UNIQUE CHALLENGES COMMON PROBLEMS

HVAC AND HOME AUTOMATION:

UNIQUE CHALLENGES, COMMON PROBLEMS

Phil Pini, Director of Residential Sales (UK), and Dan Sanderson, Senior Business Development Manager, Residential and Hospitality, at Crestron offer some HVAC insight.

CRESTRON

In order to understand how a HVAC system fits into home automation – or presents challenges in that regard – it’s probably wise to first zoom out just a bit.

When you’re a company that’s been historically known for control systems (as Crestron is), the goal for any technology integration is the simplification of controls. ‘Less stuff on the wall’ has been the mantra. That goal, of course, becomes more and more important as we’re able to add technologies to any smart integration. To grossly oversimplify the situation, we’re able to glue a lot more things to a system.

The tension here? A lot of consultants are very traditional in their approach to smart homes: if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. With the pace of new technologies in the market, they tend to stick with older designs, forsaking the new. What then tends to happen is that the integration pathway breaks down during the design process, and one winds up with standalone systems within a building that don’t necessarily work together. These disparate systems hadn’t necessarily been looked at in the greater scheme of things. It was all done in isolation.

And all of that is certainly true for HVAC systems. These are systems that are expanding rapidly in their complexity – especially now, as issues of smart control, alternative energy sources, and sustainability come to the fore. Energy savings are quite top-of-mind in Europe, especially given the rising costs driven by rampant inflation. Net zero buildings are also becoming more prevalent, and that’s not going to change.

When a system includes solar, ground source heat pumps, gas – or a combination of all of those things and more – you’ll need a very clever ‘brain’ that exists somewhere in the plant room that’s handling all of those functions, and you’ll need to have a control system that can communicate with that brain.

That brings us to the next problem: the traditional home automation experts have backgrounds in AV/IT, and the HVAC contractors know their trade and their trade alone. They’re likely wary of dipping a toe into anything that’s referred to as ‘smart home technology.’ From the technology integrator’s perspective, they’re probably unfamiliar with BACnet, for example – why would a control company or installer concern themselves with that standard?

There are two solutions that begin to bridge the gap between the parties.

First, it’s incumbent upon control and automation companies to educate our potential partners on just what can be done and how easy these integrations have become. With most control systems, there’s a misperception among HVAC technicians (and other trades) that one needs a software engineer on site to program all of the systems properly. That’s no longer the case – integrating these systems into a platform such as the Crestron Home OS has become much simpler.

The other solution is something that’s made its debut in the UK recently: the introduction of the MSI, or Master Systems Integrator.

The MSI’s responsibility is just that: they’re seated at ‘the middle of the table’ during the design process, ensuring that all these disparate systems – including all of those that are part of modern, complex HVAC solutions like we’ve described above – are working in concert with all the other systems and controls. This individual understands everything from lighting and shading to HVAC to entire building management systems and has the ability and technical know-how to ensure there are no holes in the scope of work; that an intelligent building is working for the client, not against them.

Ultimately, it’s critical that the entire technology integration is mapped out at the very beginning of the design planning, and that’s part of the reason that an MSI is such a valuable contributor to the process. The old saying holds true, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” and that’s certainly applicable to the installation, automation, and integration of today’s complex HVAC technologies.