What is the name of the app(s)? Is it in the apps list on the dev site so I can look at the code? I am very interested in the following: If temp at sensor X > temp then close/open ecovent. Is this ultimately possible with the current app? Is the temp sensor part of the ecovent unit or do you specify an external sensor with temp capability? The schedule stuff is interesting, but I am definitely mostly interested in closing the vent in room X because the temp is above/below some threshold.
@urman@EcoNetBlake - can you confirm what device type to use when pairing the EcoNet EV100 and whatās the corresponding smartthing app to use for controlling it.
Also as @krv pointed out, would like to have the app control based on
Temperature in the room
Time of the day
Occupancy / motion sensor - with a delay factor
E.g. donāt close the vent for āxā hrs if motion detected in a room. Use case - I donāt have anyone in a guest room typically, but if for some reason, someone is visiting, Iād like for the vent to automatically be open.
E.g. close the vent if the temperature reaches āxā and reopen when the temperature reaches āyā only between specific times of the day.
@EcoNetBlake any update on the ādecorativeā vents release date or future plans? Itās been a while and I see Keen made a splash at CES this week. From the link above, looks like the new vents still not available? Iām hoping you are pushing forward.
Yes, we are pushing forward and expect to have units available in early March this year. The design/testing is complete and production has started. We have a tentative list price of 75.00 and will be offering discount pricing for advanced orders starting next week. We will introduce the 4x10 size first with other sizes to follow shortly after.
The article I saw noted $80 per vent and Zigbee. I do think a temp sensor in the room makes more sense than one on the vent itself. I donāt know how they could protect it from the hot or cold air being pushed through the vent.
Thanks for the details and the link. I will check it out. Another vent in the IOT category is āecoventā, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EZ74LtPDQ4 (EcoNet and ecovent are not associated)
Ecovent is WAY too expensive (even at early adopter prices) and seems to also require their sensors, which many of us donāt need because we already have (or can easily acquire) lower cost sensors. The $75-80 price point is in-line with what Iād be willing to pay to retrofit existing vents. Hopefully there will be bulk pricing as well for people that want to get 5+ at a time.
So I decided to be an early investor of the ecovent back in late Nov. I have spoke to them a couple of times in emails and had a call with them once to talk a lot about their system. Though they cost more thereās a ton of technology in their system. The biggest is that their are tons of sensors; pressure sensors, temp and humidity. The outlet sensor even has 2 temp sensors within it in case you place it on an outside wall it wonāt get false reading. A big thing about the system is that it keeps a close eye on the HVAC system to ensure the pressure isnāt too high with too many vents being closed. I would rather pay alittle more for a system like this vs paying for a new furance because too many vents were closed in the house. They have also made it clear that they plan on getting it tired into a hub and said that ST is one they are considering. Their app is looking to have some cool fetures too like being able to have room schedules which is awesome (hot bathroom during shower time!!) So yes it is more to get the system but if itās as smart as they are designing it then it should save money by only heating and cooling rooms that are being used. Also price wasnāt the worst. For 7 sensors, 9 vents and the hub that runs my best it was $1000. The best thing I have to say about the company is the people. Everyone I have talked to have been great, and keep us updated every week or so on the progress.
The issue you may have is minimum air flow over your coils in the furnace. You would need to account for a bypass during low flow conditions. There would need to be some logic somewhere checking the status of the grilles and making some decisions. The easy way around that is to leave some grilles always open and only zone the areas that tend to get over conditioned.
I much prefer the EcoNet approach. I think EcoVent is over-engineering the offering for the common household, though I could see value at the commercial level for this complexity. I already have have too many sensors on my wall and more temp and humidity readings than I will ever use. All I need is 4 or 5 vents that I can schedule to close when rooms not used and maybe open if motion detected. Even better if I will be able to close vents incrementally (50%, 75%, 90% vent closure) by schedule based on normal home area usage patterns. Just a little simple optimization is all Iām looking for.
I think the price point per vent should be $50 or under before long. Similar to most other Z-wave switches and devices. I can see why the price is higher for the time being.
EcoNet is top on my list because of simple approach, good ideas, down to earth marketing. And +1 for dropping by this forum to keep us up to date.
A single EcoNet "EcoNet Controls Z-Vent Z-wave controlled HVAC Air Register 6x10 white"
is supposed to arrive today according to the carrier. I wanted to test out a single vent before I committed to the 5 additional vents upstairs I plan to control. I have 15 other vents on lower levels that are always open so I am not concerned about back pressure. My main use case is that I am single zone and at night I switch to a thermostat which is upstairs keeping us comfortable while asleep. The downstairs will drop down to close to 60 on a cold night like tonight. Once āthings start happeningā in the morning, the thermostat switches to downstairs and in order to heat the downstairs, the upstairs bedrooms (often with closed doors) can easily get to 80+. This does not happen in the unused guest bedroom with the closed vent (it will stay below 65) and I want to replicate this dynamically with Econet in the rooms we use daily. Obviously the same thing happens everyday when the temp goes down while we are at work. In order to make the first floor comfortable the upstairs turns into a sauna.
I will report back on my experience connecting this test vent with ST and see if my plan actually works. There was a customer that reported it was āworking perfectlyā but a couple of us asked him a bunch of detailed questions on this forum and never got a response, so hopefully I can fill in the blanks.
āWe have have also developed a SmartThings app. that supports simple configuration of vent control based on schedules, temperature or room occupancy.ā
We are in the process of updating and testing our schedule/temperature/room occupancy SmartThings application that works with our EV100 vents. I would be happy to provide a beta version for your testing if you could provide us some constructive feed back. If you can provide me with an email address, I will have our app. developer contact you directly. (we plan to publish/post this application after we complete our testing)
@ryanecurry I agaree about the issue with the coils as does ecovent. Which is why ecovent has the sensors to ensure thereās enough movement of air at all times.
@Dlee I agree that ecovent has a lot of technology with it and econet will be good enough for some. I however have a 1950 house, some rooms have new window some single glass. Some have new insulation some 1950 insulation on the outside walls. so if ecovent will do all the thinking for me and all I have to do is set the temp I want and the times Or have the rooms set by ST when I arrive home or enter the roomI want it than I want it.
@krv
Do you have balance dampers in the system or can you only balance with the registers? If inclined you can force more air downstairs in winter and more upstairs in summer. With some tweaking you should be able to get the rooms to balance out pretty nicely and maintain reasonable control. Mark on the duct with marker and then do a changeover in spring and fall. You shouldnāt be getting the large swings you are noting with a system that has been balanced.
@EcoNetBlake
I would be interested in getting any technical documentation you may have. Not seeing much on the website.
Our EV100 vents support 0-100% open/close acting just like a dimmer or āmulti-levelā switch. You can set the vents, as an example, to open 50% instead of 100% allowing you to balance air flow in your forced air HVAC system. Although the EV100 supports 10% increments, because of the mechanical nature of the louvers, 20-30 increments are more practical.
Any plans for square vents? Iāve got a square vent in my drop ceiling near our pellet stove that Iād love to be able to open/close based on whether or not the stoveās running.
