In my last blog entry I raved about the endicator power monitor and how it will make my life easier and that is all true. What the designers have done, unbeknownst to them, is they have made life easier for future DR too. I’ll try to explain.
Chances are if you are reading this you are either a building automation professional or my Mom (love you Pumpkin) so I can be a little snarky with this part. There is a commercial for a home security company that shows a home being blanketed in a warm blue blanket of 0s and 1s. What could be more comforting than knowing your worldly possessions are protected by technology that is older than my father (no offense Pop)? Don’t get me wrong, digital switches are a very effective and highly efficient way of detecting abnormalities and initiating alarms, but it is hardly innovative.
Innovation is used to advertise almost anything that exists. I don’t know much about marketing but I’m sure that the wheel V2.0 was depicted on a cave drawing as being so advanced that if you were still using wheel V1.9 or less you were behind the times. To get the benefits of wheel V2.0 you had to upgrade. The axle was not available as an upgrade for older versions of the wheel.
This is where the endicator power meter shines and what makes it, in my humble opinion, the most exciting product Kele has ever introduced. The endicator is ready for the next big thing you need to do with a power monitor. The endicator can be ordered with or without communications cards. Units can come from the factory with communication cards for BACnet, LON, Modbus, and N2 OR they can be added/changed in the field. Firmware updates can also be done in the field. This means that as your customer’s needs change you can upgrade them – and it doesn’t stop there. I don’t know what the next big thing will be. It might be adding internet capability or (gasp) cellular. Being able to upgrade in the future is truly innovative.
I guess to sum it up; the endicator design team has given me a gift with this product. There is not much in life that is easier than being able to say “yes” to a customer and I’ll be able to say that a lot with the endicator. This is where you come in. Where do you see power monitoring going? I’d like to know.
