At the 37th China Refrigeration Expo, Honeywell showcased its smart building and energy-carbon management solutions, highlighting a strategic shift in the building automation industry.

Shift To Existing Buildings

As China’s new construction slows, the focus is moving to existing building retrofits. With buildings accounting for 21.7% of carbon emissions, energy efficiency upgrades are becoming a key priority.

Light Upgrade Strategy

Honeywell promotes a “light upgrade” approach:

• Digital energy data analysis for existing systems
• Phased hardware upgrades with minimal disruption
• Smart sensors and controllers to improve system efficiency

This approach reduces retrofit cost and complexity while improving performance.

Industry-Specific Solutions

Standard solutions are being replaced by customized systems:

• Manufacturing & data centers: redundant control systems for zero-downtime environments
• Hospitals: integrated AI and IoT systems for safety and energy control
• Hotels: intelligent room systems for automated energy saving

Solutions are built on the Niagara Framework for unified system integration.

AI In Building Automation

AI is shifting from visualization to real operational control. The key challenge is fragmented data and lack of industry knowledge.

Honeywell uses its open platform to unify building data and apply AI for predictive maintenance and energy optimization, enabling automated decision-making and analysis.

Outlook

The industry is moving from product competition to full lifecycle solutions. Honeywell continues to expand localization in China while integrating AI, ecosystem partnerships, and energy-carbon management to support long-term growth in building automation.