🎧 #013: Deepinder Singh of 75F on epidemic mode and building the modern BAS

“This (pandemic) is an opportunity to make buildings more adaptable. You want to use the right technology so you can keep on harnessing change. Whether it's epidemic mode now, or a better energy savings sequences later on.”

—Deepinder Singh

Welcome to Nexus, a newsletter and podcast for smart people applying smart building technology—hosted by James Dice. If you’re new to Nexus, you might want to start here.

The Nexus podcast (Apple | Spotify | YouTube | Other apps) is our chance to explore and learn with the brightest in our industry—together. The project is directly funded by listeners like you who have joined the Nexus Pro membership community.

You can join Nexus Pro to get a weekly-ish deep dive, access to the Nexus Vendor Landscape, and invites to exclusive events with a community of smart buildings nerds.

Episode 13 is a conversation with Deepinder Singh, CEO of 75F.

Summary

• I walked away from this conversation even more excited about 75F than I already was. As I've said before, 75F and PassiveLogic are the only two companies I know of doing the “blank sheet of paper” approach to modernizing and improving the performance of building control systems.
• We unpacked 75F's founding story, what makes them unique, and why they decided to create the whole stack rather than just an overlay.
• We talked about their over-the-air sequence upgrades, how they're similar to Tesla’s, and how they enable the new epidemic mode for minimizing the energy penalty that comes along with the increased ventilation recommended by the CDC and ASHRAE to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
• Finally, we talked about their software platform, what makes it unique, and their hardware layer, and what makes it unique.

Mentions and Links

1. 75F (1:26)
2. PassiveLogic (1:34)
3. ASHRAE Guideline 36 (27:04)
4. 75F’s Healthier Buildings webcast (33:29)
5. ASHRAE 62.1, RP-1455 (35:08)
6. Innovation Incubator (IN)2 (36:57)
7. Haystack (49:00), Brian Frank (53:32)
8. SkySpark (52:27)

You can find Deepinder Singh on LinkedIn.

Enjoy!

Music credit: The Garden State by Audiobinger

Disclaimer: James is a researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). All opinions expressed via Nexus emails, podcasts, or on the website belong solely to James. No resources from NREL are used to support Nexus. NREL does not endorse or support any aspect of Nexus.

THE ABOVE AUDIO, VIDEO, SUMMARY, AND LINKS WILL ALWAYS BE FREE. PODCAST DEEP DIVES WITH MY REACTIONS, MY TOP HIGHLIGHTS, AND THE FULL TRANSCRIPT ARE EXCLUSIVELY AVAILABLE TO MEMBERS OF NEXUS PRO.

Here’s this week’s Deep deep dive outline:

• My reaction
• My highlights
• Why they decided to build the entire BAS stack and why interoperability isn't always needed at every level of it
• How 75F's approach to control sequences differentiates them from traditional BAS and works similar to a Tesla
• Why today's BAS control sequence "best practices" (ASHRAE Guideline 36) are reactive and are really the minimally acceptable option
• How epidemic mode implements the intent of the CDC guidelines while minimizing energy use.
• Why their software is Haystack-native and built to be modular and scalable
• How their network operating center (NOC) and managed services make them look a lot like an analytics company
• How they're partnering with OEMs of HVAC equipment (that don't do controls) to make 75F plug and play in smaller buildings
• How their modular approach applies to the hardware level as well and how it saves costs
• Full transcript
• Get the deep dive