nest or ecobee - limitations with smart vents

Follow
Avatar
Eric

I've been deliberating whether to invest in Nest or Ecobee with respect to your smart vents.

I've noted that the your smart vents don't yet communicate with Nest room sensor due to lack of open API.

I'm trying to understand what is the net limitation with this lack of communication with the Next system versus Ecobee. 

Does this imply a limit to the ability for Nest to control the room vents?

My overall hope is to reduce heat cost by limiting heat flow to unused rooms from a central furnace.

Can you help me understand what is really missing with the Nest communication and what advantage Ecobee has by Flair being able to communicate with the ecobee room sensors?

Thanks

1

Comments

8 comments

Sort by Date Votes
  • Avatar
    Brian Wuttke

    Lots of good questions. I use Ecobee but not sure what integration works "better" with Flair.

    For the most part the Flair algorithms override the Ecobee. I don't believe I Flair to be as "smart" as Ecobee but it is slowly getting better.

    FYI I am doing this as a large system. 14 vents and 7 pucks. I have two Ecobee remote sensors but haven't tried to incorporate them into the system yet.

    0
    Comment actions Permalink
  • Avatar
    Eric

    Thanks.  that's a big system.  

    I'm trying to figure out, in those rooms that don't have a puck but there is an ecobee room sensor, will it read the ecobee room sensor?

    Since the Pucks are significantly more expensive than the ecobee room sensor.  I wanted to know if a smart vent can be paired with an ecobee room sensor.

    How effective is the Puck at knowing if someone is in the room?

    In addition, does it stop working when ecobee is in away mode?

    thanks

    0
    Comment actions Permalink
  • Avatar
    Eric

    I think this article answers one of my questions:

    https://support.flair.co/hc/en-us/articles/360000532631-I-already-have-ecobee-Remote-Sensors-Do-I-still-need-to-use-a-Puck-

    Apparently the smart vent CAN rely on ecobee room sensor instead of puck.  (I know I still must have a puck as a gateway).

    I presume that (given the lack of Nest API) the smart vents CANNOT use the Nest room sensors in the same way.  Therefore, it seem more prudent to invest in ecobee, currently, until Nest gets their act together and releases their API. 

     

    0
    Comment actions Permalink
  • Avatar
    Brian Wuttke

    Puck vs Ecobee remote sensor:
    - Puck has more sensors built in (light, motion, etc)
    - both have temp and humidity
    - pucks have manual control (rotary dial)
    - pucks of course have display of current temp and set temp
    - pucks are supposed to show clock (according to ad pictures) but still don't have this feature

    As far as I know the pucks motion sensor is not being used and the pucks aren't really knowing if anyone is in the room.

    -1
    Comment actions Permalink
  • Avatar
    Eric

    Thanks.

    My understanding is that while flair can use ecobee room sensors, ecobee cannot use Pucks as room sensors -- one way relationship.

    0
    Comment actions Permalink
  • Avatar
    Brian Wuttke

    Yes that seems correct.

    0
    Comment actions Permalink
  • Avatar
    Chris McIntyre

    I am an ecobee user and the system works together very well at this point. I have nine flair vents, and ecobee sensors in each room. Flair balances the temperatures nicely. What it doesn’t seem to do at this point is work with the occupancy data the sensors provide. It won’t close off rooms that are unoccupied, but after researching it, unless a room is not occupied for days or weeks at a time, you probably don’t want to close it off anyway.

    1
    Comment actions Permalink
  • Avatar
    Ken Schnautz

    Brain, you stated:

    - Puck has more sensors built in (light, motion, etc) 
    - both have temp and humidity

    I don't think this is correct. Ecobee room sensors measure motion and temperature, but not light, humidity or pressure. Pucks measure only temp, humidity, ambient light, and pressure. But no motion.

     
     
    0
    Comment actions Permalink

Please sign in to leave a comment.