As home technology usage increases, integrators must invest in comprehensive power management solutions for their projects. The constantly evolving nature of power management to meet new demands provides excellent opportunities for integrators to expand their product offerings and ensure superior project protection. However, explaining the value of power management to clients can be challenging due to the often invisible and ever-changing nature of power quality.
To help alleviate this uncertainty, our team collaborates with integrators to enhance their portfolios with comprehensive, reliable, and scalable solutions. We encourage them to discuss power management early on in conversations with customers, as it adds value to the overall wellness of the project. Let’s delve into smart power management as a category, how it can boost your business, and why remote monitoring is a crucial feature to prioritize in your next installation.
Understanding “Clean Power”
A consistent and reliable power source is crucial for the smooth operation of smart home devices. Whether the project involves collaboration technology in the home office, a dynamic home theater setup, or full-home automation platforms, the power that flows into these electronics must be free of anomalies to prevent damage and degradation. The presence of “dirty” power caused by voltage irregularities such as spikes, sags, and surges can wreak havoc on these devices, leading to outages, interruptions, and reduced lifespan of customers’ valuable investments.
Neither customers nor integrators can afford to risk allowing dirty power in AV environments; while customers can experience downtime or lose devices entirely, the integrator can risk reputation damage if systems don’t stay up and running. Often, power is not an obvious problem until it’s already caused catastrophe. By implementing power conditioners, surge protection, and other management tools from the start, integrators can ensure a stable flow of power that regulates incoming electricity, removes distortions, and provides consistent power to all connected devices.
Designing a Smart Power Ecosystem
Contrary to popular belief, the power strips found at home improvement stores with built-in MOV surge protectors are often inadequate for today’s complex technological systems or environments, especially if they take frequent hits. Sacrificial by design, they can only handle a minor strain from power events before becoming degraded or damaged, giving a false sense of security when left in place long-term. Opting for a more robust set of solutions to provide true protection; integrators should aim to protect, backup, and justify the imperativeness of their power quality tools to protect projects and drive customer satisfaction.
While a wide variety of solutions exist, each designed to serve a specific purpose, in the case of a true outage, a solution that includes a battery backup is the only way to keep critical technologies online with virtually zero transfer time until the power returns, the generator starts, or you can safely shut down. Uninterruptable power supplies can offer a variety of power continuity and conditioning features suitable for different environments. Meanwhile, integrators should specify devices with non-sacrificial voltage regulation and true surge elimination for homes that experience frequent surges due to weather events or an unstable grid.
To determine which solutions your home needs for proper 360-degree power protection, integrators should consider including power monitoring and analytic technology in their ecosystem — both before the installation to guide specification, as well as afterward — to make continuous improvements and mitigate risk. In addition, integrators should consider how power solutions will integrate into the smart home network. Device compatibility within a smart home system is particularly valuable as it provides a comprehensive overview of the home’s power quality, potential risks, and necessary actions for integrators.
The Rising Value of Cloud-Based Connectivity
Although integrated monitoring plays a vital role in ensuring power quality success, it is important to note that just installing analytical technology alone isn’t sufficient to meet the demands of today’s more sophisticated technology setups. Integrators should also be prepared to mitigate risk proactively — and on-demand when required — to stay competitive and protect their customers’ devices long-term. The ideal power protection system prioritizes connectivity, incorporating a range of tools and software integrations that provide insights into the power entering the home and establish remote access for management. IP-connected monitoring and resolution are crucial to preserving the connected home’s value.
Related: SurgeX Debuts SurgeX Connect
Without connectivity, technicians are likely to find diagnosing and solving problems quite challenging, often attributing errors and interruptions to faults in the AV devices and networks instead of addressing the root cause. The opportunity to remotely manage and monitor your battery backup, power conditioning, and surge elimination solutions enables you to make informed decisions about system care, resolve problems before the client notices consequences, and maximize the systems’ longevity, reliability, and uptime.
Cloud-based monitoring and diagnostic solutions help identify issues, prevent shutdowns, or damage, and even help integrators anticipate power-quality problems before they can cause interruption. This feature presents a compelling case for managed service providers and integrators to expand their monitoring portfolios. Over time, remote monitoring and resolution features reduce truck rolls, maintenance costs, and downtime, saving time and money.
Act Now
Reputation is one of the most valuable assets for integrators, and a proper power foundation can help fortify and protect that asset. Due to the unseen nature of power quality, integrators should take the initiative to educate and inform clients about the importance of power management. By partnering with our team, integrators can offer comprehensive power management solutions that ensure superior project protection, increase customer satisfaction, and grow their business.
