New HVAC Technology Here to Make a Change
Technology is becoming a more pivotal player in our every day lives every day. From our work to home and everywhere in between, we use tech to simplify a lot of our lives. The convenience that it has brought our lives is undeniable, and it is only a matter of time before traditional practices incorporate technology. In the HVAC industry, improved hardware has made it easier to have a healthy read of your system. For commercial purposes, unit maintenance is an integral part of upkeep and ensuring unit longevity. The quality of maintenance often separates a good HVAC contractor from a bad one. The level of detail, and level of care that they provide each unit is what leads a facility to select one contractor over another. Thoroughness of work and understanding of what to look for can extend a unit’s life up to 50%.
Reactive vs Preventative/Proactive Maintenance
High attention to detail is one of the key components of high vs low quality maintenance. A contractor with a more thorough process is certain to catch more issues with units across your business. One classic example is preventative vs reactive maintenance. Accordingly, a company with a care process designed to be preventative will get more out of the units they service. Conversely, a maintenance plan based on reactive care is essentially always working from the backfoot. With most machinery, it’s been proven that consistent care and attention to detail will ensure longevity of the unit. HVAC systems are no different, and require constant attention. Therefore, preventative maintenance typically goes further into detail and is better for the health of your unit.
Emerging Tech: Remote Monitoring
HVAC remote monitoring involves using Internet of Things (IoT) technology to oversee and manage HVAC systems from afar. Various amounts of data are collected regarding the unit’s health. From temperature, humidity, energy usage, to potential malfunctions – all metrics gathered into reporting or a central hub. Further, this data is essential to making decisions over the long term health of your machine. Although the data is provided, it is still important to have a technician to decipher what the best actionable data is.
Benefits of Remote Monitoring
Energy Efficiency – Managing times when AC is needed the most is critical to saving money down the road. Energy bills add up if each unit is mismanaged, through the course of days, months, and years. Furthermore, having a constant pulse of each unit helps identify efficiency problems early. Having the flexibility to adjust rapidly is something systems of past simply could not do.
Improved comfort – With constant monitoring of air quality, you’ll always have optimum conditions running. The advantage of technology removes the human element of needing to physically get a reading of each unit constantly. Additionally, finding variations and anomalies becomes easier.
Data-Driven Decisions – The most critical component in business decision making nowadays is having appropriate data. As systems and end user needs become more sophisticated, solutions need to match them. Having multiple plot points of data helps you tailor custom solutions without needing a technician to come out and have a meeting.
Real-Time Updates – This is what we feel is one of the biggest takeaways from remote monitoring. There is often downtime in between interactions from travel time, schedules, and needing to physically be there. Having dynamic reporting helps decision-making tremendously, related or unrelated.
HVAC for the Future
Remote monitoring is one of the first features of technology that will improve the quality of life for HVAC. Systems will only advance and become more
intricate, incorporating more data points and AI. Preventative maintenance will eventually morph into predictive maintenance and so on, so forth until the next innovation. With so opportunities for improvement the industry stands to gain a lot of efficiency.
Improved tech is designed also to integrate into other systems, adding more simplification and quality of life improvement that is always welcomed. For example, other appliances such as lights within a smart home can certainly benefit from a centralized management system. Currently there is a lot of inefficiency in the operational part of commercial HVAC. Technicians need to physically be on site, bigger time slots must be allotted, etc.
Concluding Thoughts
Systems will eventually become more universally capable of having technology like remote monitoring. Not only for the convenience it provides, but the operating efficiency for new systems is generally higher and more effective as well. We assume it will be a relatively slow adaptation into the commercial world simply due to the volume of units. Naturally, upgrading a full building would be quite expensive to utilize this tech. We do expect the gradual adaptation over time, but it will certainly take a few years. After the transition takes place, we feel that a lot of HVAC vendors will enjoy a big quality of life upgrade. In fact, we see a big uptick in productivity for the whole industry.
Simplifying the interaction between HVAC vendor and business to remote, helps create more time & opportunity for both parties. That time, any owner will tell you is extremely valuable in growing or improving a business. More sensors and components make these complicated systems even more complicated, something to be wary of. Equally important, the knowledge of the technician you are working with becomes even more important.