Omar Talpur

In the U.S., smart thermostat makers market directly to end users, but, in Europe, it’s the utilities that are marketing these products.

Many thermostat manufacturers are bringing Web-connected smart thermostats to the market, to compete with the Nest Learning Thermostat. Multi-service operators (MSOs), home security monitoring services, and others are taking a different approach — using connected thermostats as part of a wider smart home system.

When Nest Labs introduced the Nest Learning Thermostat in 2011, the company awakened a dormant thermostat industry. In the prior few decades, consumers had not seen much improvement in thermostats.

Last week Ecobee Inc. announced that its new smart thermostat, the Ecobee3, will be sold at Apple Stores in the United States. This is the first Ecobee thermostat sold by Apple that is HomeKit enabled.

The Energy Efficiency Improvement Act of 2015 aims to promote benchmarking and public disclosure of energy usage for buildings. While it is presently unclear if or how the disclosure of energy usage for buildings will be accessible to the public, the HVAC industry could greatly benefit from such legislation if that is indeed the case.

While the total construction market in the United States has grown at a modest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.4 percent from 2012 to 2014, IHS found in its recent report titled the World Market for HVAC Equipment that 65.2 percent of total HVAC units sold into nonresidential buildings were retrofit sales.

Wireless sensors have become very attractive products in the HVAC controls market over the past few years as architects and building owners have begun to work more closely together in order to preserve the structure of older buildings and improve aesthetics.