The Google Calendar event provider is a software component used to retrieve room scheduling information from Google servers for use in the Events2HVAC application. Events2HVAC will periodically query Google calendars at specified intervals to determine what events are scheduled for the day and which rooms will be used for those events.
The Google Calendar event provider is designed to work with G-Suite, Google for Work, Google for Non-Profits, and Google for Education. These packages allow the use of room resources with Google Calendar. Room resources are managed by the Google Admin application.
Even though this interface is recommended for GSuite, you can also use a personal Google account to create calendars for each room. The primary difference between the two is GSuite allows you to define room resources as a separate entity for managing a room calendar. In Google personal calendars you can create individual “room” calendars to accomplish the same thing.
Google personal calendars are free. Google GSuite has a per user subscription model. Google for Non-Profits and School has a low-cost or free option available that non-profits can qualify for.
Events occurring in rooms that have been mapped to specific equipment in Events2HVAC will automatically create command actions to be executed when those events take place. For example, turning on an air handler in a conference room.
This component also provides on-demand access to the event schedule information so that Events2HVAC users can see the event calendar without direct access to the Google calendar.