperature of the vent vs the room temperature, making them inefective for triggering smart events or actions. For example my vent temp is current 110 degrees because the heater is running or has recently run. When the heater is not running the vents read 80-90 degrees because of the residual heat in the ducting. The actual room temperature is 69. At the moment Iām not sure how useful the vent temp sensor will be. Iām hoping this might be address in the future so I wonāt need to add a temperature sensor to every room with a Keen Smart Vent.
For me one of the biggest feature differentiators of Keen from other smart vents was the incorporated temperature & pressure sensor.
-Carlo
Wowā¦thatās disappointing. I was wondering how well the integrated temp sensor was going to deal with thisā¦and you just answered that. Bummerā¦ 
I donāt see any way that Keen could address this, hardware or software wise.
I figured the integrated temp sensor was going to be a throw awayā¦
I have motion sensors in every room already (so free temps included), which you kind of need to make the best use of these when considering occupancy.
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Iām looking to put contact sensors with temp monitoring on all of my windows. I have 2 rooms that would not be covered, and theyāre both bathrooms.
What is the best practice for using one of these? Should I focus on smaller rooms like a bathroom, or rooms that run warmer than others? I like the idea, as I think it will help with 2 bedrooms above my garage.
Send me a PM with your order number and Iāll check.
Weāre working on a solution to the temperature discrepancies in SmartThings, but they wonāt be an issue in the Keen Home app. We already can tease out room temperature from the duct temperature, but without a custom SmartApp we canāt display these custom calculations in SmartThings. We have building a SmartApp on our to-do list once the Smart Vent is in full circulation.
It really depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Rooms that go unused for large portions of the day, or rooms that are over conditioned (receiving more air than they need) are the best places for Smart Vents. Ultimately, your goal with Smart Vents is to redirect air from rooms that donāt need it to rooms that do.
Hello, at a minimum, the temp sensors can be used to ensure safe HVAC operation.
My smartapps check every 5 minutes that all the connected vents are within a certain temp range to avoid any HVAC damage.
Bye for now
The Lowes here in Canton, Georgia now has some Keen Smart Home Vent display signs to reserve shelf space. Looking forward to buying some locally very soon! Plus our new home is even better to use these vents with. I figure, if the wife wants a new rug at Lowes, thats at least two vents I can meet her at the register with 
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No idea on cost or power consumption so take it with a grain of salt but infrared temp sensors exists and could be an option for a future version of the Keen Vent. They can read the temperature within the beam, average it, and could even be made directional with minimal pivoting adjustment.
Since they are an average, youād be a bit higher being so close to the discharge, but theoretically, if pointed the right direction (and unobstructed) you get something much closer to room temp without having to add additional sensors in the room, with more batteries to replace.
Just a thought. Itās definitely possible that power consumption is way too high for a battery powered application.
I like the fact that the vent takes the temp of the air passing through it. Iāll acquire room temp from another source.
Yes, @3one5, I like that too. My room sensors can tell me what the air in the room is set to, but Iād like my smart vents to report the temperature of the air flowing over them.
My only question is, will they do Celsius as well as Fahrenheit?
My issue with showing discharge temperature is that it is mostly useless information. Itās cute to see but otherwise it provides no point of control. Otherwise, all it has done is increase the cost/complexity of the product for no immediate benefit. The following 3 use-cases are the only 3 I can dream up right now, open to hearing other things:
- Setting an alarm on discharge temp < 65F when the heat is supposed to be on, meaning heat isnāt working. Likewise for AC.
- Watching discharge temp rise in Room A during heating when you close off a sufficiently warm Room B. Again, likewise for AC but reversed.
- Knowing how warm/cold your discharge is at different points in your ductwork to analyze insulation, etc.
Use Case 1 at least provides a little bit of some automated benefit, however rare the occurrence might be, but Use Case 2 and 3 are merely observational ācuteā data to have. Having a sensor that can be counted on for control just offers so much more in terms of functionality. Use Case 3 is a bit of a stretch really as itās extremely likely that there isnāt much you can do or are willing to do to improve the ductwork in between your walls so knowing Room A gets much milder air is really just a confirmation of deficiencies you already knew you had.
Hello, the Keen Home Smart Vents do report in Celsiusā¦ All my beta units do it up here in Canada, so I donāt foresee any issue with the production ones.
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Has anyone found the Keen app for Android? I received my order today and set one vent up only to realize there were no SmartApps for Keen, so I donāt really know what the advantage to having the vents are right now. We keep our bedroom door closed to keep the cats out, so I was hoping these vents would help us redirect air to cool down the bedroom at night.
When I went to see if the Keen app software would help me out, I couldnāt find it in the Android store, and there is a slip in the box with Setup instructions that directs you to www.keenhome.io/smartvent/setup, but that link doesnāt work. So has anyone found the Keen app?
Hey Nate, to accomplish exactly that, would you recommend replacing all of the vents in those rooms or just some? I am trying to balance the flow between the master bed (which receives more air than needed - 3 vents) to my kidsā bedrooms (3 rooms with 2 vents in each). Was just about to pre-order when I came across this thread. So happy I did 
Forgot to mention, that I have 2 zones in my home, so that took care of upstairs/downstairs flow, but it created air flow issues among the rooms on the second floor. I donāt really want to add another zone to split the second floor, so was thinking that I could accomplish that with controlled vents.