I'm looking to buy some home flare vents that are decently priced.
But don't see any drivers or custom drivers for hubitat without paying 30 bucks for the driver.
Does anybody know where I can get the driver for free or should I stay with Keen home event. Now that Keane is a defunct company. I was also looking into 3D printing some home air vents but they don't work with habitat at the moment. I would rather not run home assistant if I can avoid it to get these to work. My idea is let's say nobody's in the living room or the kitchen or the dining room me and my fiance are only in the bedroom didn't shut the vents down so that that vent is open and open the rest just enough to avoid air pressure backup and freezing up the system.
Keep in mind my 3d printers are down and have no way to print them or assemble them with my limited programming skills I wouldn't be able to integrate them into habitat.
AFAIK there’s just the one integration written by @yracine66. People who use his code generally seem to be very happy with it (for other devices and apps too, although I can’t personally vouch for any of them, including Flair).
@user5035 you can also look at the Keen vents. They're supported on Hubitat. That said, most HVAC people I've talked to don't recommend doing this as it can cause back pressure and damage the HVAC system. (Found out when I went to look for vents). In the end I had my HVAC corrected. Though I am still considering doing a zoned system.
A friend of mine has a Carrier Infinity system. I think he told me that he has a bunch of motor operated dampers. It's all integrated though, variable speed blower and who knows what else, and things aren't just cobbled on.
That's part of a zoned system. Typically when one damper is closed, the system adjusts to balance the system so there isn't any backpressure (or it's minimized but the system still can handle it)
I had a few Keen vents eventually die on me and the company disappeared. Having dampers or zones on the main ducts would prove too expensive and a PITA to set up. So I went with Flair. Honestly, their vents are built heavy-duty by comparison to Keen. The covers are a nice powedered metal compared to the cheap Keen plastic. Also, the batteries they take are D batteries if I recall correctly so you don’t have to change them all of the time.
The interface is a bit confusing if I’m honest and having to buy a $100 puck for each floor is annoying. But I’ve found once I’ve set things up correctly, I pretty much just have forgotten they were even there. With the Keen vents, Keen app, and HE apps to control them, this has become quite a confusing mess. I’ve been secretly hoping the Keen vents would eventually die so I could justify to my wife why we need to purchase more Flair vents instead.
Downside is that there isn’t any other integrations with HE and some slow cloud reliance, but seeing that I don’t seem to have to mess with them constantly is a huge bonus.
I bought 2 Flair vents and immediately replaced the existing controller with Zooz DC
Motor Controller. The result is - no clouds and nice integration with HE.
Sure, this becomes DIY project but it absolutely worth it.
The project is DIY but not difficult to implement and absolutely worth it.
I am using only mechanics (i.e. frame, vents and dc motor) from Flair Vents assembly.
I removed a native control board and replace it with ZEN53 DC Motor Controller.
There is a ready to go driver HE for the ZEN53. So, integration with HE is very native.
The Flair DC Motor is very low voltage. I did not find a spec for the motor but it runs
just fine with voltage around 2V. This makes sense because the power for the native
controller is two C size batteries, i.e. 3V. ZEN53 minimum voltage is 5V. So, I added
15ohm, 5W resistor in series with the motor. And added 12V-to-5V downconverter
for powering this new DIY toy (I have a 12V DC source near vents installation point).
ZEN53 actually allows fine tune vents openings (0-100%, 0% - vents are completely
closed and 100% - completely open). The result is - 100% local control and native
HE integration. Of course, I created a RM rule to control vents. After this addition
I was able to near perfectly balance temperature across my 1 bedroom appartment.
Very nifty, skilled, and intrepid. Thanks for taking the time to write that up. I don’t know if I’m so brave plus I like my ecobee integrations. I believe Flair vents came with an adapter for hardwiring their vents to a power source, although all my vents are in such tough locations that this hasn’t been an option.
Someone just needs to come up with a DIY kit as all of these vents so far have their pros and cons.
How do you account for the high back pressure on your HVAC system when some of the vents are closed?
I would think that reduced airflow/high back pressure could cause your system to overheat (in heat) and freeze (in cool).
I believe the Flair controller senses air pressure and controls the amount of opening the vents do to help prevent that.
I didn't think so. Only motor and two end sensors are connected to the board.
And it is very unlikely board itself has a pressure sensor. In my case back pressure
is not a case. Smart vents are installed only in the living room. Vents in the bedroom
and kitchen are always open. Plus vents in the living room never completely closed.
ZEN53 dc motor controller works as a dimmer and allows fine tuning fo the vents
opening.
Well there are posts on the Flair forum that indicate they do have pressure sensors on the vents, and they also state that their algorithm for vent control is to only close a max of 1/3rd of the vents at any one time.
I would think that monitoring back pressure would be alot more accurate.
I saw a zone controller advertised that used a pressure sensor that would keep the zones that were not calling, open a configurable amount (minimum open) to protect from over back pressure.
Seemed like the way to go.
I almost bought 8 of their vents (already had but canceled my order), but for about the same price, I can get duct motorized dampers and I have a Honeywell TZ4 controller already that I can use any thermostat with.
I will just go that way when I do it.
Thanks though..
Sure wish Flair was local control!!!! THAT is what kept me from going this route.
