Heating and cooling can gulp down a large chunk of building’s energy consumption pie. But this can be closely monitored by adding sensors and automation to heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and AC units. This reduces the energy consumption and in turn can help you save quite some money.
Therefore at CES 2015, Keen Home came up with Smart Vents to add room-by-room control to central air installations. Now with summer around the corner, re-exploring this product and its latest integrations might just be a befitting consideration to ‘beat the heat’ without burning a hole in your pockets.
As you know, regulating the proper temperature for a large, diverse office population has been an issue for long, and what furthers the problem is a lack of precise detail about who is using a space at any given time, and what type of indoor climate they prefer.
Keen’s Smart Vents connect to the Internet and to each other to regulate temperature room-by-room. The system comes with a Smart Filter that clips into Smart Vent’s removable faceplate to provide air purification and odor neutralization for the entire office (and even homes). The filter is designed to strain out allergens, germs and even air pollutants. Also, the filter gets refilled automatically based on the real-time analysis of your HVAC usage.
How do you operate it?
The system can be controlled by the Keen Home smartphone app and also works with Nest, SmartThings, and Lowe’s Iris. The app gives you control over Smart Bridge which acts as the hub between your Smart Vents, your smart thermostat, and the Keen Home App. It bears the look of a traditional wireless router and is connected to all the smart vents in the office.
Each vent is fitted with temperature and pressure sensors and the integrated system will allow you to control how much air reaches each section of your office to balance energy usage and comfort.
Additionally, Nest also shares HVAC state and target temperature information in real-time to give your Smart Vent System insight into how your premise heats up or cools down. This data helps your vents best meet your airflow needs over time.
Style your vent!
What’s more exciting is that the vents come with interchangeable faceplates that can uplift the aesthetic value of your workplace. The Herringbone faceplate in white is made of tempered steel reinforced polycarbonate that can support up to 600 lbs of direct pressure. Beauty with strength, I’d say!
Then, there’s the Arbor faceplate that you can bring in a more homely but artistic wooden touch to your workplace. The faceplates magnetically clip to the Smart Vent for easy removal, installation and cleaning.
If you intend to get started for as little as possible, you can avail a vent within a range of $72.24 – $96.49 (depending on the size you opt for). The product can also be purchased from Amazon Launchpad, and the second run of shipping is expected to begin by early this Spring.
