Open by choice: what happens when the only authorised installer closes down

It is a story we hear often, with small variations. Ten years ago a small hotel installed a system to manage its rooms and heating. The system came from a well-known brand, the installer was the local authorised partner, and everything worked well. Then the installer retired, or closed, or stopped working with that brand. The first fault came in the middle of winter.

The manager discovered that no other installer in the area was authorised. The configuration software could not be bought. The system’s configuration was on the computer of an installer who was no longer around. There were two options: call in a partner from far away, at a high price, or redo the controls from scratch.

This is vendor lock-in in building automation: the tie that binds a system to a supplier, and not by the client’s choice.

Why closed systems tie you to a brand

The lock-in does not come from bad intentions. It comes from technical and commercial choices that, taken one by one, have their own logic.

• Proprietary software. Configuration is only possible with the manufacturer’s program, sold to partners or granted after a training course.
• Licences. Some features, or the number of points managed, depend on licences that have to be bought or renewed.
• Partner networks. The manufacturer sells only through certified installers, sometimes with territorial exclusivity.
• Closed formats. Configurations and data are saved in formats only that software can read.
• Proprietary protocols. Devices talk to each other in a way only the manufacturer knows, and won’t accept components from other brands.

For the manufacturer these are ways to ensure installation quality and protect its work. For the client, in the long run, they become a cost and a risk.

What lock-in costs

The cost of lock-in appears in no quote. It shows up later, in four ways.

• Higher prices for service and spare parts, because there is no competition.
• Longer waits, because the nearest partner may be far away or very busy.
• Difficult extensions: adding a zone or another brand’s component is complicated or impossible.
• Forced replacements: when the manufacturer stops supporting a model, the system has to be replaced even if it works.

We put numbers on this in the article on the ten-year cost of a control system: lock-in is often the biggest item, and the least visible.

What to ask before you buy

Five questions help you judge how open a system is, whatever the brand.

1. Who can carry out maintenance? Only authorised partners, or any competent installer?
2. Is the configuration software freely available? Or only under contract?
3. Is the system’s configuration handed to the client? In a readable format, together with the diagrams?
4. Can components from other brands be used? Sensors, actuators, controllers?
5. Are there licences or fees? And what happens if they are not renewed?

If the answers are “only us”, “no”, “no”, “no” and “yes”, the system is closed. That is not necessarily a bad choice, but it is one to make knowingly.

How Brick moves from one integrator to another

Brick is built not to tie anyone down. The software is free: Linux, Home Assistant, Node-RED and Grafana, as we explained in the article on Brick’s free software. The protocols are open: Modbus, KNX, Zigbee. The compatible components come from different, widely available brands.

But open software is not enough on its own. The new integrator has to find what they need. So every Brick system is handed over with:

• up-to-date wiring and architecture diagrams;
• an export of the configuration: Node-RED flows, Home Assistant settings, dashboards;
• access credentials, kept by the client;
• a document describing zones, sensors, logic and the choices made.

With these, any integrator who knows Home Assistant can take over the system within a few hours, without asking anyone’s permission, not even ours.

The principle, in one sentence

One key only, held by the authorised installer, against one key for everyone: an open system can be entrusted to whoever you choose. It is the message for decision-makers, owners, managers and engineers, more than for technicians. For them the question is not which protocol the system uses, but who will be able to work on it in ten years’ time.

If the system is already locked in

If you already have a closed system, you don’t have to throw it away. But it pays to act before the next fault.

• Recover the documentation. Diagrams, configuration, credentials: asking the installer for them today, while they are still around, is far easier than hunting for them tomorrow.
• Find out what can be read from outside. Many closed systems still have a Modbus or KNX output, or at least status contacts. An open controller can sit alongside them, read the data and take over one part at a time.
• Plan the replacement of the riskiest parts, such as a discontinued central unit, at a quiet time, rather than as an emergency in January.

Often the best route is gradual: keep what works and move what needs renewing onto an open system.

For engineers and public bodies

When writing a specification, freedom of choice can be required explicitly, without naming brands:

• software under a recognised open-source licence, or at least a configuration handed to the client in an open format;
• open, documented communication protocols;
• maintenance possible by any qualified contractor;
• no mandatory fees for operation.

For public bodies these requirements make particular sense: a system that can be entrusted to any contractor can be managed through normal maintenance procurement, without depending on a single supplier for its whole life.

Open does not mean without rules

One last clarification. An open system is not one where anybody changes whatever they like. Changes are documented, safety functions are left alone, access is personal. The difference is that the rules are set by whoever owns the system, not by whoever sells it. It is the same principle we described in Home Assistant in a professional installation.