Ecobee with sensors

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Brianaabram
I have a home with 3 main rooms upstairs, 3 main rooms in the basement, and 9 vents between them. I have an Ecobee Lite thermostat upstairs controlling a central heat pump. I already have 4 Ecobee sensors, so 5 of the 6 zones are monitored currently. The basement gets too much cooling in summer and not enough heat in winter. What would be the best way for me to set up a Flair system controlling all 9 vents? Would one Gateway Puck in the basement plus 9 Flair vents give me six zones of monitoring and coverage (including the Ecobee Thermostat and 4 Ecobee sensors)? Would that one puck be enough to function with 9 vents plus the Ecobee+sensors? Is there any benefit to adding a 5th Ecobee Sensor to the room with the Gateway Puck? Is there any benefit to adding an additional (6th) Ecobee Sensor to the room with the Ecobee Thermostat?
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    Sal
    • Edited

    Hey Brian,
    Have a look at this official blog post by Flair:
    Do I Need to Replace All my Vents? – Flair

    For my house, I have 1600 sq.ft per floor, and I've only put in 8 Flair vents: 4 upstairs and 4 in the basement.
    I've found the puck range is not huge, so I'd personally recommend 2 pucks set up as gateways (one for each floor).
    The settings inside a puck can be set to just sensor (does not contribute to the mesh network, able to run off just battery), or 'gateway puck' (used for 900mhz mesh network, requires usb cable).

    The ecobee network you have will be great for detailed control of each room - but it isn't necessary. I have 4 vents in each 'room', and it works well.
    As for vent placement, I believe its best to place all your smart vents in the area which receives too much airflow.
    I live in a 4-season climate, so the basement gets too much AC in the summer, but not enough heat in the winter. Hence I have smart vents both on the main floor and basement.

    I've also found Flair is great for monitoring humidity in my basement. Because of flair, I was able to determine I needed a dehumidifer, and how often to run it (using a 15A digital programmable outlet timer)
    Hope this helps!

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    James Clarke

    Hi Brianaabram,

    Thanks for writing in!

    From what you described it sounds like your airflow situation dictates having the ability to close Smart Vents upstairs (in the winter) and downstairs (in the summer).  You can treat your basement (or the upstairs) as a single room in Flair or you can break them out into separate rooms. There are pros and cons to each so if you want to discuss this further please reach out to our technical support team - support@flair.co 

    You will need at least one Puck per floor of your home.  Please see this article and the links within: How Many Flair Pucks Do I Need?  

    Regards,

    The Flair Team

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