Smart Vents: still don't work (but at least they send your information to the cloud now) - and more heretic thoughts inside

[Vadim Tkachenko]

Hello lurkers,

Just stumbled upon a bit of information from an unusual source: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/flair-smart-vents-hvac/

The same old topic of smart vents (that's been discussed here to death), but with some new twists. So, let me go through the article (and tangents) step by step.

• Their verdict: this product doesn't work, they identify the culprit as leaky ducts - but the way I read it (having read the article several times) is "correlation", not "causation". Sealing ductworks is a good thing anyway, though.
• Looks like the product still works as a controlled vent - that's going to cost ya, though.
• "Pucks" cost a lot. Having used a mobile solution since about 2008 and not feeling it being inadequate, I say "hard pass". They're proprietary, too. An ESPHome or Zigbee based sensor will cost a fraction of a puck cost, and perform as well if not better.
• The product will not work unless you set up an account. Hard pass for me. YMMV.
  

Finally, data - "provides access to a fair amount of data" but almost immediately "...the app and the portal on the web are slow to load and balky when retrieving data". A dead ringer for your data being exfiltrated to storage you have no control over. Let me pat myself on the back here and point the finger to the image below that is a subset of what HCC produces today and stores locally.

Now, to heretical thoughts... There is a knowledge base article answering the question "Why is my smart thermostat set to a different temperature than Flair?" This is actually a door behind which a very deep rabbit hole is hiding. Let me elaborate - 

With the advent of mini splits and remote sensors I thought for a while that this project is getting irrelevant and is sliding into oblivion. However, when the summers have become scorching hot and the physical shortcomings of existing HVAC systems here have become unsurpassable, I had to acquire a few portable and window AC units - that was more feasible than to replace AC units, for a variety of reasons. And immediately it has become obvious that in order to keep the house comfortable (quote from the user: "Your system works so well, I don't even notice it") a totally different set of control algorithms is required, and the newfangled hardware simply doesn't do it - we're back to square one where this project started, intolerable difference between what you want, what you tell your unit, and what your unit thinks it's giving back to you. Not to mention that they forgot about "V" in "HVAC", and you're left filling that gap yourself.

I won't go deeply into details (following the principle I observe since having been attacked by a patent troll: "prior art before announcement"), let me just say that all three (portable, window, mini split) require different tweaks and you'd be amazed when you look at the telemetry from HCC, and compare it with what your units tell you.

With that, /me back to work. Stay tuned.

--vt

Figure 1: Two days worth of HCC telemetry as of August 15 2024.

[Tim Peterson]

Hi Vadim,

I just wanted to say that I appreciate the work that you're doing and I hope I will be able to make use of it in the future. I'm slowly making baby steps toward setting up at least one piece of hardware that can be controlled by HCC, while also researching what specifications I need to look for when the day inevitably comes when I need to replace my 37 year old heating and cooling units, to ensure that the new system will be capable of doing proper zoning. Stay tuned!

--Tim

--

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "DIY Zoning & Home Climate Control Forum" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to home-climate-con...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/home-climate-control/CAFfq4OU0Ro-KrMqrtXMe7LyRiOQ-qWr5G-7q9iJWU0%2B%2Bgr2WiA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Vadim Tkachenko]

Hello Tim,

> I just wanted to say that I appreciate the work that you're doing

Hey, I'm just being selfish :) I'm dogfooding this, and since summers
are objectively becoming hotter, and technology moves on, so do I. Not
as fast as I'd like and, side note, the users usually say "it works so
well, we don't really notice it exists", which kind of puts a damper
on new research - but the heat goes up, so I had to wake up and start
running again.

> and I hope I will be able to make use of it in the future.

Meanwhile, I'm working on making it simpler to use.

> I'm slowly making baby steps toward setting up at least one piece of hardware that can be controlled by HCC,

Got any questions? Go for it, think aloud, I'm sure someone here will
chip in with some advice.

> while also researching what specifications I need to look for when the day inevitably comes when I need to replace my 37 year old heating and cooling units, to ensure that the new system will be capable of doing proper zoning.

Meanwhile, as I also understand that hardware is not forever, and at
the same time understand the deficiencies of the HVAC design of my
house, and am recently getting experience with new kinds of HVAC
units, rest assured that there are things behind the scenes that will
only be exposed when they can be shown as prior art.

> Stay tuned!

You too, eh? :)

> --Tim

--vt