Why Fi?

Why is an HVAC contractor blogging about WiFi??? Most of us would probably admit that our lives now inadvertently revolve around our computer and/or cell phone. We can’t deny the fact that electronics and the internet have changed the way we live and how we do business. It’s no surprise that most buildings HVAC systems are controlled by the click of a mouse or the swipe of a cell phone or tablet. Building automation systems are now the standard, and for tenants who occupy the space in the building and have supplemental equipment for phone rooms, MDF rooms, IDF rooms or any critical equipment rooms, access to the building control system is extremely limited if even permitted at all. Of course if your business is big enough, and your budget is too, you could install your own automation system to remotely control or monitor your supplemental HVAC equipment. But what about the smaller tenants, or small building owners who converted an old storage room into their new “server” room? Although there may only be a few individual servers or a few small server racks, it’s still critical equipment that requires 24/7 cooling. How can we monitor these rooms without the big ticket of a real controls system? If anything were to happen to the AC equipment coin these rooms it could result in huge losses for the company. If these rooms were to ever overheat our most cost effective way of notifying anyone used to be the old school dial out (which we still get calls from once in a while) the Sense-A-Phone… Well, not any more!!! Thanks to the wonderful world of WiFi, we can now offer a much cleaner and more flexible solution. Various thermostat manufactures now offer WiFi communication with the capability of alarming to email or text recipients in the event that something in the HVAC system has malfunctioned. Not only is an alarm sent, but authorized users can view a live operational status of the HVAC equipment and a real time temperature display. The alarm recipient can then decide whether it’s necessary for an HVAC service call. Simple and easy, and relatively inexpensive!

Available WiFi Thermostats: Venstar T5800/T5900, Honeywell 8000/9000, NEST

For more info or if you have any questions on the various WiFi thermostats available, please feel free to contact me!