White Rodgers Sensi Introduced today

Today, I traveled with the White Rodgers rep introducing their new Sensi thermostat.  It was an exciting day and here are some things we learned:

The main selling points that contractors found today was:

1 – no common wire so that install is easier than others

2 – customizable literature that allows us to put a price on a sale sheet to make it very easy for service guys to talk about this new product

3 – the app is pretty cool.  I mean, it turns red and blue when the system is heating and cooling. 

4 – its not at the box store so the contractor wont be accused of overcharging the homeowner for installing it. (this was from the contractors mouths, not ours)

5 – the hot price.  Normally $130 each would mean 6 is $780 under normal purchase.  We are giving a hot price of $600 for that same 6 lot, its almost like getting 2 completely free stats.

So, where does this leave the Honeywell Wifi, Honeywell Redlink, and Ecobee product?

In my opinion, it leaves us in a very nice spot.  I had a contractor ask me straight, you just talked up the Redlink and I put one in my own house this weekend, why are you bringing this to me?

So, my thoughts:

The Honeywell Wifi product with a 6000 series ($110), an 8000 ($150), and a 9000 ($210) fits in our offering for those guys that are Honeywell loyalists.  There are not many of them, but this offering is for them.  The difference between the Honeywell Wifi and the Sensi is that we need a common wire with the Honeywell Wifi offering and we have tiered offering, meaning we can give them a “pretty” thermostat.  Honeywell is developing a t87 style Wifi stat to round out this offering (get it, round out).

The Ecobee Smart Si and the Ecobee Smart Stat are still unique as they are offering some indoor air quality control and advanced energy savings that are not available through the competitions Wifi platforms.  And then there is the reporting that is available on the website as well the contractor portal that allows for some advanced communication from the contractor to the homeowner.  The reporting feature has been critical in finding problems within system performance in the past.  There have been multiple times this has informed the contractor and myself to what is happening and we were able to provide a solution to the homeowner at that point.  As it has always been, Ecobee will be the hardest sell in this bunch, but we have started to create some loyalty with this line as people have experienced its easy of use.

The Honeywell Redlink systems are my favorite systems as of right now.  Forget about the gateway that gives us internet access, the Redlink system is our wireless solution to all sorts of problems.  We can zone wirelessly, have a dual fuel system wirelessly (because of the wireless outdoor sensor), and my favorite of all, add wireless indoor sensors and average them together so that all the important rooms in a house can be factored into the equipment operation.  I am selling this system as a way to solve problems.  After we have solved the system problem…hey, we can add internet access to this if you would like for only a small bit more.

But there is still the nest thermostat, now owned by google, that is selling about a half a million stats a year.  And here our industry is affected by it, but we get no slice of that pie.  It goes to the homeowner for a cool $250.  We have not had a good answer for this…Until today.  Seriously, that is my opinion.  The Sensi allows our industry to compete against the nest on the price strategy alone.  While White Rodgers has been sitting back, they have not been idle.  They did a lot of research of where they needed to be.  They knew about Ecobee, they knew about Honeywell (Wifi and Redlink), and they knew about nest.  And today, they are here, ready to keep our market our market. 

Nest caught us off guard and we will need to fight back to regain our ground, but it is possible.  We offer an awesome lineup that covers everywhere from simple and sensible to prestigious.  I believe when we take this message to our customers, the message of the complete offering we have available to them, and were each one fits, we can help our contractors win.  And when they win, we win.

It is good to win.