Making Friends and Winning Business in the Home Automation Industry

In the HVAC industry, it pays to network, and your friendly neighborhood custom integrator is an especially valuable acquaintance. Also known as CEDIA integrators or custom electronics (CE) professionals, these service providers specialize in designing and installing complex, interconnected electronics systems – everything from private theaters to smart home control systems.

The CE and HVAC industries are becoming more intertwined. In their most recent market analysis, CEDIA, the CE industry’s leading trade organization, found that over half of CE pros in the U.S. include HVAC control in their whole-home automation projects. This trend is expected to pick up speed: Rising demand for power management solutions is driving the CE industry to include not just temperature set point control, but sophisticated HVAC system automation in their control system designs. They’ll need trusted HVAC industry partners to build these systems, and this article will equip you with the CE industry basics you need to fill that role.

The Typical CE Integration Business

Custom integration is a $29 billion industry in the United States, with an estimated 20,000 integration companies operating across the country. Whole-home integrated control is their biggest project category, accounting for 16% of industry revenue overall.

Over 80% of integrators say they have either sole discretion or “a lot of influence” on product selection. They also tend to work with clientele who can afford the very best: Nearly three-quarters of integrators serve the luxury homeowner market. The median CE project costs $15,000 for the custom electronics components and labor alone, exclusive of construction, appliance, or mechanical system costs. Over a quarter of projects – including the lion’s share of the “whole-home control” projects that involve HVAC integration, tip the scales at over $60,000.

The Power Management Push and the HVAC Opportunity

Last year, over two-thirds of integrators reported incorporating more energy management systems into their projects, and nearly 40% found themselves working on projects that incorporated battery walls, renewable energy collection, and electric vehicle charging.

That represents a massive uptick in projects focused on energy efficiency in this sector—and it just might be your foot in the door for custom integration service providers. Power management and energy efficiency are relatively new categories for most systems integrators, but such solutions are currently the industry’s hottest growth area. Integrators are looking for solutions to burnish their sustainability bona fides. And, since HVAC is usually the biggest energy consumer in the home, controlling these systems is becoming one of their core goals.

CE pros are usually familiar with the process of incorporating fan coil unit control into whole home automation. When sustainability is a core goal, however, unforeseen issues can arise. The most energy-efficient HVAC technologies available, including Inverter, VRF, and mini-split units, cannot communicate bi-directionally with the third-party control systems and smart thermostats CE pros favor. When connected to a third-party control device they stop operating at variable speeds, instead reverting to an “all or nothing” single-speed mode. This performance downgrade can consume even more power than traditional fan coil units. If the client is trying to build an all-electric system or achieve net-zero status, that inefficiency is totally unacceptable.

You could control the HVAC system separately – but in the CE world, that’s a non-starter. Intuitive, “single pane of glass” control is the industry standard. They don’t want clients to have to pick up more than one remote control in their living room, nonetheless walk to a thermostat to adjust the temperature.

Supporting the “Single Pane of Glass” Control

HVAC pros can bring powerful expertise to the table for lucrative whole-home control projects. First and foremost, of course, is the HVAC system design itself: You have the expertise to design an optimally efficient system. You should also be prepared, however, to offer solutions for how to successfully integrate HVAC units, sensors, and other devices into the home automation system.

That means maintaining familiarity with HVAC control solutions designed to bridge the gap between HVAC and IoT systems. It also means developing an awareness of the most popular smart home control solutions on the market, and knowing which HVAC controllers can integrate with which smart home platforms.

You’re no doubt familiar with popular DIY smart home ecosystems like Alexa, Google Home, or Samsung SmartThings. Compatibility with these systems, and with smart thermostats like Nest, ecobee, and Honeywell, can be very important for mid-market CE projects. However, this industry still does the bulk of its business in the luxury sector. The most specified control systems in the CE industry aren’t big tech brands like Google: They’re highly customizable specialty platforms such as Control4, Crestron, Savant, Lutron, and URC.

These home automation platforms offer their own smart thermostats, with high-end designs and luxurious finishes that blend seamlessly with the home’s other fixtures, switches, and control panels. They also offer apps that allow the homeowner to monitor and control practically any aspect of the system from anywhere in the world. The CE pro’s expectation (and their customers) is that the HVAC system’s full functionality will be available, with control capability from any system interface.

As you develop contacts in the CE industry, you’ll find that many integrators have a preferred control platform. Platform choice can still vary by project — Crestron and Savant, for instance, have particularly robust power management capabilities, while CEDIA’s data shows that Lutron is the industry-wide top choice for projects that focus on lighting and shading control. You should be prepared to offer solutions that integrate natively with your partners’ favored brands.

Becoming a Resource and a Partner

The CE industry needs HVAC expertise to deliver the efficient, sustainable systems their clients demand. You can forge strong relationships with CE pros in your area by helping them to understand the differences between types of HVAC units and system designs, and how these nuances might affect the homeowner’s experience.

You should be prepared to offer insight into how different HVAC technologies and system designs can address goals like mitigating energy consumption or reducing system noise (always a top concern in home theater environments). The CE channel’s luxury clients also tend to highly prioritize wellness: Sharing insights about how features like humidity control and air purification can enhance homeowners’ well-being could score you an invite to the next big CE project.

Of course, one of the most important things you can do is get to know the CE pros in your area personally. Many have a showroom or retail location you can visit, and CEDIA has a “find a smart home professional” tool on their website you can use to locate certified, trustworthy partners in your area. Both CE and HVAC pros stand to benefit tremendously from forging closer relationships: move your business forward by taking the first step.