Rocky Mountain Power serves the electricity needs of customers in Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming. The S4 Group is a member of their wattsmart® Business Vendor program. Part of that program includes invitations to events throughout the year. A breakfast was held on February 27th, and Stephanie attended on behalf of S4.
There were 3 guest speakers and one general session. The focus of the morning was ARCs – Advanced Rooftop Unit Controls. Rocky Mountain Power is offering significant rebate incentives to customers who upgrade their rooftop controls. The speakers gave their insights on how these controls can/should be implemented, and gave information on products available from their respective companies.
Pelican Wireless, who has a long history in the internet-enabled HVAC marketplace, presented their PEARL economizer and wireless gateway, which can connect up to 2000 Pelican devices. Economizers were touched on by all three speakers, noting that many economizers currently installed are not working properly, if at all.
TransformativeWave discussed their new Catalyst ARC technology. Kevin Hopkins stated, “If it doesn’t have a VFD, it’s not an ARC.” On the flipside, just because a system has a VFD, that doesn’t necessarily make it an ARC, either. Again, along with the importance of VFDs, economizer control was stressed as a way to improve efficiency and reduce wear on equipment.
Honeywell showcased their new LCBS Connect product, for light commercial installations. This product connects to Microsoft’s Azure cloud. This product has a build in economizer and 6 speeds of fan control.
Rocky Mountain Power is offering these ARC incentives because they have been proven to save energy, which reduces peak demand and saves on infrastructure. The three vendor speakers demonstrated the savings that can be captured through the use of VFDs and properly functioning economizers. They also added the benefits of cloud-enabled devices and the analytics their companies offer.
The sessions were a good look at what’s happening in the BAS/EMS marketplaces today, and how technology is evolving to become more efficient and more powerful.
As a final part of the event, recognition was given to wattsmart® vendor companies who were given awards in 2017. Relevant Solutions, an S4 distributor, was given the Distributor Award for Mechanical & Building Systems. Congratulations, Relevant!