I was part of the Keen smart vents beta and am going through some of the exact same questions about how many vents to convert. Having a large home (26+ vents… will be more once we finish the Basement), the price does add up quickly if i have to replace them all
For now, i’m considering changing the ones in the smaller rooms (powder, Laundry, study…) and the unused rooms on the upper level to see what impact it has on my HVAC unit and it will keep the ratio under 1/3
Considering they were not finished units, the Vents have worked without any major issues (had to reset the battery couple of times - know issue with the beta units)… .Only wish they had an integrated presence senor like the EcoVent solution, but that may not work in all situations as vents can be behind furniture and that does defeat the purpose of the presence senor… On the bright side i can use any presence/temp sensor to get a better handle on the room’s temp and occupancy.
@yvesracine app has helped in providing a more granular control of the Vents, but i’m looking for an easier alternative that will let me set the rooms at a temp ± differential based on the current thermostat temp so lets say i can set the powder room to the same temp as the thermostat value and the study to 2 degrees lower in winter and 2 degree hotter in summer than the current thermostat value
I’m also not sure if the Vents can get a Firmware update through the ST hub or if we would need to unpair them from ST and pair them with the Keen or Iris hub to achieve this setting if there is ever a need to update the embedded code in the unit (i have been burnt by the Generic Zigbee Hue compatible unit that i bought to control my LED strips and now i need to either spend $200 on a RPI / Zigbee module or ship it back to the Vendor in Europe to update…)
BTW, I made some changes to the smart vent device handler’s code
in order to refresh the temp and pressure values less often (every 5-10 minutes
instead of every minute).
This could save some battery life in the long run…
@NateKeenHome Could you fix** the vent icon so that is says “open” or “closed” rather than always saying “open” with a color indicator. Also move the status text to the bottom and have it change color (grey text when closed, white text when open). I know this is just an annoyance request, but it would be nice and bring it in line with the light switch indicators.
**Edit: Initially it does change open/closed status text, but if you browse other icons without making a change the “open” text is stuck and does not switch based on current state.
Has anyone used the 6X10 Keen Vents in an 8X10 opening? I have ordered one of these
to see whether I can make it work, as per a post in this thread. But if anyone has any different ideas, then please let me know.
In the meantime, you can use my custom version of the Keen Home smart vent’ device handler
BTW, I made some changes to the smart vent device handler’s code
in order to refresh the temp and pressure values less often (every 5-10 minutes
instead of every minute).
This could save some battery life in the long run…
And, I corrected the issue with the icons…
See the readme file at
That sucks. I live in a Pulte house, and as far as I can tell, the 6x14 is their standard model vent. They’re going to miss a large number of homes if they ignore Pulte.
I will pass on the adaptors until I see one in use. I don’t want it to look like a hack job, and thats the first thing i see when I imagine the adaptor.
@NateKeenHome You had mentioned earlier that KEEN is planning on making some adapters. Is that something that is still in the road map? Any idea on when that will be available?
I was wrong about the icon status update from the from the official device type, it does change but if you look around at other icon options and still select the keen icon it will stop updating the open/closed text.
I just received my pile of these vents. They are very nicely designed and built. Couldn’t be happier with them. I don’t understand st’s decision on the 1 minute reporting configuration, these things aren’t ailerons… anyway swapping in @yvesracine device with a few tweeks took care of that.
I’m not sure this is a ST call… I think this is more a Keen Home orientation in order to compile more data about the vents over time… I’ve heard that Keen Home is planning to use ST as an analytics platform later…But, I don’t see the benefits at this point…
Maybe @NateKeenHome can tell us the long term vision…
Maybe, but unless I authorize the release of this data via ST they won’t receive it, and currently there is no cloud integration with them, so again what was the point of the one minute reporting?
Out of curiosity, I just installed my lot of these today, and the pressure readings make no sense.
I was expecting to have a higher pressure reading with a vent fully closed and the furnace on, and unless I’m imagining things, I see the opposite…
Anyone?
Does somebody have any idea how to set up the Schedulethatzone app so it will work properly to keep required temperature at each given zone? I’m trying to get it working but so far the vents operate in chaotic manner. I’m using the vents coupled with ST presence sensors for temperature monitoring and ecobee3 thermostat. I have set each and every of my 4 bedrooms as different zones in hope to maintain different temperatures at each zone but it doesn’t seem to be working
If you have already some built-in zones in your house with a different thermostat for each zone, you need to refer to use case no 2, and then, it is possible to define multiple setpoints for each of your zones/rooms thru a specific schedule (and 1 physical zone thermostat for each setpoint).
Otherwise, if you have just 1 single thermostat (as specified in use case #1), then the smartapp reproduces the ecobee3’s follow me feature with any ST connected sensors (i.e. it will average out the temps collected in your ‘occupied rooms’ and adjust the setpoints/vents accordingly).
Please note also that, in the use case no 1, the smartapp cannot maintain different setpoints at the same time for different zones/rooms as there is only a single thermostat for the whole house.
I hope that my explanations will clarify your misconceptions about my smartapps. If you need assistance for your specific use case, I would be able to help you based on a consultancy fee.
P.S. These constraints also apply for the ecobeeSetZoneWithSchedule smartapp which is exclusively designed to work in conjunction with ecobee’s schedules (or climates) set at the ecobee portal. I’d recommend to use this smartapp if you have ecobee thermostat(s) as the scheduling done at ecobee is usually more reliable than the scheduling done through SmartThings.
Regards.
P.S.Also you may want to update to my latest version at github, as I made some changes recently.
EDIT: There is a troubleshooting section if you have any setpoint issue (see items no 3 and 4).
Hi Yves and thank you for the prompt reply.
If your app does not adjust temperature at each zone how it different from the ecobee original application with their remote sensors then? How exactly this app helps me to maintain comfortable environment at each zone? What is a point of “zones” your app allows to create? For instance, I do have only one thermostat and having updated your app to the latest version I am getting all my vents 25% open regardless what an actual temperature is at each zone. I would expect the application will adjust vent opening according to the setpoint at every given zone so if one room is too cold that others it will fire the furnace and direct most of the heat to this specific room by fully opening the vent at this room until the desired temperature is met. This is what basic logic tells me to expect from the application.
