At the 4th Annual HVACR Training Symposium, Bert catches up with Josh Teekell, the CEO of SmartAC.com, to talk about Smart Maintenance and the company’s low-fault fault detection platform for residential A/C. SmartAC.com is the symposium’s food and beverage sponsor.
The program comes with magnetic sensors that are deployed in the supply vent, return vent, and evaporator drain pan. These leads measure the delta T between supply and return, and it measures the condensate to determine the health of the system. This technology can be used to sell maintenance agreements and make them more efficient, which can strengthen customer relationships.
The SmartAC.com system allows technicians to analyze data in real-time and contact customers when something goes wrong, allowing them to take a proactive approach. It also allows them to predict problems, especially outside of peak failure times.
SmartAC.com has been endorsed by Jim Bergmann. Jim has recently been integrating the SmartAC.com software with measureQuick, which allows technicians to show the customers the performance data and educate them about why it matters, which also builds trust and relationships.
SmartAC.com’s program allows HVAC/R technicians (partners) and customers to view an app and watch the performance data. When issues arise, the app offers leads and allows technicians to make the first move if a notification looks concerning; it also gives the customers confidence in the technician’s judgment, as they will be able to see the performance.
Learn more at https://smartac.com/.
Learn more about the 4th Annual HVACR Training Symposium at https://hvacrschool.com/symposium.
Read all the tech tips, take the quizzes, and find our handy calculators at https://www.hvacrschool.com/.
The program comes with magnetic sensors that are deployed in the supply vent, return vent, and evaporator drain pan. These leads measure the delta T between supply and return, and it measures the condensate to determine the health of the system. This technology can be used to sell maintenance agreements and make them more efficient, which can strengthen customer relationships.
The SmartAC.com system allows technicians to analyze data in real-time and contact customers when something goes wrong, allowing them to take a proactive approach. It also allows them to predict problems, especially outside of peak failure times.
SmartAC.com has been endorsed by Jim Bergmann. Jim has recently been integrating the SmartAC.com software with measureQuick, which allows technicians to show the customers the performance data and educate them about why it matters, which also builds trust and relationships.
SmartAC.com’s program allows HVAC/R technicians (partners) and customers to view an app and watch the performance data. When issues arise, the app offers leads and allows technicians to make the first move if a notification looks concerning; it also gives the customers confidence in the technician’s judgment, as they will be able to see the performance.
Learn more at https://smartac.com/.
Learn more about the 4th Annual HVACR Training Symposium at https://hvacrschool.com/symposium.
Read all the tech tips, take the quizzes, and find our handy calculators at https://www.hvacrschool.com/.
Guys, you're not here. but I'm showing you what we have here. This is the fourth annual Symposium We're back at another table, a sponsor that has come to actually help out and help bring education to all the technicians who have shown up. and I just want to give you a little time to talk about what you have, what you have to offer to the industry, and why why you're here? Uh, what do you got? What do you got? Great Yeah! So I'm the CEO of Smartac.com and we make a really simple low-cost fault detection platform for residential air conditioning.
Okay, so the sensors are really easy to deploy, one on the supply vent, one on the return vent, one in the evaporator pan. Just understand the health of the system for everything cooling and heating. So that's the what the why is why in the world are you here at a symposium in Florida Well, there's a lot of people here are trying to find out how to, uh, how understanding health of systems and diagnosing and fault detection and how that works can impact the business. Yeah, and of course we're We're very focused on on on that as well, so mostly around how to use this technology to bolster selling maintenance agreements, understanding how to make them more efficient.
Okay, potentially using monitoring only as a solution when customers say no to maintenance to still kind of have the eyeballs and the relationship. So everything we we focus on is how can we use a new technology at a low cost point to be able to help people acquire and retain more customer relationships? So you said low cost and easy installation? Show me the installation. Uh yeah. so so there's a couple of accessories just in case.
It isn't as simple as this with magnets, but many applications is just as simple as putting the uh putting the magnet sensor on there. So that's the Comfort sensor that helps with boom. Yeah, it's super super easy. Love it.
And then one goes in the return vent. So that's our filter sensor and so that kind of gives us the vent event Delta T Okay, yeah, um and those are the same place that uh, the probes go for measure Quick. Really important to understand the how the system is heating or Cooling um and you get both. Obviously with those locations.
Um, the filter sensor is dry bulb temperature? Yeah, correct. So we'll see. And also, you're getting pressure. um as well.
So we actually see the change in pressure through the filter over time. Okay, so we give the homeowner a percentage read out of the air filter. Okay, um, people don't Really, they're not a profit Center usually. But if you can get a homeowner to utilize the software and the platform for that, then you're more likely to make sure your your logo is in front of them in that app.
Right. Month and month out. Sure. So we send monthly reports of the health of the system to the homeowner with some high level information and again, the partners brand run Center And then the last sensor is the water sensor that goes in the drain pan. Okay, we actually have a riser, so if it ever does get water, it won't Uh, flood the sensor. So you put it like this, you got some sensing at the bottom. Okay, um, and that's kind of just uh, how that works. Oh yeah, all right.
Yep, that's it. Yep, so um, and so really. the the beauty of it though is that you get a dashboard where you can see all all of that information in real time. right? So yeah, not real.
I Mean usually our partners will geek out for like a few weeks and look at all the metrics of every cycle of the first 10 homes they put out. Sure. But eventually they're just going to live in that leads area where we have a regression analysis, you know, machine learning model. We also created all this.
uh, the data signatures in a psychometric chamber with intertek. so we had multiple things looking at the data in real time to understand when something goes wrong. Okay, and then we floated to the top in the dashboard. When we see that, Nice.
And then it's a different approach to the homeowner, right? You call and say, hey, We put these sensors in a couple years ago and we haven't reached out because everything's been fine. Yeah, but yesterday your performance dropped off a cliff and today it got worse, right? right? So how would you like us to? This is the person to handle this? Yeah, exactly right. So it's a different proactive approach. Sure, you know, hoping to eliminate the outage completely right and make sure that you are handling it maybe in an off-beak time so that you can be taking new customers in those peak days.
Nice. Okay, so talk to me about what you were saying about maintenance contracts like this: being a a sell. If I'm a contractor, how can this be a good idea for my business? Yeah, so that's really where I live usually is. I get involved with the with our partners to help them grow their maintenance.
Uh, businesses. So so three ways that people use this. Uh, the main three ways. Number one: take your existing plans and make them better and more attractive sexier, right? So take a two visit plan, add this on, and have it be a Premium plan, right? A lot of our partners are leaning into understanding that if they can see the health of the system 365 days? yeah, they don't really have to be there twice a year, right? Okay, and so you know, Jim's a big proponent of that as well.
But but going once a year to do everything you need to do to keep the warranty intact Yeah, and then watch it the other 364 days, right? Yeah, and then a lot of people say no to maintenance. And when they do, having a very low cost monitoring only option allows you to get that main value which is just being the company of Records. So talk about low cost. What? What's the cost for this? Yeah.
So so when four years ago we started working on this, we interviewed all the companies that had used the other products in the market, right? Okay, and we said, look, you've deployed a dozen, you've deployed 50, right? Why are you not doing more And everyone, everyone said it costs too much, right? and it takes too long to install? Yeah. And so we set out to solve those two issues, right? So I can do it the physical installation and it's five minutes? Yeah, right. And then you put it online. So maybe 10 total. Yep, and then the cost wise. we we race to the bottom right. So it's it's zero for hardware at 10 bucks a month for the service. Okay, so the hardware is included, an ongoing warranty on the hardware, everything for 10 bucks a month.
and there's a two-year commitment because of course, there has to be some things. Sure, we're giving all the hardware away effectively. Um, but 10 bucks a month and that allows you to bundle it into your plan, sell smart maintenance with one visit? Maybe do monitoring only. We're seeing a lot of people subsidize it into homes, especially when they have older equipment.
Yeah, I mean if I told you you could spend 480 over four years on an eight-year-old system to be standing there to sell it when it was 12 years old, That pencils right. If you're gonna pay 300 bucks for a lead, you're just paying 480 for a swing at a replacement Is is a good connects us permanently without a customer. That's it. Okay, and so the batteries last a year year and a half.
We're improving that with the firmware now, but we also have a long life battery pack that will be about six or seven years. Okay, so if you decide to use monitoring only, you don't have to go back for Batteries The homeowners have to worry about it. So the goal everything we do is, how do we help our partners require more relationships? Yeah, and then maintain them as efficient as possible and then put them in that position to sell that big ticket item. Which is what? Butters the bread of the entire industry, right? So so speaking of relationships, I've heard that you and Jim talking about Jim was talking about this too.
You guys are just working together figuring yeah, So we we first showed this to Jim uh, about a year ago. Uh, he's obviously big into data and we print the burger man just in case. I'm pretty sure you guys know who I'm talking about. Maybe.
But yeah, if he's approving of this I mean that's a pretty big sell. But yeah, I mean we were really excited to hear that that the the the thesis we had about just enough data. like what's not not what data can we get, but what data must we get to accomplish this business objective? Sure. And that boiled down to these sensors and we thought we had that right.
but it was really exciting to hear that. Jim Agreed, Yeah, and those are the points of comfort for a homeowner. That's it. That's it.
it's all. Not only is it the best way to understand the work being done by the system, it's the thing the homeowner understands the most, right? So see that little sensor up there when that temperature changes? We'll know, right? So it's really it ties in well with the adoption of the homeowners because they can relate to that. Being able to sell that is going to be really easy. Yeah, so we're excited. We just finished the integration with uh, measurequick, uh, fully. So as you're going through that that process, you can onboard customers with our product as well. The sensors go in the same places where the probes go, so it really works well. And obviously Jim's been really big about uh commissioning with measure quick and then.
But but the base system upright but baselining only has value if you can compare to the Baseline right? And so being able to compare to it when you're there once a year is one thing the only compared to a 365. right has a lot more value. Yeah, and being proactive, right? So sure. I Love it.
That's pretty exciting. Yeah, thanks. yeah. The first thing I noticed was just how simple it is to install.
But then how simple the concept is too. So I can sell this? and uh, really? what you said about only watching the bare minimum? Yeah, like there's less that can go wrong in this process. If you have tons of sensors all over, you could have sensor failures. You could have other stuff going on with some of the other monitoring equipment.
which is great to have all those points of data if that's what you need on a piece of equipment. But for your average customer and their home? Yeah, and upgrading. Maybe their maintenance plan or downgrading to only this something like that? Yeah, the main thing you need is adoption, right? It doesn't matter how good the product is, sure if you can't get it in homes, right? Yeah. So we started with what do we have to do to let people deploy this scale? Yeah, and then with that amount like what? what can we go, get enough of the data to accomplish the business objective, right? Yeah, but it really is as much of a sales product in the customer acquisition product as a data product.
It does both right. But I You know our team. We have half of our team. focused on making the thing great with the data, and then we have the other side helping our partners grow their businesses by utilizing it right? So two very different things both important to uh to the growth.
So then, uh, what happens is you have a an app or an account and you get alerts or notifications when there's problems. So the homeowner has an app where they can see some high level stuff. filters, filter, water, leaks, things like that. Okay, But then the dashboard gives our partners, uh, everything in the dashboard right? Okay, so you can dive into the metrics of every single cycle all year long.
whatever you want. Usually what happens is you geek out for a few weeks and then you just live in the leads area. Sure. And so you see a lead pop to the pop to the top. You click on it, you look at the data. Oh yeah, that's definitely. You know, the splits down eight degrees, right? Yeah. And and it was 80 is different at 85 degrees last week versus today, right? right? And maybe you snooze it for a day and you come back tomorrow and say, oh, it's still that bad.
Okay, let me call. Ms Jones right? Yeah. So we give you all that information that you need in the dashboard to be able to be confident to pick up the phone. Yeah, right.
And then Miss Jones can actually look at it in an app. It's like oh, that is bad. come on out right? So like, Okay, right? And so we try to eliminate that with the with the visibility. That's great I Love it.
Cool. Well uh thanks for showing up and helping be a part of this event. Put it on! I mean hopefully you get something back out of all this but it's been great. Yeah it's been great.
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Thanks again for watching foreign.
For those of you who have not been to the symposium, i truly believe this is the most knowledgeable, talented, and hungry group of the best trainers, techs, installers, service managers, contractors, and engineers in the entire industry that teaches at and attends this event.
If you don’t believe me, let me explain it this way, i am a tech from San Antonio, i have voluntarily almost entirely on my own dime have attended this event last year and this year, and i fully intend to attend again next year.
As Trevor Matthews is always saying INVEST IN YOURSELF, this is probably the single best investment that you could make in yourself is you are in HVACR and in the field at any level
It seriously bewilders me how Brian Orr, Jim Bergmann, and other key members of this organization have such an insanely high quality and fascinating list of classes every year.
Nice, wireless, using the customer internet. I guess some of the inconvenience will be if customer change service o password you get notification of service offline?
So glad to finally make it down for the symposium. It’s been awesome so far
And a lot of people want to do that anyway because the internet exception and all that s*** and power surges and now they're going grain and all this other dumb s*** so to be a waste of time maybe for like big companies or something but houses and s*** no Service area Ottawa??
I saw Housh!
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