Open-close vent with alexa
Answered
What I mainly want to do with vents is to open them when I want heat in a room and close them when I don’t want heat in a room. Therefore, the first feature that should be in a smart vent is the ability by voice command (Alexa) to open and close the vent. All the other features would just be extra. You should develop this binary feature to open and to close a vent immediately and I would think it would be easy to program.
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Official comment
Hi All,
I checked on this and, currently, for Alexa, when Flair is in Manual mode, turning ON or OFF will turn on and off a mini split, if available. We currently do not operate Smart Vents with Alexa when Flair is in Manual Mode. I removed the earlier post that said we did to avoid further confusion.
I'll definitely add this as a feature request because of its value to our customers. I can't give a timeline, as all feature requests are prioritized by management for inclusion in the product.
All the best,
Finn
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Not doing this myself, but it looks like you already can. Have you checked this out? https://flair.co/pages/flair-and-amazon-echo-alexa
Looks like you can tell Alexa to turn off a room which should close the vent for that room. The Flair App must be in Auto mode to use this integration.
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Telling Alexa to turn off a room sets it to Away and telling Alexa to turn on a room sets it to Home. This does not necessarily result in the vent closing or opening unless other settings are in place. You should be able to use Alexa to say open/close vent in a room without changing any settings. It should be like an on/off switch for a light switch operated by Alexa.
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+1
I have set up the Flair skill on Alexa to test functionality and am finding what Guglaw stated to be true -- although Official Flair Support says Manual Mode is now supported in Alexa, I am not finding that to do anything but allow a room to be turned on and off -- this does not seem to relate to actually opening or closing a vent (or setting it to "Half-Open") as can be manually done in the Flair App.
Please pass this feature request on to your developers ("You should be able to use Alexa to say open/close vent in a room without changing any settings.") or let us users know what we are doing wrong if you have actually already implemented this. Thank you, Flair.
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I am also very curious about this feature. I have setup my Flair puck and smart vent to a room. Alexa Skill shows the Room as a Temperature device in alexa. When i turn it on and off it doesn't do anything. If I have the Flair home System set to auto, I do see the "active' set on and off when alexa does this toggle. the Smart vent status doesn't change.
I am not sure if i am doing anything wrong.
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As a recent Flair purchaser, I am specifically looking for this feature of manual control to open and close the vents manually in manual mode via the Amazon Alexa integration to behave as a binary switch on/off or open/close for each vent, in addition to the thermostat control currently presented in the Amazon Alexa integration. I have a large amount of smart home integration, upwards of 40-60 devices (still installing them after moving to a new house), and I tie them all together using several automation platforms, at least until Matter standards for smart home gives better controls. The ability for integrations to interact with the vents to open and close them, regardless of the Flair Puck temperature setting, should be a straightforward implementation, however this request has been sitting for 2 years without follow up, so I wanted to ask about its status as a feature.
Where are we at with this feature request after 2 years?
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Hi Flair, where is this feature at in the development queue so far? If it is a "not decided", that information is helpful, but a "will not do" is also helpful information to have so I don't wait for this feature. Best-case scenario is that this feature is on your roadmap, and we have a timeline (even if it slips).
Any status would be helpful, and much appreciated. -
I'm looking for the status of this also. All I have is one smart vent and a puck. It's a ceiling vent and I purchased it so I didn't need a ladder to control it. I wish I didn't need the puck. I have had this a year and just tried adding it to Alexa and discovered I can't open and close this by voice. This would be such a great selling point I can't believe it can't be done. It's just software.
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I would like to emphasize that despite some misunderstandings about how the vents and pucks work together, the puck is the device that has a wifi chip and (for wifi purposes) has a constant power source from a USB adapter. The vent is generally speaking powered by batteries, and therefore does not connect directly to wifi. The vent does have a 24volt hardwire option, but the vent does not have a wifi option and therefore needs the puck to run in Gateway mode to receive commands via the app/web.
So I understand why you need the puck, to some extent, and that the puck is its own thermostat that can control mini split units and other IR controlled climate systems.
My concept regarding "open/close" commands would be for mini split systems it would indeed turn them on or off, but that would be an expectation for a binary choices command. Having the "open/close" and "on/off" sets of commands do essentially the same things would cut down on the feature needs considerably. It would also align with the thermostat functionality, as many thermostats still have an "off" setting for those who want a system disabled, for any reason.
Finn, if you're still working here, would it be possible to get feedback from management on where they see this in their pipeline as a feature request?
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I just purchased a smart vent and bridge for the same exact reason and am now disappointed that the Flair skill does not allow my Alexa devices to manually open/close the vent. I am going to be returning this item because everything I've ready (until I came across this thread) indicated that I would be able to do what I want it to do. I don't want to have to open the Flair app and manual open/close the vent...I want an Alexa voice command to do it for me.
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Hi Jacob Luedloff and Chris,
We have a feature request for this in our database and track demand. I have added your votes for this feature to that request.
Chris, I know you spoke with a member of our support team about some alternate solutions on Wednesday, January 29th. If you have any other questions please follow up in that thread.
Regards,
The Flair Team
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Hi Dustin,
The thread I was mentioning to Chris above was a support ticket he had open with us.
Please email us -- support@flair.co -- with any questions you have or details of any issues you are trying to resolve.
We would be happy to help!
Regards,
The Flair Team
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I am very sorry, but I have been meaning to post this for a long, long time (well over a year). I have managed to work around the limitation of the direct Alexa Command to Open/Close a specific room vent by voice, at least in my configuration. I know this works if you have a room sensor/puck paired with your thermostat in every room with a vent you want to control. If you don't, it might still work since the room is in "manual mode". My Thermostat (Honeywell T10) with RedLINK 3.0 room sensors in every room.Here is what I did1). Obviously, enable and link the Alexa Flair skill to your Flair app account.2). If you haven't already added the devices, go to the Devices tab in Alexa mobile app and click the + sign to Add Device. Scroll to the bottom and select Other and WiFi. After some time, this should find your vents. Note: If you have already added the vents as devices, you may just need to rename them if you used the word "vent" in the name (see step 3).3). When adding your vents to Alexa, DON'T call them "<room> Vent" and DO NOT add them to any Group/room. Apparently "Vent" is a reserved word in Alexa. I called mine "<room> Register". I'm sure there are other words that work and other words that are reserved, but "register" worked for me.4). Once you have all your vents, I mean Registers, added as devices, it's time to create the magic Routines.5). For each register, you will need to create 2 Routines. I called mine "<room> Vent - Open" and "<room> Vent - Close" (yes you can use the word "vent" in the routine name, just not the device name).Routine DetailsWHEN: Anyone says "Alexa open <room> Vent or "Alexa open the <room> Vent". You can add others.Alexa Will: Click the +, then click Custom and enter "Turn on <room> Register" (to open the vent)WHEN: Anyone says "Alexa close <room> Vent or "Alexa close the <room> Vent"Alexa Will: Click the +, then click Custom and enter "Turn off <room> Register" (to close the vent)It's a little bit of up-front work to create all the routines. I have 13 vents, so it was 26 routines, but you only have to do this once. The key is DON'T use the word "vent" in the Device name or it simply won't work. Trust me, I tried over and over. As soon as I switched to using "register" it started working and I haven't had any issues since.As you know, sometimes with Alexa you have to clearly annunciate your words to make sure "she" hears correctly. Note: If you upgrade your Routines to Alexa+, you will get a prompt something like: "I've turned on/off the <room> register" or "I've set the <room> register to on/off", otherwise (non-Alex+), it just beeps if you have Alexa brief mode turned on.I issue these Alexa "voice" commands via automation multiple times daily from my primary smart home hub (Homey) and the main issues I have had are Alexa is offline (happens way too often) or the Flair bridge has lost connection to the particular vent. I have one that is right at the limits of the bridges connection range.Notes:1). If you add your vents to the same Alexa group that has other smart devices in it, when you Say close Vent, it might turn off all the other smart devices in that group/room. Took me awhile to figure out why that was happening. Removing the registers from the group/room solved it.2). Be careful using the Set temperature Alexa commands if you are using your thermostat as your Set Point Controller. My Thermostat uses the exact same phase "Alexa set the <room> temperature to xx degrees" to set the thermostat temperature instead of adjusting the Flair vent threshold.3). The "Device" that is added to Alexa, is actually your room sensor and not the vent itself.4). Therefore, asking "Alexa, what is the temperature in the <room>" will give you the temperature of the room sensor and not the actual vent temperature.5). When you open the vent via voice, it puts a HOLD on that room until the next scheduled event in your Flair schedule. You can open the Flair mobile app, go to that room and cancel the Hold if you like.That's my brain dump of my knowledge/experience! I hope it helps everyone wanting this "feature".Again, sorry it took so long.
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