Automated HVAC Vents

Yes exactly…

Here is a link I found about a product I think is being talked about.
Best Smart Vent: Room by room climate control…sort of (thesmartcave.com)

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No offense, Jason. But you have no idea what you’re talking about here. This is a fantastic idea, and there are already several companies that make these products, but they don’t work with Wyze. Wyze already makes the thermostat, you make the room sensor, the only component missing now is the motorized vent.

I’d suggest you read the previous conversation in this post, especially:

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Absolutely agreed. Retired career control system engineer here. Some of those guys won’t believe someone who has done this professionally until their evaporator frosts over, or their bedroom register whistles all night.

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WyzeJason is spot on with his reply. He learned from personal experience. Feel free to learn from your own.

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The concerns mentioned here by HVAC professionals are fair as long as they’re not taken to the extreme. Smart registers don’t do anything than standard registers (which are the standard protocol by HVAC pro’s) and are getting a bad rap for no reason. The smart register concept is very possible and is just simple math. and common sense… just make sure the total CFM restriction doesn’t get below a certain threshold. To calculate this, just have the user input (at setup time) things like: what is the CFM of your furnace, what are the sizes/how many registers do you have, return airs, etc. Wyze will already knows how many smart registers you have installed (assuming that they’re all Wyze) and can perform calculations based on what can be restricted and by how much at a given time. The purpose is simply to restrict the amount of air flow to certain areas, which is what standard registers already do, albeit manually. In fact, I would argue that Smart Registers could help prevent damage to a furnace by limiting the amount of air restriction, whereas a consumer with standard registers could (under extremely ignorant circumstances) shut off all (or too many) manual registers in the house.

Great conversation and really appreciate all the input on this topic! Since posting this question/suggestion, I have stumbled on another possibility on this multi-zone dilemma and would like to add it here for discussion. Register booster fan!

So I stumbled upon a couple of examples of this particular solution Smart Cocoon and AC Affinity booster fan. The Smart Cocoon seems to work with smart thermostats like Ecobee and Nest to provide circulation in zones that are the issue. The Affinity seems to monitor temps by itself.

The biggest draw back that I’m seeing is the need for a constant power supply with a less than attractive power cable. Would require some skills to hide the power cable or run an outlet to supply power. Now I believe you can do this by running the HVAC fan to circulate air but that seems less efficient than targeting trouble area.

Thoughts?

And as always thanks for the great conversation and input!

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Maybe the right answer is to hire a professional (not a hack) to measure air flows and adjust the balancing dampers, and then just leave them alone. Otherwise it is sort of like installing a pump, when fixing the leak is the right answer.

Correct. You don’t need to install a pump… Instead, install one of these.

AC Infinity AIRTAP T6, Quiet Register Booster Fan with Thermostat Control. Heating Cooling AC Vent. Fits 6” x 10” Register Holes. Amazon.com

Wyze should really do this. I just read an article where you can now 3D print your own vent and just attach the motor to it:

I mean, they could even realistically let people 3D print their own vent, add a chip to it and let it work with the Thermostat and Room sensors.

I guarantee I would get some of these, at least for a couple of specific vents like my Home Office (block the AC all summer, and open it for heat all winter), but also to better fix the temp balance of the house in general. I know you’re not supposed to close too many vents at once, so there could be warnings or whatever if a person closes more than X% of vents…but these would be so awesome.

I look forward to see if the Thermostat becomes Matter compliant…if it does, and Wyze doesn’t do their own smart vents, I might look into buying some from other companies or 3D printing my own and making my own workaround. But seriously, if you can 3D print them now, it really couldn’t be too difficult for Wyze to just make their own chip integrate with the thermostat/room sensors to trigger whether or not a few specific vents are closed at a time.

Ex: in the Summer when it’s blowing AC, just close off the 3 vents with the lowest temperature that least need to be cooled so the extra AC goes elsewhere. In the winter when heat is blowing, just close off the 3 hottest vents and more of the heat will move to the rest of the house that isn’t that warm yet.
Seems pretty straightforward to me.
Matter can’t come fast enough! :slight_smile:

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Smart Vents for Home

I haven’t seen anything posted on this yet, so here goes:

Would love to see smart vents/vent covers like:

Would save good money on heating and cooling by being able to control which rooms get heated or cooled. Something like this would pair well with the Wyze thermostat and sensors you already have in your lineup. Other companies sell these for way too much. This would be a big opportunity to beat the competition at their own game - much like you’ve been doing since the start!

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Any word on this? Just bought a house and if this is something you’ll launch soon, I plan to go fully wyze on our place. Would love to avoid flair if possible (too expensive).

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I’m very confident this is at least not happening this year. Wyze stated they are going to focus mostly on Cameras and AI in 2024. They might do a few other things, but they haven’t had much of a push on Thermostats, and some places put them on clearance, which is indicative that they are not planning a big expansion soon.

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Thought I would come back to the fire I started … lol! Found this Reddit post that has some really good points to counter the HVAC folks that are discounting smart vents.

I read an article that most homes built pre 1990’s with galvanized metal ducts are inherently inefficient by up to 40% due to duct work leakage. I myself found many leaks in my duct work in the basement and one hole being nearly 2 inches wide!

https://www.reddit.com/r/homeautomation/comments/te2wif/smart_vents_the_final_verdict/