[googlryas]

Right, with the smart dampers I dream of they would just be placed as register covers throughout the house, and would communicate with each other and the furnace to regulate house temp. So they would never try to close many at once, it's more like the cold room opens wide and the rest close a little bit.

[foobarian]

In my fantasies the central controller can learn how much to open each vent until each room heats up at about the same rate. Presumably that would end up with one or more vents fully open, and the more insulated rooms progressively more closed.