Lighting User acceptance of the smart home
Global business communities have set energy efficiency as one of their major goals and building automation is a key factor in the drive for more sustainable energy use. Numerous related products and solutions already exist on the market, increasingly also for the smart home. However, although these solutions achieve enormous savings of up to 30 percent, they have not yet become well established among the general public. An important component is missing: user acceptance. Flexible, intuitive and automatic systems are needed to change this situation. By Armin Anders, Vice President Business Development and co- founder, EnOcean GmbH
he much touted intelligent networking capability of the smart home currently founders on the fact that the automation solutions use different standards for individual disciplines, are manufacturer-specific and above all, wired solutions can only be upgraded with a great deal of effort. As a result, consumers find it difficult to choose the most suitable system from a highly fragmented assortment. Furthermore, until now, they have only rarely seen added value in a smart home, since the ideal coordination between the individual components, and thus the actual intelligence, is still lacking. This means that the smart home has not yet been widely accepted by the users.
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Manufacturer-independent approach The industry however is beginning
18 lighting
to rethink its approach and increasingly, suppliers are finding ways to combine products, standards and disciplines into an integrated solution. This willingness to work together enables open systems that connect the products of different manufacturing partners. Customers can choose from a wide range of different solutions, all of which communicate with the same control unit. As a result, all components across all standards can be controlled with a single app.
Wireless makes for easy installation Most consumers would like to be able to install a start-up system easily by themselves and therefore, more and more wireless systems are replacing classic cabled solutions. The solution is wireless technology, which makes it possible to flexibly place, network and upgrade the individual components. Even existing buildings can be upgraded with a minimum amount of effort and thus save complex conversion work. Modern solutions also work without batteries. “Energy harvesting” allows small energy converters to generate electricity for sensors, switches and actuators from the immediate surroundings, using movement, light
and temperature differences as energy sources. These devices completely eliminate the onerous and frequently impracticable need to change batteries.
Multifunctional, self-learning solutions The products are further developing with the use of modern technologies such as energy harvesting wireless technology with the goal of achieving high user acceptance. Thus, solar-based wireless sensors can now map different functions and simultaneously measure temperature, brightness and moisture in a room. Such multifunctional sensors often form part of self-learning systems that automatically adapt to the users’ living habits as well as to various
Building & Facilities Management – March 2015
Photographs ©Kieback&Peter
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