HVACR Industry ClimateTalk Alliance Lays Groundwork for Future
During the 2014 AHR Expo, the ClimateTalk Alliance advisory board gathered together to discuss the future of this open communications building managment protocol. ClimateTalk Chairman Craig Johnson (president of the White-Rodgers division of Emerson Climate Technologies) re-stated the organization's mission to develop and adopt open communications standards to help building operate more eficiently, comfortably, and economically and provide guidance for product/equipment manufactures as well as mechanical systems contractors and engineers.
The ClimateTalk Alliance is an organization of companies who are committed to developing a common communication infrastructure for HVAC and Smart Grid devices, enabling the interoperability of diverse systems. Members of the alliance work together to drive the future of ClimateTalk, expanding the model into other industries, making it the preferred communications model and, ultimately, the industry standard.
Johnson told the group that "there can be proprietary solutions for building owners/managers using open standards," and the products being developed under the 2.0 revisions addresses wireless issues, creation of better compliance and development tools, and fixes some bugs in the previous version of the protocol
He also said that the world was changing and the market was now poised for a growth cycle. "This opens a path for broader adoption of smarter systems paired with open standards that take into consideration remote access and demand response."
As part of this presentation, Gary Clark, senior vice president of marketing for Daikin North America, LLC presenting his company's position on using ClimateTalk not only in the new Daikin residential product line that is now being manufactured in the U.S., but also opportunities for retrofits with exisitng Goodman/Amana product lines.
Clark told the group that his company, which is "promoter member" of the alliance, has adopted ClimateTalk communicatons for three primary reasons:
- Common standard that allows more HVAC-centric development, partnershiops, and a broader "connected home" presence with protocols such as IRIS, xFinity, and ADT
- Vendor flexibility. Because ClimateTalk is IP friendly, it provides many options for control system communications
- Developer friendly.
Many questions from other members were asked of Clark during the meeting, but the one that caught everyone's attention pertained to the Google purchast of the Nest communicating thermostat. It just so happened that two representatives from Nest were in the audience and a lively discussion ensued.
Clark told the audience that from his perspective the Google purchase made things very interesting in the HVAC industry and he as looking forward to seeing what the future holds for this type of Smart technology.