Episode 1899
Breathe Easy: The Smart Home System That Cares for Your Indoor Air Quality
Join Eric as he engages with home technology inventor and expert Jim Carroll to explore the revolutionary smart home control system developed by Sendal, designed to enhance indoor air quality. This innovative solution aims to seamlessly integrate various smart devices, allowing homeowners to enjoy a healthier living environment without the hassle of managing multiple systems. Jim shares insights on the importance of active whole-house dehumidification, revealing that an astonishing 80% of U.S. households exist in climate zones where this is necessary. As they delve into the complexities of home automation, they discuss how Sendal's platform prioritizes convenience and user experience, making it accessible even for those who aren't tech-savvy. For more information about this groundbreaking technology, listeners are encouraged to visit www.sendal.io.
Jim Carroll joins Eric G. to explore the transformative potential of smart home technology, focusing particularly on indoor air quality and the integration of various smart devices. They discuss the challenges homeowners face in managing multiple independent systems, leading to confusion and inefficiency in their homes. Carroll emphasizes the importance of creating a cohesive smart home ecosystem that truly caters to the needs of the inhabitants. He introduces Sendowl, a solution designed to connect and automate smart devices in a way that promotes health and comfort. The duo highlights the alarming statistic that 80% of U.S. households reside in climate zones that require active whole-house dehumidification, pointing to a critical need for better indoor air quality management. Throughout the conversation, the emphasis remains on making technology user-friendly and meaningful, allowing homeowners to benefit from their smart devices without becoming overwhelmed by technical complexities.
Takeaways:
- Jim Carroll emphasizes the importance of indoor air quality and how it affects health.
- Sendowl's system seamlessly integrates various smart home devices to enhance user experience.
- 80% of U.S. households should consider active whole house dehumidification for better air quality.
- Most homeowners struggle with multiple smart home devices that lack cohesive communication.
- The future of smart homes lies in autonomous technology that prioritizes users' comfort and safety.
- Jim highlights the need for ventilation systems to adapt based on outdoor air quality.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Sendowl
- Monument Grills
- Carrier
- Schneider Electric
- GE
- Emporia
To get your questions answered by Eric G give us a call in the studio at 833-239-4144 24/7 and Eric G will get back to you and answer your question and you might end up in a future episode of Around the House.
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Transcript
Foreign.
Jim Carroll:It's around the house.
Eric:In today's episode, we talk with Jim Carroll and Sendowl.
Eric:Sendowl is a healthy home solution that connects your smart devices to create a home that works and adapts to your lifestyle.
Jim Carroll:Check it out.
Jim Carroll:Transition over to heat pumps, high efficiency H vac systems, right?
Eric:Oh, yeah.
Jim Carroll:Part of that process, the AC is running a lot less.
Jim Carroll:And then guess what happens now?
Jim Carroll:We've got a high humidity, right?
Jim Carroll:And then we can lead the mold, which leads to poor indoor air quality.
Jim Carroll:Right?
Jim Carroll:So it's.
Jim Carroll:I saw a stat the other day that something like 80% of U.S.
Jim Carroll:households live in climate zones that should have active whole house dehumidification.
Jim Carroll:Right?
Eric:Think about that, guys.
Eric:80%.
Jim Carroll:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:That's a big number, right?
Eric:That's a huge number.
Eric:And as we put smarter systems in, when it comes to remodeling and renovating.
Jim Carroll:Your home, there is a lot to know.
Eric:But we've got you covered.
Eric:This is around the house.
Eric:Welcome to the round the house show, the next generation of home improvement.
Eric:Thanks for joining me today.
Eric:This hour is brought to you by our friends at Monument Grills for that new barbecue.
Eric:Check them out at monument grills.
Eric:Com.
Eric:And today, guys, we are going to have a conversation with a good old friend that has spent some time with me up on the education stage.
Eric:And if I want to talk about anything smart about a smart home, this is my leading go to guy and he has got a brand new system that I'm so excited to share about.
Eric:Heck, we joked about this about a decade ago coming up with something like this and he did it.
Eric:Jim Carroll, welcome to around the house brother.
Jim Carroll:Thank you, Eric.
Jim Carroll:It's good to see you again.
Jim Carroll:Always a pleasure.
Eric:Good to see you, buddy.
Eric:I always love catching up with you at the shows and you and I up there pitching our wares up at the national association of home builders stage, technology stage.
Eric:And you've got a big history.
Eric:Let's talk about you for a minute in the smart home space of where you came from.
Eric:So that kind of explains where you're going.
Jim Carroll:All right, great.
Jim Carroll:Super.
Jim Carroll:Yeah, it's me.
Jim Carroll:And more importantly, the bigger team at Sendo.
Jim Carroll:We've been in the smart home space over 20 years.
Jim Carroll:Actually.
Jim Carroll:That's, that's not exactly.
Jim Carroll:We were in home automation.
Jim Carroll:The last 15 years has really been the smart home.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:And our previous gig, we were the first company to let you use your phone to control your house.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:Not just your thermostat, but everything in your house.
Jim Carroll:And that was the genesis of smart Home.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:We stopped talking about big, complex home automation systems and transitioned over to this world of smart devices being connected to the Internet.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:We've always focused on this human behavior and experience and aggregate everything into a single app.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:So it's.
Jim Carroll:And now we've done it again.
Jim Carroll:But this time around, we've gone beyond simple dashboarding of information and discreet off on commands.
Jim Carroll:We've really focused on an autonomous home that focuses on your health and well being while you're in your home.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:To help your home take care of you.
Eric:So smart.
Eric:If you walk into 90% of homeowners that have smart home devices in their home, they have 10 different systems going, nothing's talking to each other.
Eric:Their rice cooker is telling them what the weather is tomorrow and they don't care.
Eric:All these things that are so independent, nobody's talking to each other.
Eric:There's all this information out there and there's nothing smart about it.
Eric:But they are smart home devices.
Jim Carroll:That's right.
Jim Carroll:And what we do is, because we don't make any hardware, We're a software IoT platform.
Jim Carroll:So we look to make these things intelligent.
Jim Carroll:And the intelligence comes from the platform, aggregating together all the data it takes from the home and driving all these complex subsystems that are in your home, driving them to give you the desired outcome.
Jim Carroll:It's a.
Jim Carroll:And it's.
Jim Carroll:When we were on that panel discussion, we talked about autonomous homes and that's really what people want.
Jim Carroll:The general homeowner isn't a tech gadget guy.
Jim Carroll:They don't want to.
Jim Carroll:They're not IT people and they don't want all this stuff.
Jim Carroll:So how do we take smart home technology and make it truly meaningful to homeowners?
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:And we do that by focusing on convenience, comfort and a home that cares for you.
Jim Carroll:So it's driving to those outcomes that are important for you without you needing to be driving.
Jim Carroll:It drives itself autonomously.
Eric:Think about it.
Eric:Everybody grab your phones, take a look and see how many apps you have on there that are controlling things in your home.
Jim Carroll:Yeah, that's right.
Eric:I bet you got 5, 10, 15, right?
Eric:For a lot of people.
Jim Carroll:Oh, yeah.
Jim Carroll:Oh, easy.
Jim Carroll:Just that thinking about thermostats, your tv.
Jim Carroll:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:Washer system, washer and dryer, refrigerator, oven, they all got apps.
Jim Carroll:Everything's got its own app today.
Jim Carroll:Yeah, that's right.
Jim Carroll:That's right.
Jim Carroll:And most people don't realize just how complicated homes really are.
Jim Carroll:They're a collection of passive and active systems, some passive systems, things like the insulation that's in your home.
Jim Carroll:It creates an environment.
Jim Carroll:And then there's things that are active manually.
Jim Carroll:Doors and windows.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:We.
Jim Carroll:Most people don't appreciate when they open their window.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:The physics that's going on in their home.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:Instantaneously.
Jim Carroll:Oh, yeah, right.
Jim Carroll:The humidity coming in, pollutant coming in, good air quality going out.
Jim Carroll:All sorts of things start taking place.
Jim Carroll:And then the active systems kick in.
Jim Carroll:Your AC turns on if you open your doors and windows.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:So I gotta remember to shut that off if I'm gonna do this.
Jim Carroll:And you close the doors and windows, you gotta remember to turn it back on.
Jim Carroll:Our system manages all that in the background seamlessly for you and drives you towards those outcomes that you desire.
Eric:It's so smart and a literally smart because it's taking all this data right from around your home, compiling it.
Eric:And now you have a system that can actually help maintain your indoor air quality and keep it as good as it possibly can be.
Jim Carroll:That's right.
Jim Carroll:And better than the way the systems are designed.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:When you think about indoor air quality and we've gotten a lot of help from building science folks, the real experts in this space, there's really four pillars, if you will.
Jim Carroll:There's the big one is source pollutant, source awareness.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:And we'll touch on that in more detail.
Jim Carroll:But then the other three are humidity.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:Either the lack of.
Jim Carroll:Or the need for.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:You know too much.
Jim Carroll:The ability to filter.
Jim Carroll:Filter things that are particles, aerosols that are in the air.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:Think particle matter 2.5, which is like wildfire smoke.
Jim Carroll:But it's also.
Jim Carroll:When you burn the bacon.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:It's.
Jim Carroll:And that could create an event.
Jim Carroll:And then there's ventilation.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:The big V in H vac.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:And it's.
Jim Carroll:There's all sorts of ventilation strategies.
Jim Carroll:Those things and those.
Jim Carroll:The equipment manufacturers and the contractors look at those things in a very siloed manner.
Jim Carroll:And they talk about them as if I have ventilation, I'm going to have good indoor air quality.
Jim Carroll:And that couldn't be any farther from the truth.
Jim Carroll:Ventilation is required to get the good indoor air quality.
Jim Carroll:But ventilation in and of itself can actually bring humidity into your home, which leads to paddy air quality.
Jim Carroll:Could bring wildfire smoke into your home.
Eric:I was gonna say turn on a bath fan.
Eric: moke outside because I have a: Jim Carroll:There's this whole idea of makeup air.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:So your bath fan could be anywhere from 50 to 100 CFM, which is cubic feet per minute.
Jim Carroll:Think about 100 boxes of air, one foot by one foot, leaving your bathroom every minute.
Jim Carroll:They need to be made.
Jim Carroll:Yes.
Jim Carroll:It's pulling it in.
Jim Carroll:And if there's Wildfire smoke outside, it's going to end up inside.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Eric:That's why I don't do laundry.
Eric:Don't use a dryer at that point either because the dryer is doing the same thing.
Jim Carroll:Yeah, the exact same thing.
Jim Carroll:And our software is so intelligent that it recognizes those events and it takes steps to offset that.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:So it will actually, through a data service, see that Wildfire smoke is heading towards where you live.
Jim Carroll:It will proactively start ventilating to get as much fresh air in as possible.
Jim Carroll:And as the particle matter starts to rise, it will stop ventilating.
Eric:Wow, that is incredible because that has been one of my biggest complaints about HRVs and ERVs.
Jim Carroll:Yep.
Eric:And it's man, they are so stupid because all of a sudden they're bringing in horrible air into a cleaner air situation.
Eric:And I end up coming on my radio show in areas where I know it's happening, saying, hey, you guys in this area, turn yours off.
Eric:Set an alarm on your phone for 48 hours to come, take a look at it.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Eric:To turn it back on.
Eric:You'll never remember to turn it back on again.
Jim Carroll:Now, when we first got into this, I was building a new home and it's got an ERV in it.
Jim Carroll:It was Wildfire smoke.
Jim Carroll:My H Vac company sent me an email to unplug my erv.
Jim Carroll:They never sent me an email to plug it back in.
Eric:No.
Eric:No one's going to remember to put that thing back in.
Jim Carroll:No, not at all.
Jim Carroll:So the system will, if not totally eliminate ventilation during that period of time because we could get in a situation where we've run out of fresh air inside as well.
Jim Carroll:That the outdoor air maybe.
Jim Carroll:And.
Jim Carroll:But it's also smart enough to push you a notification to let you make that decision.
Jim Carroll:We say, hey, the outdoor air not really suitable right now, but your indoor air is pretty bad too.
Jim Carroll:Do you want us to ventilate?
Jim Carroll:And then it will also, if you've got a multi zone H Vac system, it will swap the air with different parts of the house.
Jim Carroll:It will dilute contaminants and so give your legs extend out.
Jim Carroll:How much time you can go without the ventilation running.
Eric:That is huge.
Eric:I put a system in a couple years ago.
Eric:I put a carrier infinity system in when with this house.
Eric:And it was really smart because upstairs was Always too hot all the time.
Eric:Downstairs was always colder.
Eric:So I went, okay, I'm going to make the upstairs two zones one and number two upstairs.
Eric:And it changed the whole feeling of the house just by doing.
Eric:And it was huge because I can actually defy mother Nature and make it cooler upstairs when I go to bed.
Jim Carroll:Yeah.
Eric:And then on upstairs if I want it to be.
Jim Carroll:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:So Carry is a great product.
Jim Carroll:That Infinity product line is outstanding.
Jim Carroll:We got a lot of installations out there with it.
Jim Carroll:So it's.
Jim Carroll:We're excited about products like that.
Jim Carroll:An interesting dynamic that gets created that is sometimes there's unintended consequences, right?
Eric:There always is.
Eric:What are you talking about?
Eric:One of the big always unintended consequences.
Jim Carroll:One of the big movements right now in home renovation is the transition over to heat pumps.
Jim Carroll:High efficiency H VAC systems, right?
Eric:Oh, yeah.
Jim Carroll:Part of that process, the AC is running a lot less.
Jim Carroll:And then guess what happens now?
Jim Carroll:We're going to high humidity.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:And then we can lead the mold, which leads to poor indoor air quality.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:So it's.
Jim Carroll:I saw a stat the other day that something like 80% of U.S.
Jim Carroll:households live in climate zones that should have active whole house dehumidification.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Eric:Think about that, guys.
Eric:80%.
Jim Carroll:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:That's a big number.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Eric:That's a huge number.
Eric:And as we put smarter systems in that.
Eric:And this is one of my biggest complaints with building code out there.
Eric:They are all about building quality homes.
Eric:But building code is not taking in count indoor air quality and the health of the home.
Eric:It just does it.
Jim Carroll:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:Just not at all.
Jim Carroll:Really.
Jim Carroll:Again, going through building a new home, just building it to code.
Jim Carroll:We ended up with one point.
Jim Carroll:Air changes an hour, which is a small number.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:So that you close the doors and windows.
Jim Carroll:It doesn't take long to get toxic just from normal human activity.
Jim Carroll:Just breathing, inhaling, exhaling, cooking, bathing, whatever it may be.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:And you're going to have bad indoor air quality.
Jim Carroll:It's a requirement in the state of Massachusetts to have that test done.
Jim Carroll:And they want the answer.
Jim Carroll:So you do that and the building inspector takes the answer, but then they don't do anything about it.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:The building science world says if you get less than seven air changes, you need active ventilation.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Eric:Of course you do.
Jim Carroll:You're a has.
Jim Carroll:But to say all we're going to do, this is a good thing, but then nothing.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Eric:I'm going to make my friends in Washington state that are contractors mad.
Eric:But I do like that in remodels up there, they're Forcing people to put in ERV systems.
Eric:Up in Washington state, if you do a kitchen remodel and a bath remodel or a big kitchen model, they are actually making you retrofit the house and put in ERV systems in.
Eric:They're forcing that part of the remodel.
Jim Carroll:Specifically ERVs or just ventilation.
Eric:Ventilation has been code out here forever.
Eric:If I go into a condo unit and I do a kitchen remodel, for instance, and 30 years ago that venture hood was not required, they're forcing me to figure out an answer to ventilate that kitchen.
Eric:Okay, no if ands or buts about it.
Eric:Not going to give me a building permit without it.
Eric:But up there they are requiring some kind of building science ventilation for the whole house.
Jim Carroll:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:We've seen in Arizona, we've got a number of communities we've done that.
Jim Carroll:They've gone to using a very inexpensive filtered ventilation ventilator that brings fresh air in.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:And now to get and we did some work with the EPA and actually got some of the national ventilation code change around the concept of asynchronous ventilation so we can turn on that fresh air intake.
Jim Carroll:So now we're in Phoenix doing this where they have high particle matter from both traffic in the desert, right.
Jim Carroll:Just to turn storm kicks up.
Jim Carroll:So we could filter that air, bring it in, vector the fresh air to where the source of pollution is in the house.
Jim Carroll:In other words, we see the stove turn on, push the fresh air using the thermostat control for that zone, push the fresh air to that zone.
Jim Carroll:And then we synchronize the exhaust of the bathroom fan.
Jim Carroll:100 CFM exhaust, 100 CFM coming in.
Jim Carroll:And now we've got an asynchronous balance ventilation system.
Jim Carroll:And that scenario we've saved those homes probably I think it's approaching 20% of the total energy spend.
Jim Carroll:And the homes have cleaner and or air quality because the building science says oh, based on the number of bedrooms and square footage, this is how much fresh air you need every hour.
Jim Carroll:If you set the home up like that, this ventilation would run 24 7.
Jim Carroll:So we'd see periods of time where the particle matter would go right through the roof.
Jim Carroll:VOCs would go through the roof.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:Because that hundred CFMs for the entire home by vector.
Jim Carroll:That's huge point of use if you will.
Jim Carroll:We knock down the pollutant levels quickly, reduce the amount of recovery time the AC needs to do to get the house back in temperature.
Jim Carroll:So if you're bringing 100 degrees in, reason why we do ERVs is you could temper that 100 degrees to 85 degrees.
Eric:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:Try to be at 72.
Jim Carroll:Just by running it less, we can reduce the AC run time and reduce the impact on comfort inside the home.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Eric:Makes sense.
Eric:Makes sense.
Jim Carroll:In Arizona, also worry about dryness.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:So homes all of a sudden get down to 40% relative humidity on the inside.
Eric:True.
Eric:Homes differently in Arizona, it's been shocking.
Eric:I had a buddy build a house down there.
Eric:Here.
Eric:He just moved into it a few weeks ago.
Eric:And I'm watching them do drywall inside, but they haven't put the windows in yet.
Jim Carroll:Really?
Eric:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:Wow.
Eric:New development.
Eric:And I'm like, man, one windstorm, and you got so much particulate matter in that house.
Eric:But they were literally texturing drywall.
Eric:And the stucco guys hadn't showed up yet.
Eric:And they were.
Eric:There was walls open into the garage.
Eric:There weren't doors in or anything.
Eric:And I was like, I guess the drywall dries fast.
Eric:But I was like, man, I don't know if I'd want to be trying to clean that house out with the particulate matter before I move in with that much contaminant in it.
Jim Carroll:Wow, that's interesting.
Jim Carroll:There's a builder up in Prescott, Mandalay Homes, and the largest builder of high performance homes.
Eric:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:And watching that process they go through, they were actually.
Jim Carroll:All the doors and windows had plastic over them before they were installed.
Jim Carroll:So it's some phase.
Jim Carroll:And that after it's framed and stuff and they got the outdoor sizing on, they cover up all the openings and the doors have the zipper in them and they're trying to keep everything out.
Jim Carroll:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:It's an extra step.
Jim Carroll:It's attention to detail.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Eric:And I wasn't gonna rain on his parade.
Eric:He was so proud about it.
Eric:There's 10 ounces on that street being built.
Eric:He wasn't gonna go change how the builder's doing it.
Eric:So I was just.
Eric:I just went zip, keep my mouth shut.
Eric:I was just like, wow.
Eric:At the same point, slab on grade construction.
Eric:And they were showing the.
Eric:They were showing the poor.
Eric:And they didn't even put gravel down.
Eric:They're just pouring concrete right on the dirt.
Jim Carroll:Really?
Eric:Yeah.
Eric:I was like, wow, we couldn't get away with that here.
Jim Carroll:No, I don't think they were supposed to get away with it there either.
Eric:I didn't think.
Jim Carroll:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:All right.
Jim Carroll:It's.
Jim Carroll:There's a big gap between the good intentions of code, the process that it gets implemented, and then the final inspection of it.
Jim Carroll:There's almost this cat and mouse.
Jim Carroll:See if I can get away with it.
Jim Carroll:Catch me if you can.
Eric:And the sad part is building code is the bare minimum.
Eric:This is how this is like that I got the D minus on the test, but I passed.
Jim Carroll:Graduated last in my medical class wasn't enough.
Eric:And so we need to start thinking more about that way with homes is when it comes to building code is that building code is the bare minimum.
Eric:That's the.
Eric:I didn't get an F.
Eric:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:Eric.
Jim Carroll:And we were very focused on that user experience to make this simple.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:So if a home's equipped already with ventilation the uplift to add our indoor air quality solution.
Jim Carroll:It's all do it yourself stuff.
Jim Carroll:It's if you can connect the app to a thermostat, you're fully qualified to set this up.
Jim Carroll:Right now I wouldn't go add my own ventilation.
Eric:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:I'd hire a professional.
Jim Carroll:You and I, we've been contractors.
Jim Carroll:I put additions onto my home of I'll do electrical, I'll even do some plumbing.
Jim Carroll:But I always hire a roofer.
Jim Carroll:And I would never attempt H Vac install.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Eric:But no, I, I might if I'm adding a vent or something in I might do it myself after consulting with my H Vac pros to make sure I've got things sized correctly.
Eric:But yeah, that's about it.
Eric:It's like me doing drywall in a house.
Eric:I'm not going to do drywall in a house.
Eric:I'm not crazy.
Jim Carroll:So it's the beauty of this for the do it yourself is in your audience is it's a couple of hundred dollars and a good indoor air quality sensor.
Jim Carroll:Something like air things.
Jim Carroll:We love those products.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:Consumer grade.
Jim Carroll:Do a great job.
Jim Carroll:A smart light switch outlet.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:Most states national building code says that ventilation equipment needs to be powered by a light switch that's labeled so homeowners can turn it off and on.
Jim Carroll:For the wildfire scenario.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:We have you replace that traditional light switch with a smart light switch indoor air quality and off we go.
Jim Carroll:Right now we can manage to a great outcome.
Jim Carroll:There are other things you can add to it.
Jim Carroll:You can add Sonos speakers if you want us to tell you something about the indoor air quality smart appliances.
Jim Carroll:GE's whole product line we can integrate with so we can see the stove turn on energy monitors, things like Emporia so you can layer more stuff onto this.
Jim Carroll:It enhances the experience.
Jim Carroll:But even the baseline system, a switch with indoor air quality monitor, we can take a huge step forward in improving the indoor air quality and save energy at the same time.
Eric:All right, Jim, so let's talk about how people you did there, but let's talk in the meat and potatoes of sendal and what they can do.
Eric:So if someone goes, I want to make my house smart, work together and improve and be able to manipulate my indoor air quality.
Eric:They, of course, have to get a hold of you guys to start with the system.
Eric:Right?
Jim Carroll:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:Actually, go to your favorite app store, download the app.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:The core basic functionality of the smart home, that's free.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:So the ability to add devices, turn lights off and on, play music, create scenes, that's.
Jim Carroll:You can do that just on your own as you do it yourself.
Jim Carroll:For now, there are a list of devices that we support, and it's not a huge list because we work with Iot things.
Jim Carroll:Some connected devices don't really offer the opportunity to recruit the data from them and get them to participate.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:So we work with 85% of the thermostats out there.
Jim Carroll:It's like Schneider Electric, the largest manufacturer of electrical elements.
Jim Carroll:They've got smart light switches, and they're relatively inexpensive.
Jim Carroll:Right?
Jim Carroll:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:And then you sign up for the service.
Jim Carroll:You sign up for the indoor air quality service.
Jim Carroll:We tell you what devices you need and how to set them up, and off you go.
Jim Carroll:A typical install for indoor air quality, if you've got ventilation, is like 10 to 15 minutes, what's up, and it's running, and then you'll literally set it and forget it.
Jim Carroll:It's got to be that simple.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:Again, we're targeting folks that say, I'm not a technical guru, but I want these outcomes.
Jim Carroll:And then there's also.
Jim Carroll:There's a trade channel that we have with H Vac contractors.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:So they make it part of their service plans.
Jim Carroll:They add it in if you're buying ventilation or filtration equipment, to just include it in the price, and the license will be included with that.
Jim Carroll:So there's a pro channel for it, and there's also a do it yourself channel, and we're probably pretty close to 50, 50 at this point.
Eric:Nice balance.
Jim Carroll:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:Yeah, it's.
Jim Carroll:It's.
Jim Carroll:I wish it was by design and I could take a bow.
Jim Carroll:It's just the way it's evolving.
Jim Carroll:But we have a customer here in Florida over in Tampa.
Jim Carroll:He had actually gone through several iterations of trying to find solutions.
Jim Carroll:He had upgraded his systems, the P Pumps, two systems in the home, and he got the classic mold problem.
Eric:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:So they brought in vetting, dehumidifiers so they could bring fresh air in through a venting dehumidifier.
Jim Carroll:And he tried a couple of, let me just say, more classical approaches to oh, you should run it for 30 minutes an hour whether you're home or not and all this.
Jim Carroll:And didn't have great indoor air quality outcomes.
Jim Carroll:Through that process he stumbled across us, went through the scenario I just talked about, downloaded the software, onboarded the thermostats, onboarded the light switches that were controlling the devices and presto, change out.
Jim Carroll:So he reached out all excited about this.
Jim Carroll:He actually found a solution that delivered on the promise is actually his quotes on our webpage.
Jim Carroll:Under the H VAC contractor.
Jim Carroll:There's a bunch of case studies show you the different system configurations and things like that.
Jim Carroll:Ironically, the only complaint he's had is that over the previous year it almost become a hobby of his to try to figure out how to get into air quality.
Jim Carroll:He goes, and that was your thing.
Eric:It's a rabbit hole.
Eric:Yep.
Jim Carroll:It just works.
Jim Carroll:Every time I look, it's working, it's done its thing.
Eric:You know, you guys even work with home energy monitors and things like that as well, don't you?
Jim Carroll:That's right, yeah.
Jim Carroll:We work with, we see more Emporia than anything, but we work with Emporia curb with sense, with Schneider electric solution.
Jim Carroll:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:So.
Jim Carroll:And they help inform the solution about when things are off and on, things that will contribute to poor indoor air quality.
Jim Carroll:We talked about bathroom exhaust fans, your clothes dryer.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:So we'll turn on ventilation to balance that.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:So all of a sudden, in a very managed practical manner, we're offsetting the negative impact of those things.
Jim Carroll:Same with, we work with Fin, the water management system.
Jim Carroll:So it tells us that the master shower turned on.
Jim Carroll:If you haven't turned on the exhaust vent, we'll turn it on.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:And we keep it on it.
Jim Carroll:There's a lot of more old school.
Jim Carroll:Bathroom time is 10, 20, 30 minutes.
Jim Carroll:It's going to run.
Jim Carroll:That's got no relation to how much humidity is in the space.
Eric:Especially if you're like me, we got a steam shower, right.
Jim Carroll:That's what's going on.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:So we correlate that runtime, the humidity level in the bathroom relative to the humidity of the thermostat that's associated with the bathroom.
Jim Carroll:And then when they're within a certain percent, we stop.
Eric:Oh, okay.
Eric:Let me think about this for a second.
Eric:I'm thinking about my specific case because I've me, I'm like you, I try new stuff out.
Eric:Right.
Eric:So when I put in my steam shower, I also put in the airmada shower drying system, which is that it takes air out of the home already conditioned, pulls it in and it dries all the walls, floor, ceiling.
Eric:Everything in the shower takes about 15 minutes.
Jim Carroll:Wow.
Eric:So because I didn't want to build a steam shower that's going to get moldy, right.
Eric:It's all closed up.
Eric:But what happens is hit the 20 minute button on the steam on the dryer because I want to get it really dry.
Eric:Because I just did this morning.
Eric:Walked out of my steam shower and I went, damn it, didn't turn on the bath fan.
Eric:So as soon as I open the door, it gets steamed up in there.
Eric:If I turned on the shower, theoretically it's going to go, hey, wait a minute, you don't have the bath fan on, dummy, turn that on.
Eric:And if it saw the shower turn off, in theory, you could tell it to, hey, you better turn the shower drying feature on.
Jim Carroll:Yeah, yeah, that's.
Eric:It's just a vacuum motor.
Eric:So it's just a 110 outlet.
Eric:You could almost program, do that.
Jim Carroll:That's right.
Jim Carroll:That's right.
Jim Carroll:It's a business partner and CTO Mike Silver spotted sky in the room.
Jim Carroll:I don't care who's, who else is in the room.
Eric:Nice.
Jim Carroll:He'd kill me for saying this, but I'm sure the system could do that.
Jim Carroll:We have lots of scenarios where DIY is or trades.
Jim Carroll:Folks come back to us and say, hey, I had a scenario like what you're talking about, so I faked it out.
Jim Carroll:I told it the dryer was an erv.
Jim Carroll:Or do you mean exactly.
Jim Carroll:Can you make a category that says shower dryer?
Jim Carroll:Right.
Eric:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:And it's a labeling effort.
Jim Carroll:You clone the capability and now presto, change or off it goes, right?
Eric:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:Because when you set up like a smart outlet or a smart switch, you have to tell us this is controlling the ventilation, what room it's in.
Jim Carroll:And then you like.
Jim Carroll:In that scenario, you would associate it with the thermostat.
Jim Carroll:And you do that by saying this thermostat controls the master bedroom, the master bathroom, the master closet.
Jim Carroll:And then when you say this dryer controls the master bath steam, those two things are related, Right.
Jim Carroll:So there's no concept of the user as the programmer.
Jim Carroll:It's just basic setup stuff.
Jim Carroll:Pretty simple.
Eric:Just have to think about what its use is and don't think about so much of the name, but what it.
Jim Carroll:Does and we just associate those things together.
Jim Carroll:It's really the strength of Software.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:Because it gets better over time.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:That's the promise of the IoT, is that over time you get more capabilities.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:You buy a new car and it's two years later.
Jim Carroll:As you keep current with the software updates, it's capable of more things than the day you bought it.
Jim Carroll:It's improved.
Eric:I have a Chevy Colorado that's.
Eric:The sponsors of my TV show have.
Eric:And I took it in for the update and I'm like, there's new buttons on the infotainment system.
Eric:Okay, cool.
Jim Carroll:That's right.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:So it.
Jim Carroll:What's his name?
Jim Carroll:I'm forgetting his name.
Jim Carroll:One of the famous VC guys, he said years ago, software is eating hardware.
Eric:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:And now software is eating the world.
Eric:Came out with one of their ovens and was a convection oven and they did an over the air update and they gave everybody an air fryer mode.
Jim Carroll:Yeah, that's right.
Jim Carroll:That's right.
Jim Carroll:Both my homes, I have GE products and it's just amazing.
Eric:All of a sudden they had an air fryer.
Eric:It was just a gift.
Jim Carroll:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:I saw an update the other day where the clocks will reset themselves after a power outage.
Jim Carroll:So you don't come home to the flashing 12 o'clock.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:Just set it to the right time.
Jim Carroll:Why not?
Jim Carroll:It's software.
Eric:It's software, yeah.
Eric:10 seconds to do it.
Jim Carroll:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:They.
Jim Carroll:They already made the big investment in putting the intelligence there and now they just redo the intelligence.
Jim Carroll:And it's.
Jim Carroll:It's like someone else was saying the other day, Apollo 13, when it had all those troubles, they were able to change the software and get the ship back.
Jim Carroll:It's like.
Jim Carroll:That's amazing.
Eric:It is, yeah.
Eric:Clients, manufacturers, still, most of them are not smart enough to.
Eric:When you turn on the range to tell the vent hood to turn on.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:GE does that, but.
Jim Carroll:Yeah, but I don't.
Jim Carroll:I'm not aware of anyone else does it now too.
Jim Carroll:Okay.
Eric:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:We've had a long relationship with ge.
Jim Carroll:They're.
Jim Carroll:They're Iot group, pretty smart guys.
Jim Carroll:They, they're constantly focusing on innovating.
Eric:I've always wanted.
Eric:And no one's done this yet.
Eric:It would be so simple to do.
Eric:And tell your GE guys this.
Eric:I'll let you be the channel here.
Eric:Get on the phone, tell these guys I want them to put a heat sensor in that.
Eric:So when that gets above 400 degrees or something in that hood, that turns the cooktop off.
Jim Carroll:That's interesting.
Eric:How many house fires are you gonna stop?
Eric:Right.
Jim Carroll:Yeah.
Eric:Turn the thing off, whatever that temperature is.
Eric:Really?
Eric:How easy would it to be stopped to at least slow down fires?
Eric:Just turn it off.
Eric:There's no situation that would make it worse, right?
Jim Carroll:That's right.
Jim Carroll:Because for your listeners, I guess the worst thing you do when you have a fire is have your AC run.
Eric:And don't feed it everywhere.
Jim Carroll:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:So by pulling the air out of the house, you're actually pulling fresh air across the fire, which feeds the fire.
Jim Carroll:Makes it worse.
Jim Carroll:It's interesting if there was a sensor like with our product, because we turned.
Jim Carroll:One of our safety features is we know that your stove's been on longer than it usually is at this time of day.
Jim Carroll:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:And we'll go ahead and tell you, hey, stovetop's on.
Jim Carroll:Yep.
Jim Carroll:And from that push notification, you can say, turn it off, and we can shut it off.
Jim Carroll:And we do the same thing with, like, lights.
Jim Carroll:Hey, the outdoor garage lights are on.
Jim Carroll:It's middle of the day.
Jim Carroll:Oops.
Jim Carroll:Yeah, absolutely.
Jim Carroll:Want them off.
Jim Carroll:Shut them off.
Eric:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:So, yeah, we could probably pull that off if there was a heat sensor.
Eric:Right.
Jim Carroll:That's all we need is the input from the heat sensor to go ahead and shut it off.
Jim Carroll:We have early discussions with these.
Jim Carroll:I shouldn't say who.
Jim Carroll:The smoke detectors that have indoor air quality sensors in them, and they're looking for a bridge.
Jim Carroll:The reason why they're talking to us, to the H vac system.
Jim Carroll:So when the smoke detector goes off, they want us to shut the fans off to start propagating the smoke around the house.
Jim Carroll:Nice.
Jim Carroll:So pretty straightforward.
Jim Carroll:The daunting task for them.
Jim Carroll:There's hundreds and hundreds of thermostats, and we already integrate with most of them.
Jim Carroll:So this is a quick path to an end, Right?
Eric:Exactly.
Eric:Have you seen this product that's over my shoulder here?
Eric:And all you guys on the radio and podcast, that's flame detector, really?
Eric:New product out.
Eric:And I can go across the room over here with a lighter 20ft away, flick a lighter on, and it starts screaming at me, open flame detected.
Jim Carroll:Wow.
Eric:That's around the corner, like, around my toolbox over on the other side of the garage.
Eric:And if it catches the reflection of the flame, it will tell you that.
Jim Carroll:Wow.
Eric:And it.
Eric:Push notifications to your phone and open flame detector.
Eric:I have it in here because I've got lots of tool batteries.
Jim Carroll:Oh, yeah, Yeah.
Jim Carroll:I got a man.
Eric:I want to know if it sees something in my garage.
Jim Carroll:Yeah, yeah.
Jim Carroll:So that's great.
Eric:Yeah.
Eric:Super science.
Eric:And they've got a new one coming out here soon.
Eric:That.
Eric:That will be for kitchens that Will know that.
Eric:Like what you said the cooktops.
Eric:A gas cooktop.
Eric:Okay.
Eric:I can't use that in the kitchen because I got a flame.
Eric:It'll say, it'll notice that's a gas cooktop flame.
Eric:But if it's on too long, it'll send you notifications.
Eric:Hey, do you know you got that thing still on?
Jim Carroll:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:That's interesting.
Jim Carroll:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:Like the way ours works is that it will.
Jim Carroll:Like one of my daughters was down at our Cape Cod house and she burnt her eggs and she had to get out of call.
Jim Carroll:So she just dumps them in the sink, pours herself a bowl of cereal and goes upstairs to get her on a zoom call.
Jim Carroll:Yep.
Jim Carroll:Four or five minutes later they get a notification.
Jim Carroll:We think the stovetop's been left on because when the stovetop gets used before 10 o'clock in the morning, it's on for four or five minutes at a time.
Jim Carroll:Now it's around the 15 minutes you could be making a sauce.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:But yeah.
Eric:Yeah.
Eric:Out of the ordinary.
Jim Carroll:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:Not the first thing in the morning activity typically.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:So once or twice a year you get a notice that you go, no, that's okay.
Eric:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:You're fine with that because three times a year you get the notice, you go, oh yeah, shut that off.
Jim Carroll:That's a heck of a lot more important.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:Of an indication.
Jim Carroll:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:There's just so much I'd love to learn more about that flame detector.
Jim Carroll:I want to.
Eric:I'll make the introduction to you.
Jim Carroll:That would be great.
Eric:Small company out there.
Eric:Between that and the other one that I love out there is ting fire.
Eric:I don't know if you've seen these guys.
Eric:They plug into the wall like an outlet and they monitor your entire electrical system for shorts.
Jim Carroll:Really?
Eric:All the way to the pole.
Jim Carroll:Wow.
Eric:And so I can go on my phone and see what my voltage is at the house.
Eric:And it tracks shorts.
Eric:Let's say you got the back of an outlet that's got a stab connection that's loose.
Eric:It'll find those because it acts like mini lightning sources in the electrical current.
Eric:It can see those in the electrical current.
Eric:So it's reading the frequencies and the electrical current.
Eric:And then they give you a thousand dollar insurance policy for an electrician to come out and search for it so they can figure out in their algorithms what that is.
Jim Carroll:That's really cool.
Eric:And what's cool is a lot of insurance companies like State Farm and others are giving them away because 300 bucks or whatever for them is a cheap insurance policy against an Electrical fire?
Jim Carroll:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:Oh, absolutely, absolutely.
Eric:And last time I looked and I know the numbers got to be way out of date, but it was like 50,000 houses saved from electrical fires.
Jim Carroll:That's amazing.
Jim Carroll:That's really amazing.
Eric:And they all these guys are all app based, so it'd be really super easy for you guys to.
Jim Carroll:Oh yeah, but Mike's someplace going, oh, super easy.
Jim Carroll:Mike's got to do it.
Eric:Mike's sitting here right now listening to this going, dear Lord, you were me up on this one.
Jim Carroll:Yeah, exactly.
Eric:And just reach out to me, I'll.
Jim Carroll:Get you a list.
Jim Carroll:So no, we have operate though, brother.
Eric:That's how you and I operate.
Eric:That's the fun part.
Eric:Yeah, you like to go down the rabbit holes way deep.
Jim Carroll:You can't innovate unless you separate yourself from the task of actually implementing.
Jim Carroll:Yeah.
Eric:And the funny thing is right now, I'm doing right now, and this is sad is there are so many and I'm going to say smart home.
Eric:Those were air quotes for all the radio podcast listeners out there.
Eric:Products.
Eric:I am out swapping out around my house all the test items where the companies didn't make it.
Jim Carroll:Oh, wow.
Eric:All the light switch companies that, you know, I saw at the builder show or saw these that just aren't supported anymore.
Eric:And there's a lot of these companies that have been going under.
Eric:Even brilliant went down.
Jim Carroll:Oh yeah, they don't come up.
Eric:It was a good product, but they just had a hard time marketing it.
Jim Carroll:It's creating enough value for that connected service.
Jim Carroll:When back in the day when we were doing home automation, it was really for the rich and famous.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:And the enthusiasts for the rich and famous.
Eric:Well, you created like the Mercedes Benz of home automation companies.
Eric:Jim, let's be honest, you and your team did an amazing job at that great product.
Jim Carroll:But when we went to Apple and got permission to build the first app, home app for their phone, because in the beginning with the iPhone, their vision was a curated set of apps that they would define.
Eric:Oh, they wanted it all, not just.
Jim Carroll:Every app that could be right.
Jim Carroll:So the industry was looking at a strange because these touch panels that we used to sell that were like $9,000 at 80 points margin would not be displaced by a common device you had in your phone.
Jim Carroll:We were doing that to cross the chasm to the broader market, thinking that we could have a lot more homes at various price points, not just the rich and famous.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:But the crazy phenomenon that took place was everybody decided the common everyday device needed to be on the Internet and Then when they got there, it dawned on them, boy, this is going to be expensive over time.
Jim Carroll:I sell a light switch for 100 bucks and for the next 10 years I got to do the cloud infrastructure to support it and continue to pay for that.
Jim Carroll:And there just wasn't.
Jim Carroll:And in the early days, like when Nest came out, they tried to charge you for the Internet support of it.
Eric:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:Like, I just paid $700 for a thermostat.
Jim Carroll:I could have bought a $40 thermostat that's connected.
Eric:And you're getting me how much a month?
Jim Carroll:Yeah, yeah.
Jim Carroll:Now you want me to pay on top of it.
Jim Carroll:So the business model fell apart from that perspective.
Jim Carroll:How do you give it legs?
Jim Carroll:I mentioned we're in discussion with a lighting control company, and that's part of the value that we bring to that is they've got hundreds of thousands of homes to sell our software services because we sell a subscription service.
Jim Carroll:And we found that the services are successful when we can tick the comfort, convenience and safety box.
Jim Carroll:So we call it caring.
Jim Carroll:The marketing people get involved.
Jim Carroll:Comfort, caring and convenience.
Jim Carroll:And it's as soon as you do that, people will want the service and they'll keep the service.
Jim Carroll:And most of these services pay for themselves in one form or another.
Eric:Exactly.
Jim Carroll:It's like with the indoor air quality service, it's been out there for a couple of years.
Jim Carroll:We have yet to lose an end user.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:Everyone says, are you going to measure customer churn?
Jim Carroll:We have had people that said, hey, at the end of subscription, I think I'm going to pass.
Jim Carroll:Thirty days later, their electric bill is much bigger and they see their indoor air quality is really poor.
Jim Carroll:They get right back in, right?
Jim Carroll:Absolutely.
Eric:So, you know, it's these.
Eric:And you guys are so smart, not playing in the hardware world.
Eric:Because what I'm seeing is me being the analytical type.
Eric:I always look at these hardware companies and go, where'd they screw up?
Eric:A lot of these light switch companies decided they wanted to go direct to builder, direct to consumer, but they kept the whole world of integrators out of it.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Eric:And they went all just, we're going to go retail.
Eric:We're not going to.
Eric:We're going to sell.
Eric:And like you said, they didn't think about what that infrastructure was going to cost them because they were app heavy and the apps didn't work with other people very well.
Eric:And they tried to keep it all in house.
Eric:And that's some of the biggest mistakes I've seen on the marketing side with.
Jim Carroll:These guys that's right.
Jim Carroll:And it's.
Jim Carroll:You touch on a very important point because it's also.
Jim Carroll:They think because they put it on Amazon, oh, they got it in Best Buy, that they're going to get all these homes.
Jim Carroll:Well, you're still just dealing with tech enthusiasts.
Jim Carroll:This is still beyond the typical person to go do something about it.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:To be motivated to go do something about it.
Eric:People are not going to walk in and pay 399 for a double light switch to put in one room of their house.
Jim Carroll:That's right.
Eric:They're going to go put in a dozen of them.
Eric:And that's a big investment for a retail consumer to walk in and go, we're diving in today.
Eric:They're going to go buy a new TV instead.
Jim Carroll:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:Because really, what's the upside?
Jim Carroll:And I always call it the spouse factor.
Eric:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:I can bring this stuff home.
Jim Carroll:I explained to my wife why I just spent all this money.
Jim Carroll:She goes, but you could just hit the light switch that was there and turn the light off and on.
Jim Carroll:Why do you have to.
Eric:Complicated.
Eric:I just had a light switch.
Eric:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:So you think about our business model.
Jim Carroll:You think about a thermostat.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:So we have these different services.
Jim Carroll:So indoor air quality.
Jim Carroll:We recruit the data from the thermostat, and then we also employ the thermostat to go ahead and turn on the fan mode to vector the fresh air.
Jim Carroll:Most of these smart thermostats also have motion in them.
Jim Carroll:So we've got some early features for our independent living service out there that we can alert you when grandma gets out of bed.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:So now all of a sudden it's a motion detector.
Jim Carroll:So something in the manufacturer of the thermostat did not intend to be a capability.
Jim Carroll:It's now part of an independent living service.
Jim Carroll:We have a service that when the doorbell rings at night, we'll light the pathway.
Jim Carroll:But then if a thermostat in another zone sees motion, we'll turn the light on there as well.
Jim Carroll:Because you're not going to the front door for some reason.
Jim Carroll:So this is safety in two dimensions.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:It keeps me from tripping over a piece of furniture or somebody's sneakers that are left in the hallway.
Jim Carroll:But also, if you're a bad guy, 98% of doorbell home break inside with a doorbell ring.
Jim Carroll:Now all of a sudden you ring the doorbell, master bedroom light goes on, the hallway light goes on, the living room light goes on.
Jim Carroll:And we sequence them like that, as if someone's walking, you're leaving because you don't Want to have a confrontation.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:But if there's a variation, you're going someplace else.
Jim Carroll:We'll turn that light on too, just based on the motion.
Jim Carroll:So these.
Eric:That's so smart.
Eric:I love it.
Jim Carroll:Yeah.
Jim Carroll:It's recruitability of devices capabilities.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:And when you're dealing with Iot devices, everybody stays in their lane.
Jim Carroll:In other words, thermostat companies don't want to do what we do, and we don't want to be a thermostat now.
Jim Carroll:But when you deal with connected home devices, I think that's what you were touching on.
Jim Carroll:Start talking to a light switch company and all of a sudden they start trying to build firmware that's going to try to react the way our intelligent cloud software reacts.
Jim Carroll:Guess what?
Jim Carroll:Every time you want to add a capability, they're going to download new firmware and you got to go through this whole.
Jim Carroll:That's just.
Jim Carroll:Again, it's a high friction non value add for non tech users.
Jim Carroll:They're out.
Eric:Oh, absolutely.
Jim Carroll:To say homeowner, go ahead, buy this honeywallows Echo B thermostat.
Jim Carroll:It's more expensive, but it's going to do all these other things for you.
Jim Carroll:The expectation value just grows.
Jim Carroll:We were talking about cars getting software updates.
Jim Carroll:All of a sudden, this thermostat I bought three years ago, its value is growing over time as it participates in more and more things.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:The value proposition is just.
Jim Carroll:And that's what, by focusing on comfort, convenience and caring.
Jim Carroll:If we can check those three boxes with every service, they become very sticky.
Jim Carroll:And these are things consumers want.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:They want the outcomes and they don't have to drive.
Jim Carroll:We just take care of it.
Eric:That is awesome.
Eric:Or running out of time.
Eric:Jim, I know this is you, and I can sit here and do this like a Joe Rogan podcast for three hours and I think I almost do it at times.
Eric:We'll have to have you back on and we'll talk more about this.
Eric:I wanted to get this introductory episode into this because you guys have created something innovative that I've been complaining about for a decade that didn't exist.
Jim Carroll:That's right.
Eric:Hats off, my friend.
Eric:You did it.
Jim Carroll:Thank you, Eric.
Jim Carroll:That's very kind of you to say.
Jim Carroll:I appreciate it.
Eric:So how do people find you guys and all you people out there going, I gotta have this app.
Eric:I want control of my indoor air quality and the rest of the stuff in my house.
Eric:So this makes sense to me.
Eric:How do they find you?
Jim Carroll:It's just Google Sendle IO and you're gonna find us.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:It's that's S E n D a L sendle IO and it's you go to the app store, download the app.
Jim Carroll:It all brings you to the same spot.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Jim Carroll:So it's you can start with the app, you can start with the web.
Jim Carroll:It's I appreciate it, Eric.
Jim Carroll:We'll see you at ibs.
Jim Carroll:Right.
Eric:So I won't be there, my friend.
Eric:I won't be there.
Eric:We'll catch up there like we always do.
Eric:I always catch us walking opposite directions in the hall is usually where each other.
Jim Carroll:That's right.
Jim Carroll:That's right.
Eric:Turn around and talk to each other.
Eric:Walking backwards.
Jim Carroll:That's right.
Jim Carroll:That's right.
Jim Carroll:I I know you're going to be doing podcasts from some booths.
Jim Carroll:So yep.
Jim Carroll:Swing by your booth and say hello.
Eric:Sounds good.
Eric:I will do that.
Eric:All right, my friend.
Eric:Thank you so much and have a happy holidays.
Eric:I'm Eric G.
Eric:Thanks for tuning in to around the House.
Jim Carroll:Lovers.
Jim Carroll:We're all over the radio.
Eric:Take my hand out Nowhere to go all over the radio with.