IBM & Carrier in Web-Enabled Air Conditioner Deal

Ggggeo writes "IBM and Carrier Corp. announced Monday that they plan to offer Web-enabled air-conditioners in Europe this summer. Users will be able to control their units through MyAppliance.com and perform such functions as turning units off/on and setting the temperature. The unit will also be able to send errors messages and other diagagnostic info to phones and email addresses. Story at Yahoo! News. This sounds ok but two this stick out in my mind - Corporate Headquarters setting the tempature in my cubicle, and/or script kiddies 0wn1ng my office air conditioner (or should I now say freezer?)"

Comments

Re:Okay...

[Goonie]

How about (assuming mobile web access):

• Turning it on half an hour before you get home?
• Turning it off remotely when you forget to switch it off before you leave?

More broadly, this kind of home automation would be very useful for things like turning the lights on/off remotely (living in a three-story house you get very sick of walking down the stairs to turn off the light you forgot to switch off), turning down the stereo when the phone rings. I can't wait for it to finally happen. Maybe the wireless networking technologies presently being touted will be the catalyst.

Go you big red fire engine!

Greenspun was right

[Kyobu]

Although this is not a particularly unpredictable thing, Greenspun did predict it, and more to the point, explained why it would happen, about halfway down this page:

As I have hinted, I think that companies such as GE will start to put Internet interfaces into their appliances as soon as about 20 percent of American households are wired for full-time Internet, for example with cable modems (see Chapter 6). But they won't do it because they think it is cool for your GE fridge to talk to your Whirlpool dishwasher. They'll do it because it will cut the cost of tech support for them. Instead of paying someone to wait on the 800 line while you poke around with your head underneath the fridge looking for the serial number, they'll want to ping your fridge across the Internet and find out the model, its current temperature, and whether there are any compressor failures.

I think he's right.

The technology is nothing new at all...

[gtwreck]

I work for a building automation equipment manufacturer. I have developed web interfaces to such building automation equipment (even Carrier units). Every building control system manufacturer of any quality has a web-based control interface to their building control network. Some manufacturers ONLY control their equipment via the HTTP, Java, and other net protocols.

The only thing that's new here is that IBM and Carrier seem to be targeting the consumer market.

Personally I think it is only a marketing move to get IBM and Carrier names into the future home automation market. I think it is going to be 10 years or more before the average joe shmoe has any kind of control system running in his house, much less anything that he will conrol from OUTSIDE his house.

If my experience with Carrier is any indicator, this is nothing more than a packaging of Carrier's proprietary control network over an HTTP connection, something all of us building automation manufacturers have been doing for years.

Carrier's control equipment is at the bottom of the heap as far as quality and innovation goes- their HVAC units are what get them in the door. Customers use their control equipment only because they don't know any better or it came with the HVAC units for the most part.

I already do this, using X-10

[IvyMike]

Go buy yourself a bunch of X-10 parts and download MisterHouse. Assuming you've already got the Linux box and the net connection, the rest is simple.

I did this last summer, so that I could turn on my air conditioning shortly before leaving work. When I got home, it would be pleasantly cool. Since my work hours varied widely, this worked better than the timer solution.

The obvious next step, which should be easy once I get the time: use my Motorola T900 two-way pager to send myself email which turns my air conditioner on and off. Granted, this probably isn't necessary, but it sure seems neat.

Welcome to the future.

Todo LIst

[bitva]

Things to do today:

1. Apply Service Pack 10 to NT machine
2. Run "apt-get update/upgrade" on Debian machine
3. Configure kernel on PDA
4. Defrag the toaster
5. Upgrade firewall on air conditioner
6. Setup Apache on microwave.

I can see my future is gonna be a pretty tight schedule.

This is a great idea

[zaf]

As a sys admin who is currently dealing with problems with the air conditioning system for my server room, I think it would be great to have a way to monitor and tune its performance remotely.
Can't wait for this to hit the states.

I couldn't resist.

[EvlPenguin]

What happen?
Someone set us up the thermostat.
We get hot.
A.C. turn on.
(it's you!!!)
How are you gentlemen?
All your appliance are belong to us.
You are on the way to the thermostat.
(what you say?)
You have no chace of comfort make your time.
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

...move thermostat.
You know what you doing.
Move down every thermostat.
For great comfort.
--

This is great!!!

[glebite]

My wife doesn't use the internet - I'll finally have complete control over the temperature...

This is truly a good day indeed for all who argue over temperature.