Home Comfort Trends for 2017
Imagine it: you are collecting your things at work and miles away at your home, the oven turns on to cook dinner. The air conditioning system is notified and adjusts the temperature down to deliver more cool air to counteract the oven’s extra heat. When you arrive home the lights automatically turn on as you walk in, dinner is ready, and your home is at the ideal temperature.
That’s the dream! And also the type of advanced home interconnectivity that is available now and 2017 could be a pivotal year for advancements in how your home’s HVAC system functions as part of the team.
“Smart phones radically changed our lives in part because they permitted numerous apps to make our lives less challenging and richer,” said Rob Haines, Marketing Manager for Service Experts Heating & Air Conditioning. “We forecast that in 2017, developers will be centering on more new apps that allow all your home’s systems and appliances to interact versus being siloed, and this will include breakout new advancements in how your home’s heating and air conditioning system work.”
Smart thermostats and new advanced HVAC systems can already send alerts to you about energy use and regular maintenance such as air filter replacement. Future systems may even be able to recognize a potential equipment failure before it happens and notify your heating and air conditioning repair company to call you and arrange a technician’s visit. The technician will arrive with advance knowledge about the malfunction and the necessary parts to repair it.
Another work in progress is the use of infrared heat sensing inside the home that will decifer which rooms are in use by residents and actually guide heating and cooling specifically to those rooms.
“Zoned HVAC systems have been one of the fastest growing parts of the heating and cooling industry for many years, and that will remain a large opportunity,” said Haines. “Increasingly, systems will focus on heating and cooling specific regions of the home as needed to improve comfort and energy efficiency.”
And yes, Haines adds, the millennials are driving the trends for at-home connectivity and more efficient heating and cooling systems. “As millennials invest in their homes, they require their home systems like HVAC to not only do what they are told, but to track and adjust themselves and to proactively send notifications to the homeowner. We also find that the millennials and Generation X are much more sophisticated about energy efficiency and those implications of their heating and air conditioning systems.”
While February is the right time to look at trends for the year, it’s also a good time to take advantage of savings that will pay off in the future. Right now many Service Experts centers are giving free or deeply discounted equipment when you buy a qualifying item, such as a free furnace when you buy an air conditioning system. Furnace tune-ups are also deeply discounted just in time for the coldest season of the year. Call Church Services in Houston today to schedule a free in-home estimate or to set up a furnace tune up to make sure your system is ready to keep you comfortable and safe all winter long.