Keen Smart Vents

Third party integrations
1

Anyone here using Keen Smart Vents? I realize they’re Zigbee and would need to use some zigbee controller for them (Smartthings or Keen Bridge), but I’m considering using them in conjunction with my Ecobee3 Thermostats to help make things more comfortable/efficient with my A/C system. I’d love to be able to control them and create automations from Home Assistant. I’m mostly reaching out before making a decision to buy them to see what others think about them and the possibility of integrating into Home Assistant.

2

I have been looking at similar setups. Did you make progress with this?

3

Also looking at buying one for the basement which always gets too cold. Wondering if the Ecobee API would expose something when paired?

4

I’ve ordered them because I have an Ecobee which I’m very happy with, and all reports are they pair together fairly well. There may be a way to control them through the Smartthings MQTT bridge but I’m unsure how that might work. I understand that the vents come with a hub that uses wifi and has cloud integration, so maybe it’s a case of getting the API and then getting some assistance from someone far smarter then me to develop a Home Assistant component…

When they arrive I’ll provide updates on how they operate if anyone is interested? Or if anyone needs some info to develop a HA component?

5

Just checking in. I’m wondering if anyone has had success even pairing the Keen vents. I have a HUSBZB-1 controller, and zha is working… if they pair, I might give them a shot.
If not, then I’d need to use them through SmartThings/MQTT, which I’m not as thrilled about…

6

I am using deconz for zigbee control in my setup and I have asked for support of the vents to be added to deconz but no response as yet. There is also a deconz HA component in development which should be released soon so this would be a major plus. The issue with the MQTT bridge is that it doesn’t support ‘cover’ which would be required to get the vents to post the topic to mqtt. I have my vents now but I am at a loss as to the best way to integrate them with HA.

7

I’ve got Keen Smart Vents working via SmartThings. Latency for controlling the vents is quite high, but it’s not really any worse than SmartThings was when I used it as my primary hub. The vents are my only devices on SmartThings and the latency isn’t a huge concern to me because they’re just vents. For now, I’m content with this config (other than needing to bring my SmartThings hub out of retirement).

- platform: mqtt
  name: "Vent Name"
  command_topic: "smartthings/Vent Name/switch/cmd"
  state_topic: "smartthings/Vent Name/switch/state"
  state_open: 'on'
  state_closed: 'off'
  payload_open: 'on'
  payload_close: 'off'
  set_position_topic: "smartthings/Vent Name/level/cmd"
  tilt_command_topic: "smartthings/Vent Name/level/cmd"
  tilt_status_topic: "smartthings/Vent Name/level/state"
  tilt_min: 0
  tilt_max: 100
  tilt_closed_value: 0
  tilt_opened_value: 100
8

I currently have my vents connected to my Wink hub as a generic Zigbee Light Bulb. Does anyone know how you can tell home assistant that it is a vent?

9

I have succesfully paired one of my vents with the deConz raspbee and I can control it using the cluster information but as yet there is no official cover support in deconz. I guess the ideal situation (for me) would be to have it supported in the deconz-rest-plugin and then added to the new HA deconz component. Would anyone else support this method? I’m happy to provide the info but I don’t really have any coding expertise.

I have raised a support request in github here but haven’t had a response yet.

1 Like
10

Hi, if you haven’t done so already, I would suggest using the cover template to get this to operate and behave as a vent. Hope this helps. https://home-assistant.io/components/cover.template/

11

Hi, I also have a Keen vent hooked up through deConz to home assistant (It is now supported and so home assistant can read the sensor and control the vent).

So I can control the vent manually, but the question is now what are the best steps to automate it? I don’t have a smart thermostat, so home assistant doesn’t have any control over when the furnace turns on or off. But I would like to automate it to open and close the vent to try and maintain a specific temperature as much as possible while not controlling the furnace. The vent is in a room that is overheated. So the furnace runs more often than necessary for that room, so hopefully that allows to at least have some control with the smart vent.

Is there an obvious way to do that controlling at the moment? Or would I need to write my own thermostat component?

12

@apmon
Easiest way would be to get a temperature sensor and put it in that room. Then set an automation to open the vents when the temperature drops below a certain comfort level, and to close them when it gets above a certain comfort level. This will acheive a thermostat-like effect for that room.
It might be best to get a multi-sensor that also handles motion and light so you can trigger from that as well. If it is a space that will have motion in it when occupied, you can also trigger it to only open the vents when motion has been detected (this will give a similar effect to what the Ecobee does, only it just controls the vent and not the furnace) which will give the effect of not unnecessarily heating a vacant room providing a little more efficiency.

13

@apmon I would take @tkvtec 's suggestion and get a few temp sensors to put into the same rooms as the vents. The xiaomi sensors are quite good and I believe are also supported through deConz. This is what I will do to create automations as I have the vents and sensors in various rooms.

14

@tkvtec
Did you get the Keen Vents connected directly? I would like to open/close/partial control them manually, but have yet to be able to get them to pair. I’ve got a Zigbee USB card on the HA instance.

15

I have gotten them to pair and it shows as a light bulb. Unfortunately HA doesn’t support Covers in Zigbee

16

Sorry, I haven’t been on in a while. I never attempted the install at this point. I don’t have enough vents of the standard sizes that Keen produces to make it a worthwhile addition at this point. I have the idea of how I want to use them, and the automations needed to make it all work nicely, but just no time currently and as stated I’d only be able to add them to the 1st floor in a few spots where I don’t feel they’d make a big difference. Once I can get the correct sizes for the bedrooms, or once I have time to modify my ceilings to work with the Keen offerings, I’ll give it a go. I got so far behind with HASS updates that I just completely built it new again with the latest version as there were so many breaking changes over the versions.

17

I was able to map them to a template. I don’t think the template is perfect but this is the config:

bedroom_vent:
    friendly_name: "Bedroom Vent"
    position_template: '{{ float(state_attr("light.keen_home_inc_sv01_612_mp_1_0_0015b2e1_1", "brightness")/ 255 * 100) | round(0) | int | round(0) | int }}'
    set_cover_position:
      service: light.turn_on
      data_template:
        entity_id: light.keen_home_inc_sv01_612_mp_1_0_0015b2e1_1
        brightness: '{{ float(position * 255 / 100) | round(0) | int }}'
1 Like
18

I have 8 of these devices, do you know how to write this in less yaml code?

19

Is this working? Have you made anymore progress on it?

20

I just got an Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium 2022 with enough smart sensors to properly cover my 7 half levels row townhome with a stairwell in the middle. Due to the ridiculous nature of my house, trying to have any consistency in heating or cooling is a bit of a nightmare. I am getting some Keen smart vents soon to aid in my effort and just installed Home Assistant on my home server in a VirtualBox instance. I will hopefully have something working in a month or two and if I remember I will try to put an update here.