Is there any possibility of adding the 50% open/closed option back?
Give people the option to use it, especially if they are hardwired...
i took the trouble of wiring 10 vents and 5 pucks so i would not need to deal with batteries
would really like it as added flexibility as a bonus
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Dwight Schrute This is already possible if you set your System to "Manual" instead of Auto in the Flair app.
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Robert Drinovac have you tested that as I just read https://support.flair.co/hc/en-us/community/posts/360047399012-Semi-Automated-Room-Control
Which says the back pressure algorithm is still being applied in manual mode.
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Shane Starcher given the wording about closing too many vents, my assumption is that this is referring to the 1/3rd rule previously mentioned. If there is some other safety measure based on pressure measurements when 1/3 or less vents are closed, I have yet to come across this myself. If there is, I can update the Home Assistant integration for the vents to also pull in the pressure measurements and then users can check a vent's pressure reading to determine if one or more vents need to be opened back up. However, without official word from Flair regarding the exact pressure values that this should be done at, it doesn't do us any good- it is good to know that the 1/3 rule is still followed in Manual mode. Perhaps this pressure safety mechanism exists when 1/3 or less vents are closed, but that I can't say for sure. If it does then that makes it even easier for the end users that are using automations to manually open/close vents.
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Shane Starcher I only have 4 vents right now so I'm not of much help since closing all 4 wouldn't be enough to go over the 1/3 rule- I don't think this really needs to be tested since they've stated there is a safety mechanism when it comes to the 1/3 rule. Now regarding the unknown safety mechanism when it comes to pressure and less than 1/3 of the vents are closed: not sure if this would matter without knowing if closing less than 1/3 of vents would even be able to cause a significant enough pressure increase to warrant opening vents. Based on the Lawrence Berkeley National Labs study they are going off of, I would say you would not run into pressure problems if less than 1/3 of your vents are closed.
When talking about the 1/3 rule, this is taking into account the total number of vents both smart and non smart. In my case, I have 15 total vents, but only 4 are Flair vents. I would only be able to close 5 Flair vents (if I had 5).
I would calculate the total number of vents that you have in your household to know how many flair vents can be closed at a time- even in manual mode, if you close too many, the safety mechanism that is in place will open vents back up to bring you back down to the 1/3 rule. Sure you can close non-smart vents manually + flair vents to exceed the 1/3 rule, but you're running the risk of damaging your HVAC equipment.
Edit: The study
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I just tested this. 12 smart vents, 4 dumb vents.
In manual mode, nothing prevented me from closing all vents. I then was able to run the HVAC with all closed for a couple minutes, and no vents opened.It seems whatever safety protocols for 1/3 closed max or a pressure threshold are not active in Manual Mode.
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Ken Schnautz - I know this thread is old but wondering about manual mode. There isn't a lot of info in the support manuals on this.
When in manual mode, is it possible to setup some configurations or do you have to click around to each vent to make changes? It'd be great to have a rule "go to bed" that adjusts everything, closing/opening vents as I want. Or "it's work time" and it adjust to make my office colder.
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MichaelB, as of today, manual mode requires you to modify each vent independently. I've not found any way to automate this.
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Thanks Ken Schnautz... maybe down the road they'll add integration with the home automation kits.
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@michaelb, unfortunately I don’t think away temperatures work at all. I did testing a couple years ago and never was able to get FLAIR to react to temperatures outside the Away limits with a call for heat or cool.
I can confirm that an inactive schedule sets the puck in the respective room to ‘away’.
As an aside, setting no schedule during a specific time period in a room is supposed to allow the room to automatically enter ‘away’ when an ecobee room sensor is active. I’ve had mixed results with that, too.
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