Landon Borders, Director of Connected Devices at Big Ass Solutions and Haiku Home, provides insight into several key industry trends and questions before speaking at the 2016 Smart Energy Summit, hosted by Parks Associates in Austin: 

What do you think is the most challenging issue for your company as it relates to the residential energy management market?

Although most of us can relate to the cooling effect of riding a bicycle down a hill on a hot summer day or understand that ‘heat rises’, telling the ‘smart fan’ story can be complicated to utilities and to our customers. Fans are an integral part of the home’s comfort ecosystem, but the concept of sensor-rich fans taking cues from HVAC equipment to reduce energy costs is foreign to most. To us though, it’s always front-of-mind.

What are the major challenges that your business must address in 2016? In 2020?

Our company is growing in leaps and bounds, and has been for the past several years. How do we continue to expand upon our product portfolio while continuing to solve problems for our customers and expand globally? How do we embrace a service-based business model as a company born from hardware?

What are the major barriers impacting consumer adoption of energy related products and services?

We live in the age of instant gratification. Now, more so than ever, consumers have a tendency to solve problems in ‘real time,’ especially when it comes to new DIY product purchases. The harder it is for consumers to understand or realize the value in making an investment, the less likely they are to pull the trigger. Many energy-related products and services provide value over the periods of months or years, but consumers want gratification now. It’s our responsibility to help them actively think about comfort and the insufficient offerings – like the traditional noisy, wobbling fan – that they’ve accepted as the norm. We aim to shift that paradigm every single day.

What are the biggest opportunities for the smart home industry to work with the electricity industry?

Utilities offer many incentives for load-reducing products, but we would like to see more incentives for product ecosystems. Sure, a smart thermostat can be used for peak load management or fans can be used to supplement conditioned air, but when they are all working together, the whole savings is greater than the sum of the parts.

Landon Borders will be participating on the panel session "Integrating Comprehensive Energy Management Solutions into Smart Home Systems" on Wednesday, February 24 at 10:45am. Other speakers on the session include CEIVA Energy, Icontrol Networks, SmartThings, and Lowe's Companies.

For more information on attending the Smart Energy Summit, February 22-24, visit www.ses2016.com.