Alea User Guide

Alea User Guide

Alea Solution Overview

Alea Air Management solution is a cloud-based platform using networked sensors, thermal control and machine learning for analyzing, modeling and automatically managing all aspects of indoor air. for central forced air HVAC systems to ensure perfect room-by-room comfort while minimizing energy consumption.

• Alea solution:         

•  Uses advanced environmental sensors to track, measure and model the thermal behavior of individual rooms to account for daily and seasonal variations of factors such as sun exposure, wind, occupancy, and more.
• Automatically adjusts airflow to individual rooms to maintain the user’s desired temperature.
• Calculates the total heating and cooling required for the house to deliver full perfect comfort.

• As we move forward, our plan is to go one step further and integrate the thermal requirements for the entire home with a controller that would dynamically adjust the output of conditioned air required to satisfy the total demand.

How it Works

At its core, Alea Air Management solution consists of:

• Alea smart Vents equipped with an array of sensors, 2 wireless radios (Bluetooth and long range 915MHz), and a low power motor for adjusting the vent’s opening,  
• A Smart WiFi Gateway,
• Alea Cloud infrastructure, and
• Alea mobile apps for iOS and Android.

Each vent is powered by 4 AA batteries that typically last 1Yr+.

At a high level:

• User’s instructions and temperature preferences are entered in the Alea mobile app,
•  Alea Vents wirelessly communicate with the Gateway that stream their data to the Alea Cloud platform
• The Cloud’s AI (artificial intelligence) engine analyzes the data to determine the optimum operating instructions that are sent back through the Gateway to each Vent to ensure perfect temperature and optimum energy consumption.

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Let’s Get Started | App Onboarding

Create Account / Login Screen:

When you first open the Alea app you will land on the ‘Create Account / Login’ screen.  

New user?  Head to the ‘Create An Account’ link to get started with your account.

If you’re an existing Alea user, login with your credentials.  Tip: Selecting the ‘Remember Me’ box will keep you logged in to your account each time you open the app.  

Forgot or want to change your password?  Simply tap and follow the instructions to receive your credentials via email.

New Users Onboarding | Add Property and Connect Gateway:

Once you’ve successfully created your Alea account, you will be taken to the ‘Add Property’ screens.  Here, users name their property (ex. “My Sweet Home”), enter their property zip/postal code (used by Alea to get local weather data), and select their preference for Celsius or Fahrenheit temperature readings to be displayed in the app.  (These names and preferences can be changed via the ‘Settings’ tab at any time).  

Once the Property details are entered, the next step in the app is to initiate the Gateway connection to the app by selecting the ‘Find Gateway’ button.  Note: please make sure your phone’s Bluetooth is enabled.

Power the Gateway and, with your phone close to it, click the app’s ‘Find Gateway’ button.  When found, you will see a ‘Success’ Popup indicating the Gateway has been found.  

If finding the Gateway using Bluetooth does not work, we suggest connecting manually by typing in the Gateway’s serial number. The serial number can be found on the back of the Gateway. An example of a valid serial number should look like: “f5aa12”.

After adding the Gateway, you will be guided to “Configuring WIFI”.

At this step, you can either select “yes” to configure the Gateway WIFI, or “skip” to use the Ethernet cable option.

Configuring WIFI for Gateway:

Follow the instructions on the screen:

1. Press the white button on the side of the Gateway to turn on Bluetooth.
2. Ensure the Bluetooth is enabled on the smartphone.
3. Place the phone near the Gateway (best is directly on top of the Gateway).
4. Press Next.

If the smartphone was able to communicate to the Gateway, then this screen will appear:

Verify it’s the correct WIFI network (if necessary, press “Change WIFI” as needed).

If the current network is correct, enter your WIFI password to continue.

If the WIFI configuration is successful, the Alea mobile app will show the “Success!” screen. If it is not successful, the App will bring you back to the WIFI instruction page.

New Users Onboarding | Add Vents:

Once the app is successfully connected to the provisioned Alea Gateway, users then move to a room-by-room setup process.  To add the first vent to a system, users insert the 4 AA batteries in its sensor module and in the app enter a room name for the vent they wish to connect.  This initial vent to app connection and setup communication is done via Bluetooth and requires that the user be near the vent during this step.  

Note: It’s recommended to power and provision the sensor module one at a time as you move from room to room.  This reduces the chance of the wrong module being inadvertently connected.  For this reason, we strongly suggest installing the vents one-by-one.  

New Users Onboarding | Add Vents - ‘Success’

Upon naming the vent and tapping the ‘Connect’ button, users will see a ‘Success!’ popup indicating the vent has been added to the app as intended.

Users can continue adding vents with the tap of the ‘Add Vent’ button or move to the optional ‘Connect Thermostat’ step next by selecting ‘Done’.  (At any time, users can add more vents to the system via the ‘Vents’ tab - more in the ‘Vents' section).

New Users Onboarding | Add Vents - ‘No Vents Detected’ Error message

When attempting to add a vent in the app, users may encounter a “No Vents Detected” error message.  Please ensure the Bluetooth is enabled on your device then retry adding the vent and be sure your phone is in proximity of the vent.  

An alternative method of adding a vent is to manually type the vent serial number by clicking the MANUAL button in the Alea app. Note that you can find the vent serial number from the vent “module” after it’s removed from the vent frame. An example of a valid serial number is: f8abc5.

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New Users Onboarding | Connecting Smart Thermostat

As an optional step, users can connect their smart thermostat to their Alea system.  Note” Alea currently supports the ecobee and the Honeywell smart thermostats (Nest no longer allows third party connections).

Integration to ecobee Smart Thermostat

To provide a faster and more efficient setup for Alea Smart Vents solution, we offer seamless integration to the most popular smart thermostats in the market including ecobee thermostats. Through this connection you can download the existing heating/ cooling schedule from your ecobee thermostat and use it as the default setting for Alea Smart Vents schedule.

Here is a simple step-by-step instruction to connect to your ecobee thermostat:

1. From the Alea Air app, go to “Settings” > “Thermostat” > “Add Thermostat” menu option.
2. From the list of available thermostats, select ecobee and click on the “Add Thermostat” button. This will take you to your ecobee login page.
3. Enter your ecobee account credentials.
4. Select the thermostat that you’d like to connect and click “Download” to import the programmed schedule.

Please note that different ecobee thermostats have different names for various modes. We’ve mapped the ecobee and Alea Smart Vents modes based on the following table:

ecobee Thermostat	Alea Air Solution
Sleep	Sleep
Away	Away
Home	Home
Occupied	Home
Wakeup	Home
Unoccupied	Away

After connecting to your ecobee thermostat and downloading the programmed schedule, you can navigate to the “Schedule” from the Alea app’s main menu to review or adjust the imported schedule as follow:

• To “Delete” an activity from the schedule, you can simply swipe right the click “Delete” to remove the activity from the schedule.
• To adjust the activity details for a particular day, you can drill down into each scheduled activity to change the “Start Time” for the selected mode (Home, Away, Sleep). From the same interface, you can save the changes for the selected day or simply apply to any/ all days of the week.
• You can also add new activities to the imported schedule. To do that, you’ll click on the “+” button at the top-right-corner of the screen and navigate to the “Create Schedule” screen. Similar to adjusting existing activities, you can set the “Start Time” for the selected mode and apply the new setting to a specific day or any day of the week.

By now you’ve noticed that each mode (Home, Away, Sleep) has a “heat to” and “cool to” temperature settings that persist across weekly scheduled activities. If you’d like to change the setting for any mode, you can simply click the “Set Temperature” button from the “Schedule” page and make the change.

Please note that our current implementation is a one-directional integration between Alea Smart Vent solution and ecobee thermostat in that data flows from ecobee into Alea solution. As a result, the “changes” made to the weekly schedule directly in the Alea app will not be synchronized and reflected into the ecobee scheduling system.

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Let’s Get Started | Comfort Settings

With the account created, Gateway connected, vents added, and smart thermostat connected (optional), it’s time to dive into the comfort setting capabilities of the app.

Setting Temperatures | Understanding ‘Heat to’ and ‘Cool to’ set points

The Alea temperature preferences follow a similar format to most thermostats using ‘Heat to’ and ‘Cool to’ set points.  

‘Heat to’ = Room Temperature target when HVAC is in heating.
‘Cool to’ = Room Temperature target where HVAC is in Cooling.

Throughout the Alea app, users will set these thresholds to their desired preferences.  

Setting Temperatures |Scheduling

Alea allows users to create weekly schedules for each day of the week to automatically balance the temperature for the entire house.  The best way to create a weekly schedule directly in Alea App, select the “Schedule” from the side menu bar.

The default overlay page shows you the basic instructions on how to create a schedule.  As you create the weekly schedule, keep in mind that you can create different schedules for each day of the week. Every weekday must have at least 1 scheduled entry. Each schedule entry has a “Start Time” and a ‘Mode’ (Home, Away, Sleep). You can set the ‘Mode’ temperature by clicking the “Set Temperature” button from the schedule page. The “Mode” temperature will be applied to every day of the week with the same “Heat to” and “Cool to” values.

After creating your weekly schedule, you can further adjust and modify your entries as follows:  

• To “Delete” an activity from the schedule, you can simply swipe right the click “Delete” to remove the activity from the schedule.
• To adjust the activity details for a particular day, you can drill down into each scheduled activity to change the “Start Time” for the selected mode (Home, Away, Sleep). From the same interface, you can save the changes for the selected day or simply apply to any/ all days of the week.
• You can also add new activities to the imported schedule. To do that, you’ll click on the “+” button at the top-right-corner of the screen and navigate to the “Create Schedule” screen. Similar to adjusting existing activities, you can set the “Start Time” for the selected mode and apply the new setting to a specific day or any day of the week.

By now you’ve noticed that each mode (Home, Away, Sleep) has a “Heat to” and “Cool to” temperature settings that persist across weekly scheduled activities. If you’d like to change the setting for any mode, you can simply click the “Set Temperature” button from the “Schedule” page and change the default setting to your desired temperature.

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Let’s Get Started | App Navigation

The Alea Home Screen:

Each time you open or login to the Alea app, you will land on the Home Screen.  Here you will find the high level view of your system's current state, including a list view of all of your rooms and their current temperature readings, the Mode in which the majority of your vents are in, and information about the outdoor weather and health conditions near your home.

Here is an overview of the Home screen features:

Vent Detail Screen:

While on the Home Screen, tapping any of the Rooms will take users to the room’s corresponding ‘Vent Detail’ screen.  You can also access the ‘Vent Detail’ screen from the Settings > Vent tab.  The ‘Vent Detail’ screen provides users with more information specific to the vent(s) in the room including current temperature, the room’s ‘Heat to’ and ‘Cool to’ set points, the vent louvers position (Closed, 25%, 50%, 75%, Open), humidity, and latest outside air quality readings.  

Users can also access the ‘Hold’ and ‘Resume’ temperature feature directly from this screen which allows users to adjust the slider to a temporary new ‘Heat to’ or ‘Cool to’ set point.  When a user makes a temperature change here and selects the ‘Hold’ button, the vent will follow these instructions and deviate from the scheduled settings.  It will not go back to its previous settings until the user selects ‘Resume’.  This allows users to make temporary comfort adjustments without having to create a new schedule for one-off temperature changes.

Users will also find a shortcut on the ‘Vent Detail’ screen which takes them to the vent’s ‘Vent Settings’ screen.  

Vent Settings Screen:

The ‘Vent Settings’ screen provides a view of each vents connection status to confirm the vent sensors are connected to the Gateway and checking in.  Here users can also edit the room and vent name, manually adjust a vent to closed, 25%, 50%, 75%, and fully open positions, switch a vent from ‘manually adjusted position back to ‘Auto’ (so that the vent returns to following the temperature set points), check the firmware version of the Hub and vent, and delete the vent from the system.  

Here is an overview of the ‘Vent Settings’ screen:

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Let’s Get Started | Integration with Virtual Assistants

Alea air management solution is capable of communicating and integrating with a growing number of third-party devices, applications and services. As such Alea smart vents are capable of being voice-controlled using Smart Assistant technologies (e.g. Alexa provided by Amazon Digital Services LLC (“Amazon”) or Google Home and Google Assistant provided by Google LLC (“Google”)). When the vendor's smart assistant is enabled, it continuously listens for “wake words”.  When it hears one of these wake words, it will initiate a brief audio recording and transmit that recorded message to the vendors for voice recognition processing.

Integration with Virtual Assistants | Google Home/ Assistant

To enable Google Home integration please use the following instruction:

1. Install Google Home application form Google Play or App Store.
2. If you use iOS devices, please also install the Google Assistant application.
3. If you use Android, please make sure that Google Assistant is enabled.
4. Open Google Home app, then click on the plus button, in the top left corner (make sure you are logged in with the account that you sent us).
5. Then click on “Set up device” then “Works with Google”.
6. Search for “Alea Air”.
7. Next click on Alea Air action to enable it.
8. Then enter the credentials of your Alea Air account on this page.

9. After you’ve successfully logged in, click on “Allow” to give Google Home access to your Alea Labs account, and wait for the setup to complete. This step completes the Google Home setup instructions.

Google Home/ Assistant Commands

Now you can issue the following commands:

• Open vents ("Open [room name]")
• Close vents ("Close [room name]")
• Set a custom louver position ("Open [vent name] to 50 percent")
• Query the room temperature ("What is the temperature of the [room name]?")
• Hold room temperature ("Set [room name] to 22 degrees")
• You can also issue batch commands, for example:

1. "Set the home temperature to 23".
2. "Close/open all vents".

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Integration with Virtual Assistants | Amazon Alexa

To get started, enable the Alea Air Alexa skill then sign in with your Alea Labs account. You must have a registered account with Alea Labs and Alea Labs Smart Vents. You can register an account using the Alea Air app available in the App Store or Google Play. Before you are able to use Alexa you need to configure your vents within the Alea Air app.

1. Install the “Amazon Alexa” from app store
2. Open the app and go to the menu then select “Skills & Games” item
3. Search for “Alea Air” and select it.
4. Click on “Enable to Use” to enable the Alea Air skill.
5. After clicking on the enable button, the Alexa app will redirect you to our authentication page. Enter credentials of your Alea account (not necessarily the same as your Alexa account).
6. Authorize Alexa to access the API of Alea Labs on your behalf by clicking on the “Allow” button.

Alexa Commands

Controlling Vents

• Hold temperature

• For example, "Alexa, set 'vent name' to 24"
• For example, "Alexa, set the temperature of vent name' to 24"

• Adjust target temperature

• For example, "Alexa, make 'vent name' warmer"
• For example, "Alexa, make 'vent name' cooler"

• Set room to Auto mode

• For example, "Alexa, set ‘vent name’ to automatic mode"

• Query target temperature

• For example, "Alexa, what is the target temperature of ‘vent name’?"

• Query current temperature

• For example, "Alexa, what is the current temperature of ‘vent name’?"

• Override louver position

• For example, "Alexa, set the 'vent name' to 70"
• For example, "Alexa, set 'vent name' louver to 70"

• Adjust louver position

• For example, "Alexa, increase/raise 'vent name' louver"
• For example, "Alexa, increase/raise 'vent name' louver by 20"
• For example, "Alexa, decrease/lower 'vent name' louver"
• For example, "Alexa, decrease/lower 'vent name' louver by 20"

• Close/open vent

• For example, "Alexa, close 'vent name' "
• For example, "Alexa, open 'vent name' "

• Query louver status

• For example, "Alexa, what is the status of 'vent name'?"

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