The climate (control) for ZigBee

IES: Why did Emerson Climate Technologies think that now is the right time to join the ZigBee Alliance as a promoter with a seat on the board of directors?

FREDRICKS: Emerson is extremely supportive of open standards. With the backing of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE), ZigBee is currently poised to become the open standard of choice for residential and light commercial energy management solutions – a space where Emerson Climate Technologies already has a very strong presence.

While it’s important to note that ZigBee has the technical capabilities to meet our solution requirements, the timing of our decision was influenced by the mass deployments of ZigBee-enabled smart meters beginning to take place in the market. This Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) network is a necessary precursor for our wireless energy management solutions.

IES: Why are you choosing ZigBee instead of another wireless sensor network technology?

FREDRICKS: ZigBee is an industry-led alliance that represents the interests of the entire energy management value chain – utilities, demand response service providers, device and chip manufacturers, software providers, and consumers. The ZigBee Smart Energy profile (see Figure 1) was designed specifically for this industry’s needs and is supported by a comprehensive certification process that delivers secure, robust, reliable plug-and-play interoperability with AMI and smart grid applications.

Figure 1: The ZigBee Smart Energy profile addresses wireless needs in private and public networks. (click graphic to zoom)

However, we are keeping our eyes open and our products modular, as the smart grid is a nascent and rapidly evolving space. We also intend to incorporate ClimateTalk (www.climatetalk.org), a common information model that extends two-way communication all the way down to the HVAC equipment level.

IES: What are the biggest problems today facing energy efficiency in your areas of emphasis – smart grid and commercial building management?

FREDRICKS: We’d like to see more interoperability across the smart grid ecosystem. Fortunately, this challenge is currently being addressed by NIST with support from the DoE. 

We are also excited to see that utilities are beginning to embrace dynamic rates as a mechanism to manage demand.  On average, this will reduce consumer energy costs while enhancing the ROI of our energy management solutions.

IES: How do you see ZigBee fitting into the solution for these problems? 

FREDRICKS: More than 30 million smart meters are planned for deployment within the next five years. NIST and the DOE have also added ZigBee’s Smart Energy to their selected list for smart grid standards. Proliferation of ZigBee-enabled meters and adoption of ZigBee Smart Energy as a smart grid standard serve as necessary precursors for vendors to begin developing interoperable energy management devices.

IES: Give us an example of how you are thinking of incorporating ZigBee technology into a system you offer.

FREDRICKS: A great example from our product line is our programmable communicating thermostat, which can listen to price signals from the utility and automatically change the temperature set point when rates increase above the consumer’s predefined preferences.

IES: What would you like to see improved in the next generation of ZigBee technology?

FREDRICKS: We’d like to see acceleration in the development of enhancements to ZigBee Smart Energy, which will further define how to manage the integration of distributed generation plug-in electric vehicles, over-the-air firmware upgradability, enhanced messaging capabilities, and more.

IES: What’s the next big trend you expect in your business, and what type of intelligent technology are you thinking of using to address it?

FREDRICKS: Low-cost/low-power wireless sensing will enable the vision of pervasive sensing – the creation of a fabric of sensors reporting a variety of variables within a system. This will allow us to run advanced diagnostic and prognostic algorithms to dramatically increase productivity and enhance efficiency across a variety of applications.

Tom Fredricks is division VP of engineering for Emerson Climate Technologies in Sidney, Ohio, where he is responsible for embedding communications and wireless technology into components used in residential HVAC systems. Tom first worked for a biomedical research division of Parker Hannifin, then came to Emerson through an acquisition in 1987 and joined the White-Rodgers Division based in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1990. He received his engineering degree from California State Polytechnic University.

Emerson Climate Technologies
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www.EmersonClimate.com