Smart Thermostats Enterprise

Indeed, smart thermostats manufactured by Ecobee are able to operate seamlessly with a variety of commercial <a class="wpil_keyword_link" href="https://hvaclasvegas.net/hvac-enterprise/heating-enterprise/" title="heating" data-wpil-keyword-link="linked" data-wpil-monitor-id="464">heating</a>, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Ecobee offers several solutions tailored for commercial and large-scale HVAC applications. These systems are as handy in an enterprise environment as they are in residential settings and can offer energy savings, as well as remote access and management capabilities.

Smart thermostats in an enterprise setting have some notable downsides. Initially, they can be quite costly compared to "dumb" thermostats, and installation could likely require a professional for all but the simplest scenarios. There are privacy and security concerns, given that these devices are almost constantly "on" and virtually all the data they collect could be of interest to someone, if not the company, then hackers, foreign governments, or a host of other characters. Having the data and the collecting infrastructure gives someone a big leg up in the old intelligence game. Moreover, if you and your workforce don't mesh well with a learning thermostat, what you save in energy could easily be offset by the increased gains in temperature discomfort for your employees.

First, assess whether your HVAC system can work with a smart thermostat. This is primarily a compatibility test. You want to ensure that the smart thermostat will function with the voltage and type of connection your HVAC system uses. Most residential and light commercial HVAC systems operate on low-voltage (24V) connections. Determine the type of low-voltage connection your HVAC system uses. There are a couple of decent ways to do this. One is to use the think method described later; first, think through the system you have, what kind of smart stuff it ought to be able to work with, and what kinds of not-so-smart stuff it shouldn't be able to work with.

Indeed, renters can find smart thermostats to be friendly for their situation because so many of these devices are designed for simple, uncomplicated installation. Even more so, if the renter has an existing HVAC system, this opens up an even wider range of compatibility with smart thermostat devices. And if all of that weren't enough, smart thermostats themselves are extremely energy-efficient—which is a feature that potential landlords may also appreciate. But with all of that said, getting a smart thermostat remains something of a gray area for renters unless you're given the explicit ok from your landlord to go ahead with the installation.

The most significant divide between thermostats intended for home use and those intended for commercial use is in their sheer scale and feature set to accommodate entirely different environments—something a mere handful of features tends to oversimplify. While home thermostats have become smart in their own right, largely to offer energy savings and even more largely just to be "smart," commercial thermostats space themselves in an entirely different level of interaction.These are sophisticated devices intended for use in sophisticated and often large-scale (both in footprint and in user base) scenarios. They tend to interact with large and complex HVAC systems, with either the systems themselves distributed over multiple zones or an entirely different set of temperature needs across those same zones. Even a bewildering number of commercial "smart" features can become, in the end, a pretty simple means of integrating more deeply with the business ecosystem a thermostat serves.

Ecobee smart thermostats might not work with line voltage systems, like electric baseboard heaters or some air conditioning units that operate on high voltage. They're also not generally compatible with proprietary or older HVAC systems that don't use standard wiring (e.g., communicating HVAC systems). Multi-stage heating and cooling systems may also present a compatibility challenge without the appropriate equipment or adapter kits. User should assess the compatibility of their specific system before undertaking an installation.

Indeed, HVAC systems in the commercial sector tend to diverge in several respects from those in the residential sector. For one thing, commercial systems are almost always of greater size and complexity vis-à-vis their residential counterparts. They're required to serve much larger spaces, in which occupancy can vary widely not just from hour to hour but also from day to day and season to season, not to mention all the unique operational requirements that different kinds of businesses have. Another thing that often distinguishes commercial systems is that many of them are custom-designed, to meet the performance specifications demanded by all kinds of architectural challenges, not to mention the kinds of industrial-grade components and features that often find their way into various business applications.

You cannot use just any thermostat with your HVAC system. You have to check that the two are compatible first. This is best done by consulting—or having your HVAC contractor consult—the installation and compatibility guides that come with your specific thermostat. Some smart thermostats are designed to work with only certain types of HVAC systems. Factors that determine whether your system and a specific thermostat will work well together include the type of HVAC system you have, whether it has stages, the kind of power it uses, and what kind of wiring (if any) it has leading to the thermostat.

The perfect thermostat setting in commercial structures is generally 68°F to 72°F during the heating season and 74°F to 78°F during the cooling season. Maintaining these temperatures makes for a snug, not to say smug, environment for any commercial building's personnel. And as for energy usage? The range above is a good start.

There are several reasons commercial HVAC systems are pricier than their residential counterparts. For one, the sheer size of a system, like say one needed for a three-story office building, will naturally necessitate stronger, more expensive parts and materials. Another reason is sheer complexity. Commercial HVAC systems must serve very diverse and often unfriendly environments; hence, they require installation, operation, and maintenance by people who really know what they're doing. Because the systems' operating costs can be so high, even if the purchase price is not, they must be properly commissioned when first installed and otherwise served well over their operational lifetimes to avoid emitting something like the paltry 94 grams of CO2 carbon dioxide equivalent that a lead-acid UPS might emit every hour.