I never knew this existed… A zwave controlled air vent
http://www.smarthome.com/_/EcoNet/_/48D/nav.aspx?src=HML14RA49
Has anyone used one with vera ?
That does look pretty cool. My only concern being that shutting down too many vents might cause issues with the heater getting too much back pressure. Maybe I am over thinking it though. I do have some possible uses for this and curious as well about feedback.
They are a tad expensive, and I do wish they had some other sizes, but these could work. I’m trying to think of use cases for these. I guess I could close off rooms that I don’t want cooled/heated or adjust rooms on the fly. I’ve noticed that in general though, once I have them set where I like them, they rarely need adjusting.
Still, I like to see people using z-wave in interesting new ways. I might have to get one just to mess with. 
To bad you can’t modulate them in 10% increments. Just open and closed is not that great. You would need to install a barometric bypass damper on your AC unit to maintain a constant flow across your cooling coil.
I didn’t even notice that! I would prefer more adjustments as well because you could potentially adjust the airflow from your system to compensate for things such as sun position (in the morning the E side of my house is warmer than the W and in the evening it is reversed).
@johnlaroux: What is a “barometric bypass damper on your AC unit”? Is that to ensure enough air goes over the coil or it will break something.
I saw those about a month ago and the first thing that came to mind is some sort of automated closing and opening of the vent based on the temperature in the room. You could set up temp sensors in each room that automatically closed when that room reached a certain temp. Would reduce hot spots and heat your house faster. Would require temp sensors in each room though and is way beyond any programming skills I might have.
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Well a barometric damper looks like this: Durozone 10 inch round bypass barometric pressure relief damper | eBay
You run a duct from discharge duct to return air duct with the barometric bypass damper in-between. It has and adjustable weight on it to set when it opens.
If the pressure in the supply duct becomes to high because to many vents are closed in the house, the barometric bypass damper will open and relieve the pressure into the return duct.
This will help maintain the proper flow over the cooliing coil.
Im not an expert on any of this. I just have heard that its recommended to have one if you close down on to many vents, or have some automatic zone control.
Thank you sir, you are a scholar and a gentleman.
So I bought and installed one of these today. It is a dimmable light, and while it closes completely then opens to (per the manual to calibrate) on each change, 10% increments are possible.
Cool stuff. But command and control needs to be thought out before I can install more.
Sadly, they also don’t have my size (6 x 10 or 4 x 8) for more then half my registers.
So I bought and installed one of these today. It is a dimmable light, and while it closes completely then opens to (per the manual to calibrate) on each change, 10% increments are possible.
Cool stuff. But command and control needs to be thought out before I can install more.
Sadly, they also don’t have my side (6 x 10 or 4 x 8) for more then half my registers.[/quote]
Ok…so while you have it 
CAn you see if you can do other than 10% increments? that is a limitation of the Vera UI. For instance, if it shows up in one of the remote Apps, you should be able to set it to any %. I’m just curious of you watch it if it still adheres to the 10% (basically 6% would still move 10%) or if it will actually move to any % of open.
Thanks for being a guinea pig
Oh, and I agree about the sizes. I have some square ones around the house that I would want to replace with these I couldn’t. I"m guessing they limit the size because they need room for the control box, which also cuts off part of the air flow. If you tried to do a 4x8 with one of these, you might only end up with 4"x4" of actual vent.
k...so while you have it ;) CAn you see if you can do other than 10% increments?
It works when I create a scene for 5%…but it doesn’t seem different from 10%. That’s because it always has to open/close when changing positions to calibrate.
[quote=“AgileHumor, post:12, topic:180114”]
k…so while you have it
It works when I create a scene for 5%…but it doesn’t seem different from 10%. That’s because it always has to open/close when changing positions to calibrate.[/quote]
Quick additional question: what, if any, noise occurs during operation–that is, when the device is changing % open? I would expect there to be nothing beyond a bit of hum, but it’s worth asking.
–Richard
PS: cats are going to be fascinated with these things.
I uploaded a video. But surprisingly, not that loud.
Sadly, not great lighting.
Had a open/close/dim command fire every five seconds. Open, Close, Open, 50%, 5%. Extra movements is for it’s calibration close.
Wow. Thanks for the video. This is cool stuff. I can see myself already coming up with a variety of scenes but I like the idea the most where I can control certain rooms based on sensors. Now I have to do a lot of planning first before I start buying that stuff.
My only concern is that I would completely mess up the Nest autoprogramming which is supposed to save me money in the first place. I have one Nest and it is in the hallway and it measures the temperature just in that room so my office which is on the other side of the house could get really warm. With this I could close all vents and just push cold air into the office room until it is cooled down and I could even automate this with a sensor but what will Nest do with all the statistics as Nest will have no clue why I manually ran for x minutes the air condition when the room already had the temperature it should have based on the Nest thermostat value?
This is a big concern of mine because now a smart thermostat would become not so smart and actually might be more confused than helpful.
What are your thoughts around this guys?
I have motion HSM motion sensors in each room that also give temp. Once I calibrate their temp down a bit (since they are up high), I was going to just “bypass” (close vent) the current room if it is => the current HVAC set point.
This could leave the logic simple, and in theory should not confuse the nest whom’s programming is simply “heat until i reach set point” (unless away).
There is a special feature where it learns how long to pre-heat before the specified scheduled temp change, and it learns how long it takes to heat from say 67 to 71 degrees in the morning and will learn how long ti takes to heat cool. That is turned off by default, but could be affected.
My main problem is my thermostat is down stairs, and not near a vent, so it takes a long time to warm that area. I’m worries what happens when 50% of vents are bypassed that it won’t get warmed at all.
Hmmm. So what we all really need is the following:
Z-wave controlled vents in every room, temperature sensors in every room and a specialized smart thermostat which is aware of all the rooms and has a built-in logic on how to most efficiently cool down those rooms and ideally based on occupancy and maybe predict the occupancy to save energy.
Sounds like a huge project and whoever comes up with an automated solution could be a hero.
Do you speak French?
https://apps.mios.com/plugin.php?id=2968
I think this developer has 90% of the system already built.
So I contacted the company this weekend as I did find 10" x 6" on their website. They agreed to sell me the 10" model which is not in retail.
They are working on a Outside Gate Lock and a Water Flow sensor too.
http://econetcontrols.com/products.php
[quote=“AgileHumor, post:19, topic:180114”]So I contacted the company this weekend as I did find 10" x 6" on their website. They agreed to sell me the 10" model which is not in retail.
They are working on a Outside Gate Lock and a Water Flow sensor too.
http://econetcontrols.com/products.php[/quote]
thanks for this, AgileHumor.
The Gate Lock they are working on is cool. I have been thinking about how to rig something up like that for a while.