[quote=“tomgru, post:20, topic:187123”]I’m 4x10. I need these in both white and brown/wood. surprised they come in that size, but only white, where all others come in brown as well?
there are apparently Decorative home automation floor, wall and ceiling registers/vents, Avialable March 2015
Any news on these?
THANKS[/quote]
The decorative ones from what I understand are still upwards of a month out (possibly more) and will start in very limited sizes. I forgot what size will hit the market first but they will be released one size at a time and spaced a couple months apart between sizes. As with any new product release, things rarely go as planned as far as release dates which judging by the target release in March, appears to be the case here.
With regards to the brown ones, he can supply the Z-Wave module in brown with the white registers. Then all you need to do is paint the register. How many brown ones were you thinking? I will talk to him and see if there is anything he can do. You could get creative and add a faux wood finish to the register and snaz it up a bit. There are a few easy techniques for doing that. Here is a video of one such technique.
[quote=“slief, post:21, topic:187123”][quote=“tomgru, post:20, topic:187123”]I’m 4x10. I need these in both white and brown/wood. surprised they come in that size, but only white, where all others come in brown as well?
there are apparently Decorative home automation floor, wall and ceiling registers/vents, Avialable March 2015
Any news on these?
THANKS[/quote]
ok… that helps. i’m in for
5 total, all 4x10
3 with white zwave mods
2 with brown zwave mods.
thanks!
The decorative ones from what I understand are still upwards of a month out (possibly more) and will start in very limited sizes. I forgot what size will hit the market first but they will be released one size at a time and spaced a couple months apart between sizes. As with any new product release, things rarely go as planned as far as release dates which judging by the target release in March, appears to be the case here.
With regards to the brown ones, he can supply the Z-Wave module in brown with the white registers. Then all you need to do is paint the register. How many brown ones were you thinking? I will talk to him and see if there is anything he can do. You could get creative and add a faux wood finish to the register and snaz it up a bit. There are a few easy techniques for doing that. Here is a video of one such technique.
Where are you will this? Have you hit the 25 mark yet? In a previous post i stated i would purchase 2.
Thanks[/quote]
Not at the 25 mark yet. So far we have 12 committed for including your two. We are about half way there right now but it’s only been a week. I need to talk to my AC guy as he expressed interest in some as well although he knows nothing about home automation. He’d defer on me for the HA integration. I’m not holding my breath with him though. We will give it a bit more time here and see who else commits and then I will talk further with Econet if we fall short. If I were active on other HA forums, I’d lure them here but unfortunately this is the only HA forum I participate in.
I really need a hard wired version (not battery powered). I have a couple of registered that I need to control that are in very hard to reach ares (under furniture that is not movable, between furniture etc), so having to fiddle with changing batteries that I only adjust frequently in the spring and Fall, is a non starter. All my vents are near outlets would love to see if there is a simple power conversion to allow battery free operation, I would definite buy several if that is the case.
If you are remotely handy, you could easily hardwire a 3V AC adapter into the Z-wave module. You would need to drill a hole through the battery cover and solder the positive wire to the positive terminal and the negative to the negative terminal inside the module. It would take me about 5 minutes to as I am really competent when it comes to soldering and DC wiring. I would probably take it a step further and add a female jack to the battery cover so the AC Adapter could plug right in but given that the AC Adapter plugs into an outlet, that isn’t really needed. Anyway, if you are serious about not needing batteries, this is all you would need to make it happen. If you are weary about soldering or don’t have somebody that could do it for you, I’d be happy to help as long as you cover the AC Adapter cost and shipping of the vents. I get Amazon prime so it wouldn’t cost me anything to ship the AC adapters.
Here are a couple other alternatives that wouldn’t require any soldering but get more costly.
This is a turnkey Dual AAA (3v) battery eliminator kit. This would essentially be plug and play with the Econet vents.
This is another alternative. This one has two battery eliminators AC adapters in it but it’s designed for 3 AAA batteries. You could use this kit to cover two Econet vents only you would use 1 dummy battery in each one along with their AC Input battery. You would however need to pair it with the 3V AC Adapter I mentioned in my previous post. It would cost you about $52 total to power two Econet vents without having to do any soldering. Personally, I like the $6 AC Adapter and soldering route but obviously that is not for everybody.
I just wanted to warn you guys about using these dampers without installing a return bypass system (correctly balanced). You reduce the air flow enough you could get liquid refrigerant flooding back to the compressor, which will cause damage over time.
Yep, You definitely don’t want to block off too many vents at once if you don’t have a bypass. This was touched upon on the previous page. I will be installing a barometric bypass damper. They are cheap and easy to install in most systems. Granted, I will only be blocking off a few vents at a time so I likely won’t need it but I will have one at my disposal should I need one. The other alternative if you have a lot of vents that will be closing at once is to not close the vents all the way. Fortunately with these vents, you have the option of opening or closing in 10% increments so you could reduce the pressure in the plenum by not closing all the vents or at least not certain vents all the way. The upside to the bypass damper is that it can actually make the AC system more efficient because the cold air inside the AC or Hot air for that matter is recycled through the system via the bypass. The end result is that the air coming from the vents is colder or warmer depending on whether you are in cooling mode or heating mode.
For anybody who is concerned, this is a decent instructional video on installing a barometric bypass damper. They install between the supply and return side of the AC… In my system, the install would take me less than 20 minutes. I have an AC installer who is a good friend of mine and we discussed this at length. Fortunately it isn’t a big deal on my system and for me, the added zone type control with these vents is well worth the effort. http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/video/0,,20504377,00.html
[quote=“NickTheGreat, post:31, topic:187123”]This is a neat idea. Anybody have any actual experience with them?
It seems that you could make a poor man’s zoned AC with this. Maybe not all that “poor man” but it could be done ;)[/quote]
There have been a number of reviews on other forums. Most particularly the SmartThings forum and all the reviews were really pretty good. I do agree that they are a pretty good idea. I toyed with doing the same thing using dampers but that gets really expensive and much more complicated. With home automation and Z-Wave, this is a much more simplistic approach that is exponentially more affordable. Especially at the cost we are talking about for the vents.
Just wanted to give this thread a bump to see if anybody else wants in on this group buy. I’d like to wrap this up within the next week or so. Since we may not meet the 25 pc price point, I will talk to Econet to see what can be done regarding the price as I think our success here with these vents will certainly compel others to buy these Econet vents and thus generate future sales for Econet.
I’m in for 4 white 4x10 units.
If I can get a 4x10 unit in brown, then I’ll take 1 of those as well, otherwise 1 more 4x10 white one, but with a brown controller.
So, 5 in total.
I also need some 3x10s, if I could get then at the group price.
[quote=“kyb2012, post:36, topic:187123”]I’m in for 4 white 4x10 units.
If I can get a 4x10 unit in brown, then I’ll take 1 of those as well, otherwise 1 more 4x10 white one, but with a brown controller.
So, 5 in total.
I also need some 3x10s, if I could get then at the group price.[/quote]
I don’t think they have any 3x10’s at this time.
It looks like we will get these at the $55 price point. Anybody else who has not committed, please double check your sizes and let us know. If you are on the list below and changed your mind, please let us know. If I missed something let me know. Once I have the totals, I will relay the info to Econet. Based on my conversation with them, they will provide us a code to use on their website to place the orders. I will update once I have the totals and make the arrangement with them.
To confirm where we are at:
Slief:
Qty 4 EVR100-6X10BR 6" x 10" Brown (White Module)
Qty 1 EVR100-6X12WH 6" x 12" White
JMarty32 (@$55)
Qty 2 EV100-6X12WH 6" x 12" White
tomgru
Qty 4 EVR100-4X10BR 4" x 10" Brown (White Module)
Qty 2 EVR100-4X10BR 4" x 10" Brown (Brn Module)
McPostal
Qty 7 EV100-6X12BR 6"x12" Brown
kyb2012
Qty 4 EV100-4X10WH
Qty 1 EV100-4X10Wh (Brown Controller) Prefers brown register if avail.
[quote=“slief, post:39, topic:187123”]It looks like we will get these at the $55 price point. Anybody else who has not committed, please double check your sizes and let us know. If you are on the list below and changed your mind, please let us know. If I missed something let me know. Once I have the totals, I will relay the info to Econet. Based on my conversation with them, they will provide us a code to use on their website to place the orders. I will update once I have the totals and make the arrangement with them.
To confirm where we are at:
tomgru
Qty 3 EVR100-4X10BR 6" x 10" Brown (White Module)
Qty 2 EVR100-4X10BR 6" x 10" Brown (Brn Module)[/quote]
Er… NOPE ;D Close (added one more as well.)
Qty 4 EVR100-4X10BR 4" x 10" WHITE (White Module)
Qty 2 EVR100-4X10BR 6" x 10" WHITE (Brn Module)
