Vendor Relationships: HVAC

When working on a luxury full home automation project, it is of the utmost importance that integration professionals take a holistic view of the job site. Crestron control systems, by their nature, connect directly to every part of the home, which is why working closely with other vendors on a project is vital to our success, as well as the end user experience. We recently began highlighting how we work on site with specific types of vendors to ensure our clients experience white-glove level service during all parts of the installation process.

In the previous entry in this series we covered our relationship with landscape professionals. Today we continue by discussing how we elevate the vendors for one of the most critical systems in the home: HVAC.

Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, shortened to HVAC, is the technology of indoor environmental comfort. The goal of a full home HVAC system is to provide comfort and acceptable indoor air quality throughout a home or office. To integrate these comfort systems into the automation system at large, we connect thermostats directly into standard residential HVAC systems using industry standard wiring, and back to a Crestron control system processor for integrated control. The control system automatically adjusts temperature settings, based on multiple factors, to provide complete comfort to the home’s residents without the end user having to lift a finger.

Due to the specialized nature of their work, it is unlikely that even a high end HVAC professional will have much experiencing handling the nuance that goes into proper Crestron automation. Since the systems connect directly to one another through the standard thermostat wiring, we make sure to work with the vendors to acquire appropriate documentation of the existing HVAC system. Part of this is working with the vendor to replace any wiring or terminations that could create a failure point in the control system. Additionally we make sure to educate the vendors on how the complete home environmental ecosystem does not end with HVAC, and extends to lighting, shades, and security devices.

Proper integration into the HVAC system is critical to the our success as luxury integrators, as we strive to build automation systems that bring comfort and simplicity to our client’s otherwise very hectic lives. The fact of the matter is, that no matter who installed or serviced the HVAC system in the past, a professional integrator like GMI and the #DoneRightNotEasy crew needs to take ownership of everything their system touches. If something in the connected HVAC system were to malfunction, the automation system will oftentimes be blamed, making it even more critical for everyone to be on the same page throughout the full cycle of the project.

This is just one of the many ways we create value for our clients, by integrating not only the physical systems of their home together in a simple and reliable way, but also by integrating our experience and knowledge into every system we touch. Ensuring that our fellow vendors on every project are working to our level is an integral part of providing concierge level service to our end users.