While other aspects of the HVAC industry may have scattered focuses and are chasing a number of emerging trends, zoning knows exactly where it is headed, and that is toward the connected home. The AHR Expo in February highlighted this trend as manufacturers both big and small showcased products that could be connected to one another over a single wireless network. Thermostats and controls are at the forefront of the connected home charge, and homeowners or facility managers may now control the climates within individual rooms from a million miles away, courtesy of their mobile devices.
“There is a significant transition going on from non-connected controls to connected controls,” said Karl Mutchnik, product manager for connected home solutions, Trane. “That’s why we have both Wi-Fi and Z-Wave offerings. Wi-Fi is clearly gaining a lot of steam throughout the industry, and, I’d imagine, in the next five to 10 years, virtually anything that people can buy will have Wi-Fi controls.”