September 2013 • 17
HVAC Controls
Demand Shifts to Connectivity
Honeywell helps contractors stay ahead of the curve
By John MacKenna
HOMEOWNERS’ EXPECTATIONS FOR THEIR
heating and cooling controls are changing
rapidly, and contractors need to stay ahead of
the curve, according to Rich Simons, Business
Director of Residential Oil Hydronics Auto-
mation & Control Software at Honeywell.
While some homeowners remain con-
tent to control their home comfort with a
traditional wall-mounted thermostat, many
others are looking for greater flexibility in
the form of smartphone-based controls,
according to Simons. “Not every customer
wants that kind of connectivity, but many
do. This is where the trend is. More and
more things are connected, and people like
being connected,” he said.
NEW CAPABILITIES
Honeywell has installed connectivity
throughout its thermostat and control
lines. The company’s Wireless Outdoor
Sensor can relay outdoor temperature and
humidity to the thermostat, and the data is
used to control the indoor comfort based on
the outdoor conditions. A Wireless Indoor
Air Sensor allows the homeowner to place
up to six sensors throughout the home to
sense temperature and/or humidity. “These
sensors are an unobtrusive replacement
for a thermostat in a zoned environment,
or to provide sensing capabilities in less
frequently used spaces like attics or crawl
spaces where humidity can be an issue,”
said Steve Weick, Channel Marketing
Manager for Honeywell Environmental &
Combustion Controls.
Some thermostat models connect to
Honeywell’s handheld Portable Comfort
Control (PCC), which can be taken
anywhere in the home to control the HVAC
system remotely, or it can “sense from
here.” “In an un-zoned home, the home-
owner can take the PCC into the basement,
choose to sense temperature from the PCC,
and the HVAC system will run to get the
home to that set point,” Weick explained.
“Also, RedLINK-enabled products such
as TrueSTEAM, and our Zoning products
can be controlled and monitored through
the thermostat. And when an Internet
Gateway is used, the entire system and all
of the accessories can be viewed remotely
through the web or conveniently through
Honeywell’s free apps.”
Wherever there is a thermostat (or
sensor) that is connected through the Internet
Gateway, the homeowner can continuously
view, monitor and adjust their home condi-
tions through the web or app, he added.
A SHIFTING MARKET
Simons said the consumer connectivity
trend is undeniable, with 80 percent of
Americans expected to have smartphones
by the end of 2015, up from 50 percent as
recently as 2011. “Look at howmany people
have smartphones and how many are acti-
vated every day,” he said. “Your chances of
selling to someone who wants to do more
with their smartphone go up every day.”
If contractors don’t fulfill that demand,
people will go to other trades or find some
other way of filling that demand, Simons
said. “It’s important to understand that
customers are not going to wait for them.
There are too many channels marketing
this these days.”
Comcast and AT&T are among the new
non-traditional competitors installing con-
nected thermostats. “You can’t just say you
don’t want to do it, because these people
are going to take business away from you,”
Simons said. “I don’t think people want the
cable guy installing their thermostat, but if
the heating guy doesn’t offer [to install a
connected thermostat], they will have the
cable guy do it.”
SERVICE CONTRACT INCENTIVE
Contractors can use expertise in con-
nectivity to grow their businesses, and
Honeywell is ready to help. The company
has developed a program that enables
contractors to include Honeywell con-
nectivity services in a service contract.
“When you install the equipment, it allows
the homeowner to be connected,” Simons
explained. “They have an option to enable
the contractor to monitor their equipment,
and the contractor can charge a monthly
fee. It’s another opportunity for contractors
to make money off their base and to stay
close to their customer and not lose them
to another contractor.”
Connectivity can also make the service
contract more attractive. “It’s challenging
selling service contracts, because they are
insurance, and they are boring,” Simons said.
“This way it’s not just an insurance policy; it
also gives them a portal to their home com-
fort that they can use from anywhere.”
Being able to check on heating and
cooling while away from home can be very
pleasing, and different customers have dif-
ferent reasons for doing so. “If you look at
your mobile app and see that the tempera-
ture is where it should be, it says that a lot of
things are going right in your home,” Simons
added. “There is also the practical aspect
of being able to save energy by turning the
temperature up or down from anywhere.”
PREDICTABLE INSTALLATION
Contractors can also improve the bottom
line by offering wireless controls within
the HVAC system, such as Honeywell’s
Wireless AquaReset Kit, an outdoor reset
solution that communicates wirelessly via
Honeywell’s RedLINK technology.
Adding wireless controls to their toolkit
helps customers win jobs and improve prof-
itability, Simons said, because they require
no wiring and drilling for wires, so installa-
tion time is more predictable. That allows
contractors to quote installations accurately
without risk of a cost overrun.
Honeywell’s RedLINK offers “bullet-
proof” performance, according to Simons.
“Having no callbacks is critical and making
sure the controls work is critical,” he said.
A RedLINK wireless signal also can travel
through common building materials such
as concrete and metal that would normally
stifle a Wi-Fi signal.
Honeywell HVAC controls can work
with some major home automation sys-
tems, but Simons believes that the only
centralized control that really matters going
forward is the smartphone. “The cloud
becomes the place where home automation
occurs,” he said.
Honeywell supports contractors with
online training courses and live e-Learning
webcasts that are hosted once per quarter.
For more information, visit
-
thinking.honeywell.com.
