This is cool!!
Carrier Corporation Acquires Micro Thermo; Strengthens Hvacr Controls Offering
Aug. 06, 2001
FARMINGTON, Conn. - Carrier Corporation, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation (NYSE:UTX), today announced that it has acquired Quebec, Canada-based Micro Thermo, Inc., an energy management and environmental controls systems provider for supermarkets. Founded in 1986, Micro Thermo started as a provider of intelligent electronic modules for temperature monitoring in grocery stores. In 2000, Micro Thermo launched a full line of controls products built on LonWorks technology that provides supermarket managers, owners and chains with up-to-date, complete and relevant information for decision making purposes.
Today, Micro Thermo offers supermarkets a complete alarm and monitoring system for all refrigerated cases, and integrates compressor racks, rooftop units, air handlers, fan coils, zone control units, and lighting panels with its full line of interoperable controls. Through Micro Thermo's PC-based graphics display and their distributed control system, installation and operating costs are reduced and store managers can monitor and manage the operations of their refrigeration, HVAC, and lighting equipment, and devise strategies for effective energy management.
"This acquisition enables Carrier to offer a complete range of controls products and software to satisfy the needs of food retailers with an intuitive, easy-to-use system to manage operations and develop strategies to lower costs, particularly in light of rising energy prices," said Ken Fox, vice president and general manager of Carrier Electronics. "Carrier, through its various subsidiaries, already provides a broad array of refrigeration and HVAC equipment to supermarkets; Micro Thermo complements our current businesses and enables our company to provide a full range of products and services to individual stores and chains."
Serge Desmarais, President of Micro Thermo said, "I am excited about the combined capabilities of Carrier and Micro Thermo. With Carrier's heritage, brand image and global presence, they provide the perfect platform to expand and improve our customer service in North America and abroad."
Carrier Electronics, a division of Carrier Corporation, designs, manufactures and markets a broad range of software and microprocessor-based controls solutions for Carrier and the industry globally. These products range from integrated controls for residential, commercial and transport HVAC/R equipment to thermostats, applied building system controls, PC-based building management software and energy management solutions.
This is also a pretty big deal, not perhaps immediately reflected in the bottom line, but more to the direction of the industry. Electronic controls is an enormous market, and the big players in the industry, ABB, Honeywell, etc. have all tried to enforce their own proprietary standard. This has worked to an extent, once you buy a system with Honeywell controls, then by default, any upgrades you made had to use Honeywell stuff, now Echelon with their open standard is eroding this practice. Carrier is one of the largest "cooling" companies in the US, thus the world, with them going to an open standard or at least having the capability, they can retrofit existing installations and make everything work together.
Echelon is an "energy play", this will become more and more apparent as time goes on, one hopes it will become more and more profitable.
rollin' along with a "cool breeze" in the sails
