Welcome to Day 2 of the AHR Expo. I decided that I was going to use Lyft this morning to get to the convention center. I just about killed my back yesterday with my backpack and I am still hurting this evening as I am writing this. I think after I talk with Jesse for our regular evening call I am going to take a Tylenol PM and just zonk myself out for the rest of the night. I am seriously hurting and it is in both shoulders right now, not just my normal right one.
Today I had a couple decent sessions and one really awful one. I hate to say this but people coming in from other countries to give major presentations to professionals, who are interested in their subjects and products really should be able to speak English somewhat fluently. The only reason I didn’t get up and leave that presentation about 1/2 way through it was that I know it would have been an insult in their culture and the last thing I want to do is insult someone for trying, but it was painful.
I spent some time on the show floor, walking around and seeing what everyone has to say about their products. In my opinion it comes down to:
1. You only need so many tools.
2. There are only so many ways to make an air handler.
3. There are only so many ways to make a water heater.
4. Etc……
Show me something exiting and new.
Also disappointing is that no one can (or will) give pricing on any product. I really wanted to see pricing on a First Co hydro-air unit, we need to replace the furnace in our house and I am debating going with a heat pump with hydronic backup heat, since our water heater/boiler has the capability to handle that. I want some pricing.
I did see what Samsung is trying to do with it’s Smarthings hub and that is somewhat exciting and something to watch. They have the potential to compete with some of the higher end products such as Control 4 and others. I have the Smarthings hub at our house. I can do just about everything with it that a $50,000.00 system can do and it cost us less than $400.00.
My first session of the day was one that really interested me, it was a discussion of how Linux and Building Automation system manufactures are beginning to work together to create an open architecture so that buildings will no longer have 100s of systems that cannot talk with each other.
The second session that I had was about CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) refrigeration. This one is going to be a really controversial issue in a few years. Imagine being the technician that has to connect gauges and other components to systems that run in excess of 1700 PSI. Our current systems run from 60 to 460 PSI (at a max). The copper will need to be infused with iron, and putting these systems together will take time and expertise. I am not sure our current generation of technicians can handle it.
The final session that I had planned on attending today was about secured wired communication in building automation systems. I really wanted to hear the reason for the wired communication and how they were getting over cable/line loss. This was my really disappointing presentation. They really should have had one of their English speaking employees give the presentation. I think there was some pride in the decision whom was presenting because it was the CEO. I know he knows his stuff, I’ve read some of his work in some trade journals, but he sure can’t give a presentation to an English speaking audience.
Anyways, I grabbed the monorail back to the MG grand and then took a Lyft back to the hotel. Turns out that was more expensive than just taking a Lyft all the way from the convention center back to the hotel. Yup, won’t do that again.
Spent close to 3 hours catching up on work stuff that had piled up. Then spent some time testing a new version of our Diagnostic Application for the Android that is in the release process. Worked pretty well, just some minor things that needed to be fixed.
Anyways, it’s time to say “Goodnight” and I will see you all tomorrow.
