Iāve complained to Keen a number of times about their vents completely disconnecting. They said it was a result of Ecobeeās servers being down and their communication with Ecobee is severed every time which causes you to reauthenticate through the Keen app to Ecobee again.
So it appears Keen pins the issue on Ecobee, although I asked Keen to at least implement notifications and polling for disconnects as well as at least the ability (checkbox) to remember a username and password at the very least. But still thereās movement on this front months later although I will say their tech support has been more responsive since joining with Flair.
This vent and Ecobee connection reliability issue is one of the main reasons Iām trying to jump from my previous hub (Wink 2) into something more local (HE.) Then of course thereās rumors of Winkās soon-to-be demise which has accelerated my move.
If you look at one of the first posts in this thread Mike recommends pairing the vents directly to Hubitat, and not using the Keen hub. (that is if you are wanting Hubitat to control the vents)
Saw that thanks Wayne. I just have to find a time during this frigid winter when my wife is not around or oblivious to temperature and mood swings as well as a toddler not being put down for a nap... I unfortunately probably picked one of the more complex integrations to start off using HE lol. At least the hubs can act as repeaters...
Truthfully, I have had 2 outages on my any of my vents since I put them on Hubitat instead of the Keen hub. You might split your losses by just moving one vent to Hubitat to start and playing around.
Running the Keen vents from Hubitat has been solid for me. Attaching anything that used the Ecobee API was stunningly unreliable, due to ongoing frequent outages of the Ecobee servers.
I'll never buy an HVAC product again that requires an active Internet connection to continue running - thus the Flair vents are out for me.
Supposedly, Keen vents were designed with back-pressure from HVAC in mind as completely closing all vents can damage a system (estimates for longevity differ.) Iām not sure if these vents allow enough air through when theyāre in a fully closed state to accommodate that or if thereās a pressure sensor within the vents themselves that self-regulate the system.
Does anyone know if directly connecting them to Hubitat takes that āback pressureā into consideration?
As for smart vents/climate control in general, I was an early adopter so I went with the most widely supported systems (ecobee + keen + ecobee sensors.) We had a completely new HVAC system installed and mechanical zoning was quoted around $4k for just two separate zones (upstairs and downstairs.) we also have cathedral ceilings And skylights upstairs which throws the temperatures wildly around. For under $1,000, in theory we couldāve achieved room-by-room climate control at a fraction of the cost.
They havenāt always been perfect, but I do believe once we mostly dialed the vents in, we saved money (they paid for themselves) and have made the house more comfortable. It would be the best next step to disconnect them from the cloud if possible. Itās a poor implementation. Iām not quite sure why Keen ever had to communicate with Ecobeeās cloud.
I have never seen the back pressure alarm. The app I use, lets me set a minimum opening, so I never fully close a vent to keep back pressure issues down. The Hubitat driver does not support some of the functionality in the vent because that functionality is either not stable, or mostly not usable.
Thatās one smart way to go about this. The app you use? Which one is that? Also, are many of you Keen vent owners using the ālevelā template for these tiles? Thanks for all the advice/input. Users here have been really helpful. I might just keep this hub around
As it is, I discovered that I have to pick up a Lutron Caseta Pro Bridge today (many of my lights are Lutron and I even have an old hub thatās either in a dump or a bucket somewhere) bringing my Hubitat expenditures to $170. Switching thermostats (as much as I hear you) might be the final straw that makes my wife go postal on me.
Iād love to be able to test Keenect without completely severing my existing Ecobee connection (Via Built-in ecobee integration?) in order to get the Keenect tiles installed and and an Ecobee sensor talking to a vent. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
After copying the Keenect Lite code from Github and trying to install it as a user app, itās asking for the Main Thermostat*. Since I donāt have the Ecobee integration installed presently or any other thermostats, Keenect Lite wonāt allow me to proceed any further. So, youāre right that theyāre not related but I need to somehow install a thermostat or sensor that acts like one for testing purposes. Suppose I just wait until the family isnāt around.
you can cheat by adding a virtual thermostat and using that for the main thermostat. The only thing that Keenect cares about is the Main thermostat operating state.
there is, and it's worthless from any practical perspective, I don't care what anyone else including Keen says about this, it's the wrong type of sensor mounted in the wrong location to measure system back pressure, its that simple.
Just being on the forum for the day and noticing your posts, Iād believe your statement. Honestly, the way I look at it when I bought these is even if the vents shave off 6 months off of a blower motor, itās not THAT big of a deal for making a home more comfortable. My house was so unbalanced before this system that it definitely has made a huge difference.
This is directly from Keen's site referencing back pressure prevention.
"We then added another layer of safety by designing the vents with pressure bypass dampers that leak air when the pressure builds up so that even if the system is offline, pressure won't be a problem. The vents themselves are designed not to seal closed. The only thing we recommend against is trying to close off every vent in your home at the same time - even with manual vents."
