Why do companies keep their product designs private?
The Status Quo
Let’s take a look at some hypotheticals:
That bug isn’t SO bad
If you have a bug in your airhandler, you’re at the whim of the manufacturer. If a fix IS released, you might never get it if you don’t bring out a technician and pay to get it updated. You have no right to access the firmware for your product.
You don’t really need that data
Your system IS collecting data, and you not allowed to see it. BUT, if you pay for a subscription, and use our app, AND purchase an extra wireless dongle…then we will give you limited access to it.
Nice PCB over there, It’d be a shame if something happened to it…
And, what if your communicating thermostat fails, you need to pay big for an OEM replacement, which can be 100s of dollars if they still make replacement parts anymore.
This isn’t unique to HVAC. Just look to printers, where a replacement cartridge costs up to 20 times its material cost and now ink subscriptions are an unfortunate reality. This is now the expectation, no one really questions it, and why would we, these are private businesses incorporated to make a profit for their shareholders. It’s in their rights.
Today I’ll be exploring the idea of Open Source design and how it can be a benefit to HVAC manufacturing.
Why Designs are Private
It makes sense, if I am designing a product, I don’t want my competitor to take my designs and sell them as their own. So if I create a product, I want to gain the value from having done the hard work in making it.
This is logical, and once you’re in the business of protecting your design, you have to keep protecting it, for every product, forever…eventually it can feel like the only way forward.
But, let’s consider the consequences… With your designs being private, when something breaks, the customer needs to come back to you and pay your prices for replacement parts. You can lock your customers into your hardware ecosystem. And, when they need to connect their products to the internet, you can require your portal to make it function.
You can look to the backlash John Deere faces to see those realities manifest.
While these decisions lead to greater profit for the company, you end up paying the price. Whether that’s because you have to pay more for less. Maybe because you can’t fix a broken product, and now you now need to replace it. Or even if all that is fair, you need to pay someone $10 a month to access YOUR data from the product YOU own.
There has to be a better way. So what does an alternative look like?
Open Source In The Real World
Open source design means sharing your schematics, firmware, and documentation so that anyone can inspect it, repair it, or build on it. This flips the script, by having the design ENABLE the product, instead of the design BEING the product.
Let’s look at a few examples.
Everyone knows about Linux, which is the most common Operating system for web servers and super computers. But it’s also the go to operating system for most developers and provides the backbone of Android OS as well.
Relating to hardware specifically, a company called Opulo has produced the LumenPnP. This is the best analogue for Cooperative HVAC because they produce a hardware AND software platform that has benefited from sharing their work as open source. Starting with small scale, user-built systems, providing instructions and guidance, then moving to end-to-end manufacturing and sales.
Advantages of Open Source
Address More Problems in More Places
I trust the knowledge of a diverse and distributed team that is using a product, versus one that has narrow scope and engagement. As an example, per Linux Foundation, there are more than 71,000 individual and 3,000 organization contributors to Linux. Applying that to HVAC, if someone has an isolated issue unique to their HVAC or their setup, their system, their region, they have the ability and information to analyze and address that issue, and everyone gains that fix.
Sustainability
If a manufacturer goes out of business, support for that product might be completely lost. Or if a part is no longer supported, you might have no choice but to scrap your whole system. With open source, if your PCB fails, you can always order or make a new one. If one part becomes obsolete or is no longer manufactured, the community can come together to find and integrate a replacement.
The Greater Good
Open Source development adds to the larger body of work and knowledge. So that builders don’t need to start from scratch, and everyone can start from the knowledge of previous engineering. None of that is possible when the design stays locked away.
And it’s not just the average Joe or Software enthusiast using Open products. European and Chinese governments have been moving away from privately owned software as well. A few examples are mandates to use Nextcloud, Libreoffice, Kylin OS, Risc-V, and DeepSeek among many others.
So, Open Source is Perfect…Right?
Open Source is NOT perfect. Here are a few reasons why it can be challenging:
- Without a singular leader, or with input from too many strong voices, design by committee can take over
- Allowing people to modify their products means more frequent product modification, which requires extra attention & process to maintain quality
- Because it’s open source, you introduce the risk of “free riders”…someone who might use the designs but not give anything back to the community
- And For HVAC….Who do I call when it breaks? Who warranties it? Who certifies it?
- Funding!!
These aren’t small questions either, I understand the weight behind them. But that’s why I’m doing this, and in the coming videos, that’s what we’re going to work through together.
A Matter of Alignment
Running a business isn’t easy, and you can’t fault anyone for making the decision to keep their designs private and protecting their interests. I hope after today you feel empowered to question those interests, and ask whether those interests and yours are truly aligned, because that’s a question worth asking.