Backward compatible, future ready

El Salvador International Airport, operational since 1980, is the third busiest airport in Central America. In 2015, Authorized Dealer MP Service installed 21 Reliable Controls devices during a building automation system overhaul that provided enough energy efficiency gains to recover the airport owners’ costs within 3 years. Pretty impressive.

Cut to 2021 and MP Service was back at the airport, working on the first phase of a 20-year modernization and expansion project that will increase its capacity from 1.6 million passengers a year to 6.6 million in 2032 and triple its cargo capacity over the next two decades. Modifications like this one are often especially costly for facility owners because the designs of older building systems and controllers are not easily adapted to new technology. But MP Service was working with a considerable advantage: All Reliable Controls products are backward compatible with those that came before. The flexibility of RC-Studio software meant MP Service could integrate more than 80 previously installed third-party devices with both old and new Reliable Controls controllers. Even more impressive.

In today’s world of overabundant consumer goods, our commitment to backward compatibility sets Reliable Controls apart in the building automation industry. Go Climate and others say there are several types of planned obsolescence: contrived durability, prevention of repair, systemic obsolescence, programmed obsolescence, and obsolescence by depletion. Here’s how we actively work to counter these design philosophies with every product we make.

Contrived durability

Contrived durability happens when companies make products with parts or materials they know will one day fail. For example, some electronics makers choose cheap plastic or soft metals that have a short lifespan. We build our controllers with durable, highly recyclable materials and carefully engineer them to last at least the life of the equipment they control. The new RC-FLEXair, for instance, is housed in a 6063-T6 extruded aluminum enclosure and has a robust carbon steel baseplate, making it extremely resilient.

Prevention of repair

How products are made matters. Maybe you’ve tried to change a battery on your smartphone, only to find you need special tools to unscrew the case or, even if you manage to pry off the cover, you discover the components are glued together, making repairs a more costly endeavor than buying new. We provide comprehensive repair services beyond our standard 5-year warranty that extend your customers’ return on investment—even if our products have been in the field for decades. We work carefully to counter the unsustainable trend in the electronics industry to fight repairability, opting instead to minimize waste both in the manufacturing process and through repairs once our products are installed in buildings.

Perceived obsolescence

Fast fashion describes a design, manufacturing, and marketing method of rapidly producing trendy clothing to convince consumers they need the “next best thing.” Some electronics producers work from this perspective as well, releasing new models often, with only slightly better software or slightly different features that quickly make your device several seasons old. These new goods are marketed as status symbols, rendering the original products out of fashion despite remaining fully functional.

Reliable Controls offers an alternative. Our R&D team is dedicated to making our products better by design, and much of our work is in response to feedback from dealers. We are committed to earning and sustaining the reputation of having the most satisfied customers in our industry, and we can do so only by listening first, understanding the needs of our customers, and developing our product road map on these core foundations rather than by following trends or fads.

Systemic obsolescence

Systemic obsolescence happens when a company changes the systems a product is designed to work with, making it incompatible. Reliable Controls carefully tests every product we manufacture to ensure compatibility with previous-generation controllers. At the University of Victoria, one of the first installations of Reliable Controls anywhere, first-generation controllers installed in 1994 operate smoothly alongside second- and third-generation Reliable Controls devices. This level of integration is no accident.

Programmed obsolescence

Products are sometimes designed to stop functioning after a certain number of uses, like inkjet printers programmed to stop working after a certain number of pages are printed, even though the printer is still technically functional. In software, some companies deliberately drop support for older technologies at a certain date to force users to buy new products. With Reliable Controls software, even if you let your subscription lapse, the software continues to work as designed. If an update comes along that interests you, say, 2 years later, you can renew your subscription at that time without penalty. It’s not uncommon for users to be operating versions of our software that are 10+ years old!

RC-Toolkit provides another example of how we counter programmed obsolescence. Starting with version 3.3, RC-Toolkit recognizes new hardware after the software was released—so you could be using an older software version and still integrate brand-new controllers.

In the world of building automation, planned obsolescence of any kind can mean unexpected costs and take upgrade decisions out of a building owner’s hands. At the El Salvador International Airport, facility owners were in complete control of what, when, and how to upgrade their building automation system, in large part because the Reliable Controls products installed 8 years ago were designed to be backward compatible and future ready.

“I think it’s pretty cool we were able to use the originally installed controllers—both our own and other brand names—because of our flexibility,” says Karina Silva, regional sales manager (RSM) for El Salvador and for Latin America in general. “Backward compatibility ensures the customer’s investment is safe because the building automation system will last a very long time. The customer will never be faced with having to replace a perfectly functioning piece of hardware simply because a newer-generation product isn’t compatible with what’s installed in the building. It speaks to our commitment to the environment at Reliable Controls: Planned obsolescence is simply not sustainable.”

For a company that’s been in business for more than 30 years, backward compatibility provides a natural brake pedal on product development. A start-up doesn’t need to worry about whether their new hardware or software product works with their old ones—because they don’t have any old products. But at Reliable Controls, our engineering teams must determine how our products can evolve together in a way that doesn’t break our commitment to backward compatibility. This means careful decisions about how our products interoperate and which features can’t be supported by legacy devices—sometimes concessions need to be made. This commitment can also be a costly one. The design process is infinitely more complex when these interdependencies need to be considered. Additionally, backward compatibility forces us to forgo revenue that could be gained by requiring periodic upgrades, unlike many peers in our industry.

As technology has evolved, so have Reliable Controls products. But our warranty and extended repair services mean our customers are never forced to upgrade due to planned obsolescence. And if they decide to upgrade, our eCycle service will help them reduce their impact on the environment by sending non-repairable controllers to a responsible recycling partner for disposal.

We build backward compatibility and future readiness into every product we manufacture. Today’s RC-Studio supports the original Burke controller, manufactured in the 1980s. “We ensure any product you buy will continue to provide the value it did when you bought it—for the life of the product,” says system architect Chris Howard. “It’s part of our value proposition.”

This commitment means our customers can feel sure their investment today will be fully supported for the life of equipment controlled. “Backward compatibility provides the confidence that I can add to my building in the future without needing to replace the product I already bought,” says Chris. “When customers purchase Reliable Controls, we are selling them a product for life.”

Backward compatibility is just one of the ways Reliable Controls helps your customers create a truly sustainable building that improves health, reduces emissions, and drives efficiency for the long term. Learn more about the Reliable Controls ART of Building Sustainability.