Smart Vents
There are not many vendors of smart vents. I looked through the products that Works with Nest. Google's Nest division has an open programming architecture. That allows the company to have numerous products work with the Google Nest smart home thermostat. The smart vent needs one additional device - a bridge.
Installation:
First, download the Keen Home app. The app will allow the bridge to relay information from the vents to the home Wi-Fi and to the Nest and visa versa. The vents can be programmed through the app to open or close depending upon the scheduling of the smart thermostat and what rooms you want cooled or not cooled; heated or not heated. The vents are placed in the openings of the previous vents (there are several standard sizes).
The faceplate can be ordered in either wood or plastic. Both will support a heavy load. The faceplates are quickly and easily installed.
Keen App Setup:
The setup software and instructions are equally simple. They were clear and easy and the instructions come in English, French or Spanish (North and South American markets). I was able to connect it to my Nest smart thermostat in no time. The iPhone/iPad/Android Keen apps make it easy to build your on and off schedule for the whole week in an easy to view screen.
The Keen vent is equipped with a temperature sensor and pressure sensors. There is a heating/cooling status light, which can be seen when looked at directly. Two batteries control the louvers of the vents and are advertised to work for years.
There are several cool features to the Keen vent: 1) There is Nest access through your Wi-Fi. This allows it to receive information from your Nest. 2) The Keen vent will work with the motion detectors in the Nest smart thermostat and Nest Protects. If no movement has been detected by the Nest system, the vents will work with the Nest system as it goes into Away mode. Away mode lowers the temperature to a defined lower limit during winter, or raises the temperature to a defined upper limit during the summer. 3) It is expandable. This means, that numerous vents can be added quickly and easily.
Below are pictures of the devices. The picture on the left is a wall mounted vent. The picture on the right is cut away picture of a wall mounted vent. It shows the location of the sensors, a manual override, heating/cooling status indicator, and location of the radio that integrates with the connected home system.
So, how did it work? It did not work as well as I had hoped. I found out from my sons that all of the Wi-Fi using devices were slowing down the game playing. I did not believe them, so I called our internet provider and complained to them that the speed of our network was atrocious. They looked into the system and detected every device that was utilizing the Wi-Fi. There were a large number. I was sent a list of devices that were connected. I was flabbergasted that there were that many. I was told that despite most of the devices being off, they use some portion of the broadband in the house, thereby slowing the system down. I unplugged a number of devices, got smart plugs for others and crossed my fingers.
Well, that did not work. So, as the vents were not mission critical - able to quantify energy savings. I took the batteries out and chocked it up to a loss.