Figure: © IoT for everyone
Smart building technology was a hot topic at 2023 AHR Expo in Atlanta. Some of the top innovators in the HVAC industry spent three days in early February exchanging ideas and showcasing the future of technology in the HVAC industry.
“The industry is changing so slowly, but technology is always changing,” said Victoria Garcia Massimo, Operations Manager at Airzone. “It’s important to bridge the gap between industry and technology so that the things we build not only work with today’s technologies, but also with the standards and protocols that will be introduced in 10 years.”
In order to move from anecdotes to data, a survey was conducted during the fair. The results are interesting. Many HVAC companies have not yet decided on their digital transformation journey—or aren’t even considering it. However, things are going well for those who are actively driving digital transformation. Some common themes emerged among those who reported fighting along the way. We will take a look at these issues and possible solutions that are presented.
“Many HVAC companies have not yet decided on their digital transformation journey—or aren’t even considering it.“
-Very technology
Key findings from the survey
#1: Supply chain issues continue
The overwhelming majority of HVAC companies surveyed during the show identified supply chain constraints as the top professional challenge their teams face in the coming year. Other key concerns include budget constraints, staffing shortages, and a lack of specialized skills.
#2: Acceptance levels vary
Respondents to the survey reported that there was varying degrees of adoption of intelligent building management or building automation technology. The good news is that the majority (~58 percent) are either currently working on it with good results or are well ahead of the curve, and only 3 percent said they are struggling with adoption. The majority of those who have taken the plunge feel good about it. However, just over 21 percent are still in the exploratory phase and 18 percent have no plans to pursue these technologies any further. This equates to almost 40 percent who have either not yet committed to a path of change or are not even considering it.
#3: Adoption faces challenges
Among the 3 percent of respondents who indicated they had difficulties with the adoption process, the top obstacles were:
- Costs
- Incompatible devices and systems
- security concerns
- Lack of internal skills
No. 4: Respondents want to know more
Regardless of where they were in this process, respondents expressed a desire to learn more about specific disciplines that play a key role in smart buildings and building automation technologies. At the top of the list were:
- AI and ML
- IoT security
- Manage and interpret data
- remote monitoring
- UI design
dealing with the challenges
Overcoming the challenges faced by the HVAC industry requires a commitment to problem solving and innovation. Here are several approaches you can use.
#1: Supply Chain Constraints: Elephant in the Room
During the peak of the pandemic, supply chain restrictions weighed on industries across the board. Shortages of spare parts and labor shortages combined to cause significant disruption to the global supply chain. Although Gartner predicts some relief In the second half of 2023, ongoing supply chain issues in the semiconductor market continue to prove a persistent thorn in the side of manufacturers. Recent challenges include geopolitical conflicts, inflationary pressures and a global economy on the brink of recession.
“Parts availability is a major challenge in the industry,” said Mike Boyd, product manager at Weil-McLain. “It’s always a struggle to get the parts these days.”
There is no magic solution to this complicated global problem. However, there are ways to mitigate the effects. Agile engineering allows both software and hardware engineers to quickly iterate and make changes to the design as needed. Hardware flexibility is especially important during supply chain disruptions as it allows a product to evolve and exist on multiple platforms. It also enables manufacturers to quickly adapt to new realities in the supply chain and maintain a steady flow of materials.
#2: Lack of specialized skills
Boyd continues, “In our industry, the old guard is aging and new people are coming. They are tech savvy but their skills are not the same as people who have been working on boilers for 30 years. We use technology to bridge this gap.”
He and numerous others recognize that developing smarter technologies is key to dealing with the loss of institutional knowledge. However, the development of these technologies is not easy. It typically requires IoT engineering – which requires unique expertise that traditional engineers and developers lack. Developing smart building technology does not require an engineer to have expertise in every part of the stack. However, She must be at least fluent in all of them. In general, a well-prepared IoT engineer will have deep expertise in one or two sub-areas and basic competency in the others. The subdomains include:
- data science
- Electrical engineering
- firmware engineering
- mechanical engineering
- software development
- UX design
When starting a smart or connected project, make sure you have real IoT engineers on board – either as collaborators or as business partners for your team. It’s critical that your engineering team understands how all of these pieces fit together to form a cohesive whole.
#3: Cost
Very
With a forecast of 575 million connected devices around the world by 2032 and revenue of $29 billion, the connected HVAC industry is expected to see significant growth. Despite the revenue opportunities, survey respondents and many of our customers report that investing to take advantage of these opportunities is challenging, especially in today’s economy.
If you are facing a complicated development process and the best way is not clear at first, an agile engineering approach is an important tool to overcome hurdles effectively and efficiently. Don’t make the mistake of investing heavily in a project plan that shows no weaknesses until you’ve made decisions that will be difficult to reverse. Instead, use agile design and development. Agile methods—including extensible, flexible code and early hardware prototypes—make it easier to uncover problems early, so you can iterate quickly and deliver business value faster.
#4: Incompatible devices/systems
Dealing with incompatibility is a complicated subject with nuances that depend on the use case. Are you building a smart HVAC product? Do you integrate building systems as part of a building automation system (BAS) project? Let’s look at some options.
Avoidance of incompatibilities during product design
The last thing you want to discover once you start building your smart HVAC product is that it doesn’t integrate with key systems. Before you start building, thorough market research is crucial to avoid incompatibilities. Dig deep during market research to determine not only what users want and need, but also what technologies you need to integrate. As a best practice, your design team conducts market research that includes engineering members who can help uncover key technical insights.
Solution of existing incompatibilities
But what if you integrate existing devices and systems? Let’s say you have a building running multiple HVAC systems that communicate using different protocols. A possible solution is to implement a protocol gateway. A protocol gateway can act as a translator between two different protocols, allowing the devices or systems to communicate with each other.
However, this solution does not work for everyone. Obstacles to using this approach include:
- A system may not have an integration path for the gateway.
- The gateway may not support all required BAS functions.
- The gateway may be using an older BACnet protocol that is not implemented by default.
Sometimes the best solution from a performance perspective is to upgrade your devices and systems – not a cheap deal. But before you take that leap or abandon integration altogether, it’s worth exploring the gateway approach.
#5: Security Concerns
With the multitude of devices and systems in commercial facilities impacting not only physical security but also professional productivity, smart building understandably raises concerns about security risks. If there was ever a situation where you absolutely do not want to learn “the hard way”, it is smart building security. Although security is not easy and can never be guaranteed to be perfect, fortunately it exists well-documented strategies to secure networked systems. It requires a comprehensive approach that spans multiple dimensions—physical devices, firmware and software, the network, and the data touchpoints.
The path to innovation & value
Smart building technology represents an immense opportunity for the HVAC industry. But for many, the path to realizing this value is elusive.
Raw poll results
The survey was conducted in February 2023 on AHR Expo. A must-attend event for HVAC professionals, AHR Expo attracts the industry’s most inclusive gathering from around the world each year.
