It’s a well-known fact that HVAC — the smart thermostat — is the first point of entry into smart-home sales. And with more than half of U.S. households predicted to own a smart speaker by 2022, according to a late 2017 study by Juniper Research, it’s a prime opportunity for HVAC contractors.

One of the most obvious effects of commercial IoT, in terms of HVAC systems, is convergence of technology: bringing different systems within the building together into one ecosystem.

It started with smart thermostats. Now, in today’s world of smartphones, smart speakers, and Wi-Fi connections in 89 percent of U.S. households (as of 2017), smart homes are expanding in scope beyond heating and cooling controls — the first major foray into the smart-home concept — as manufacturers work to keep up with customer demand for continuous connection.

Panasonic has been running field research on the soffit venting problem for well over 10 years, and this year, that research has paid off in the form of a gold-winning product in the Dealer Design Awards category for Components and Accessories: the EZ Soffit Vent.

The 2018 Dealer Design gold-winning product in the HVAC High-Efficiency Residential Equipment category, the MLZ One-Way Ceiling Cassette by Mitsubishi Electric, was designed to simplify installation and maintenance while providing homeowners with improved indoor air quality via advanced filtration, energy efficiency, and Mitsubishi Electric’s auto vane control technology that enables occupants to customize the airflow rate and direction.

Energy standards and feedback from the field were the impetus behind the Delta Breez GreenBuilder GBR80HLED by Delta Electronics, the gold-winning product in the 2018 Dealer Design Awards for the Ventilation Products category.

B&I, based in Fort Myers, Florida, is one of a growing number of contractors across the country to adopt “lean construction” techniques: a plug-and-play approach to construction that lets workers prefab a project off-site, section by section. Then, at the job site, all that remains is putting the pieces together.

It’s a dilemma many contractors and homeowners face, summer after summer … as temperatures spike, the demand for cooling relief does as well.

Once considered a temporary solution, portable heating and cooling units continue to evolve as consumer demand calls for new units and new uses.

Portable air conditioning units have come a long way in their 35-year history.