I have Flair vents which all talk to a flair “puck” which talks to a cloud setup and there is an HA integration to talk to the cloud to try to control the vents. It works well but is very slowly due to being cloud AND the company not being responsive to any changes in the way things work (they have no interest in going local), and they actually state “within a minute” a vent would open when you tell it to open, even if you are just using their phone app.
Regarding other manufacturers, there is Keen - supposedly they had takren over Ecovent - which is local and works with HA - ( Smart Vent – Keen Home ) but some people say they are going out of business… All the buttons on their website to buy anything are disabled, and the support link is not working… Some people have said they found some on ebay and they loved them… ugh
I found these as a start - the only thing I see as a flaw here is after a long while the 3d-printed pieces may warp due to heat - but the flair vents are rock solid heavy sheet metal, very well constructed.
I would love to hack my flair vents to make them local - they are very well built but I presume to minimize manufacturing costs everything is very tightly integrated and they would have to be pretty much fully gutted (little reusable hardware to make them local).
So, I should start a thread here where people are working on this concept as DYI… to see what other videos / instructions / ideas are available that people can share here… I would suggest a list of properties people would want:
Local control from HA
Ability to open at least three positions - 0%, 50% and 100%
Battery controlled (C or D batteries) with a jack for a power supply
Made of metal
Nice to have: air pressure and temperature at the vent itself
Please folks let’s add to this so something decent can be built, this is a big gap in the Home Automation space - !
Its easy to overheat a single stage or two stage gas furnace.
Even a zoned single stage furnace is technically improper(usually).
Please have your gas furnaces checked by someone who knows heat exchangers. https://heatexchangerexperts.com/
Agreed but everything is very tightly integrated into one tiny circuit board and it would require “major surgery”. I’m going to have to take one out and work on it - it may end up being a ‘sacrifice’. I’d rather not do that as they are all about $70-$100 each - maybe the best approach is to hack the flair puck itself, that all of the vents talk to. Ugh
What I’d also like love to see is an ESPHome project with detailed instructions/youtube videos on how to create and set up in home assistant a generic cover, taking into account how much torque is needed and the pros and cons of using arduino vs. ESP32 vs other small inexpensive boards. This would be generic enough to be able to be customized by someone following the instructions (E.G., I like this but don’t need so much torque or I need it to run faster or on batteries instead of 12 volts etc.) to then be used to automate venetian blinds or air vents (which would be very nearly exactly the same!). I have been scouring the net and there are alot of youtube videos but they all seem to lack one thing or another. And one thing almost all of those videos have that is an issue -
…getting into the realm of then needing to create mounting brackets/containers/covers that are custom to each and for many of us that do not have 3D printers is a real hassle - I am tempted, once I have a way of doing this, to just create the brackets/covers/etc. the old fashioned way (cutting pieces of plastic/super glue, shop tools etc.) :-/
At that point, I’d rather just install ducted dampers or have a professional come out to do the work—run all the wires to a central location like a normal system and then use ESP32 relays or similar. It really depends on how serviceable your house is.
If you’re diving this deep, don’t forget to consider the furnace itself. Any modifications should include multiple airflow measurements to ensure things like delta T, CFM per vent, static pressure, and vent readings are within proper ranges. Check the actual furnace settings and ratings, too. Idk what furnace you have but is buying a new one worth some cheaper solutions.
To me on a good day of a furnace id still be hesitant on anything like this:
if the epa claims something like 10or20mm of debris in a system will take it down 20% in efficiency i can only imagine what adding things into the airflow will do.
But if your system is indeed running on the better side of things or designed or sized for these conditions. Maybe its worth it.
Id also only put sheet metal in my vents.
But this would probably tell you anything youd need for the safety side of things or what specifically not to do.
This wont tell you really how to do anything just more or less the final check on if what your doing is proper.(probably only a USA resource)
Thank you @JerryM for your thoughtful and detailed answer. I agree with the sheet metal and also have been monitoring the air pressure as part of my calculations on how many can be closed at the same time.
