The Next Generation of Smart Controls with Rami Noueir of Verdant

Episode 182 | HVAC R&D Podcast
Guest: Rami Noueir, Verdant by Copeland
Host: Rhydon Atzenhoffer
Link: Listen to the Full Episode Here

The Opening Observation

I was recently looking at a shelf in a supply house, you know the one, right behind the counter where all the “latest and greatest” gadgets sit gathering a little bit of dust. It felt like every single box had the word “Smart” plastered on it in bold letters. Smart thermostats, smart leak detectors, smart vents, even smart capacitors.

It got me thinking: Has the word “smart” just become white noise in our industry?

In the trades, we’ve been burned by “smart” before. We’ve seen tech that’s supposed to make our lives easier actually just add twenty minutes to a service call because the app won’t sync or the homeowner lost their Wi-Fi password. But there’s a difference between a consumer gadget and a professional tool.

Real intelligence isn’t about having a shiny touchscreen. It’s about visibility. It’s about knowing what a system is doing when you aren’t standing in front of it. It’s about data that actually helps a building owner save money and helps a contractor stay profitable.

During my recent windshield time relistening to Episode 182 with Rami Noueir, I was reflecting on how much energy we waste, not because the equipment is bad, but because the controls are dumb. We’re still cooling empty hotel rooms to 68 degrees while the guest is downstairs at a buffet. We’re still heating empty student housing units during spring break.

That’s not smart. That’s just expensive.

The Industry Story

In Episode 182 of the HVAC R&D Podcast, I sat down with Rami Noueir. Rami is a mechanical engineer and a Strategic Account Executive over at Verdant by Copeland. If you’ve spent any time in the hospitality or multi-family space, you’ve probably seen their tech, even if you didn’t realize it.

Rami and I got into the weeds on what “next-gen controls” actually look like when you move past the residential living room and into the commercial world.

Rami’s background is rooted in engineering, but he talks like a guy who understands the business side of the mechanical room. Verdant started in the retrofit world. They weren’t looking to reinvent the furnace; they were looking to solve a massive operational headache: occupancy.

He shared a story about how, in the hospitality world, energy is often the second largest operating expense after labor. And yet, for decades, we’ve relied on guests to “be responsible” with the thermostat. Spoiler alert: they aren’t. People leave the balcony door open with the AC cranking. They set the heat to 80 and go out for dinner.

Verdant built a system using PI sensors (Passive Infrared) that actually scan the room. If nobody is there, the system sets back. It sounds simple, but the way they’ve networked it is where the real magic happens. They use a proprietary mesh network and a gateway that connects every single unit in a building back to a central hub.

Talking to Rami, I realized they aren’t just selling a thermostat. They’re selling a window into the building’s soul.

The Realization

That’s when it hit me.

We often think of smart controls as a “feature” we upsell to a customer during an install. “Hey, do you want the one you can control from your phone?”

But after talking to Rami, I realized that’s a small-game mindset. The real realization is that controls are the bridge to relationship equity.

When you install a system like Verdant’s in a multi-family complex or a hotel, you aren’t just the guy who fixed the broken compressor. You become the technology partner who manages their energy profile.

Rami explained that because their systems are all networked, they can see when a unit is “struggling.” If a room is calling for cooling but the temperature isn’t dropping, the system sends an alert to the management dashboard.

Think about that from a contractor’s perspective.

You can walk into a building owner’s office and say, “I know Room 304’s coil is starting to freeze up, and I know it because the data told me an hour ago: before the guest even noticed.”

That is a complete shift in power. You go from being a reactive line item (an expense) to a proactive asset (a partner).

Efficiency. Visibility. Proactivity.

That’s what actually makes a control “smart.”

The Industry Application

So, how does this apply to the #TradeCrew out there grinding every day? How do we take what Rami is doing at Verdant and turn it into a better business model?

It comes down to three things: Recurring Revenue, Differentiation, and Workforce Efficiency.

1. The Shift to Recurring Revenue Most contractors are stuck in the “truck roll” cycle. You eat what you kill. If you don’t roll a truck, you don’t make money. But when you position yourself as a technology partner using these next-gen controls, you can start looking at monitoring contracts. You’re providing a service that prevents disasters. Building owners are happy to pay for that peace of mind.

2. Standing Out in the Bid If you’re bidding on a 200-unit multi-family retrofit and you’re just bidding on the equipment, you’re competing on price. You’re in a race to the bottom. But if you walk in with a solution that includes occupancy-based controls and a centralized management hub, you’re talking about ROI. You’re talking about their bottom line.

3. Making Your Techs Smarter We all know the labor shortage is real. We can’t find enough senior techs to save our lives. By using networked controls, your best tech doesn’t have to be on-site to diagnose a problem. They can look at the dashboard from the office, see the run times and the temperature deltas, and tell the junior tech exactly what to look for before he even opens his tool bag.

From the distributor side: shout out to the folks at the counter: this is about moving from selling boxes to selling systems. It’s about helping your contractors understand that the control is the brain of the operation. If the brain is healthy, the body (the equipment) lasts longer.

The Closing Reflection

At the end of the day, our industry is changing whether we like it or not. We can keep treating thermostats like a commodity, or we can see them for what they really are: the remote control for our customers’ biggest expenses.

Talking with Rami reminded me that we have to stay curious. We have to be willing to look at new ways of doing things, even if “the way we’ve always done it” seems to be working fine for now.

In this trade, reputation travels faster than any sales pitch ever will. If you can be the contractor who saves a building owner 20% on their power bill without them ever having to lift a finger, your reputation is set for life.

The next generation of controls isn’t just coming: it’s already here. The question is, are you going to be the one installing it, or are you going to be the one wondering why your customers are calling someone else?

Stay grounded. Stay hungry.

I’ll see you out there. 🦏💪

Ramblin’ Rhyno, out. Peace Y’all.

Want to keep the conversation going? Check out our latest episode of the HVAC R&D Podcast or check out the resources in the HVAC R&D Resource Hub and remember that you’re part of something bigger. Follow the Ramblin’ Rhyno Column for more reflections on the trade, or contact us to share your story.