A heating vent might not be the best home accessory to update, but a new high-tech option lets you control each room individually and save big on energy costs along the way.
In most cases, a home’s thermostat controls the heating and cooling systems in a one-size-fits all way. If you’re blasting the heat, it typically warms all rooms, including ones you don’t use that much (and often not at optimal times), such as an office at night or a bedroom during the day.
With the Keen Home Smart Vent, temperature control is no longer limited to the thermostat. You can open and shut these app-enabled vents from your phone, or let their temperature and pressure sensors automate the task based on your preferences. Ideally, this will allow you to save money by closing off rooms when they’re not in use, focusing heat toward the living room during the evening, for example, or the bedroom at night. While a single family home can have 25 vents throughout, the overarching concept is to replace four to six in rooms that you’d want to control. Installation is easy enough: You unscrew the existing vent and pop in a Keen Home version, which comes in four sizes. The vent is retrofitted to work with both standard and smart thermostat options.
It works with smart platforms like the Lowe’s Iris system, Samsung’s SmartThings platform and the Nest smart thermostat.Each vent costs about $ 79, and because you’d likely want a few in the home, the investment isn’t cheap. But over time, it could pay for itself, considering heating and cooling makes up 50 percent of a homeowner’s energy bill. According to studies conducted by Keen Home across 25 homes in the U.S., the planned opening and closing of vents could result in a 10 percent to 20 percent reduction in monthly heating bills, depending on location.The product also comes with a faceplate (and the option to buy more) to dress up the vent.
Consumer education about the product may be a hurdle: While the smart home category is considered the next big innovation in tech, getting consumers on board with the trend and outfitting their homes with new technology is a challenge companies continue to face.