In future buildings will relieve us of many burdensome decisions, managing themselves so as to minimise energy consumption for example. Such smart building automation is already a reality in many areas today, and can even serve as a model for the Internet of Things.
The year 2012 was an exciting one in building automation. According to market researchers IMS Research, more and more existing buildings were fitted out with smart technology in order to reduce energy consumption. As a result, increasing numbers of buildings are also being awarded energy certificates such as the “Energy Star” or LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). Holger Knöpke, Vice President Connected Home of Deutsche Telekom, reaffirms the trend towards smart home applications: “Three out of four consumers want applications which will help them save energy. They are also keen to utilise applications which will enhance their comfort, safety and security.” Deutsche Telekom has launched an alliance together with manufacturers EnBW, eQ-3, Miele and Samsung to offer a unified smart home application suite, under the name of Qivicon.
Interconnecting TVs, washing machines and heating systems
Based on wireless protocols, the Qivicon Home Base is a central unit interconnecting different devices, domestic appliances and functions. Users are able to control and monitor connected equipment such as their TV, washing machine or heating thermostat whether at home or away using mobile apps from a smartphone, PC or tablet. Window blinds can be opened and closed using a tablet, for example; the power consumption of electrical appliances or lights can be displayed and checked; and appliances such as the washing machine or radio can be switched on and off. However, the objective behind the integration of the Internet of Things into building system engineering has less to do with allowing users to interconnect their domestic appliances. No homeowner wants to be continually monitoring 50 or more sensors to check whether the air-conditioning is running despite the windows being open. As Nate Williams, CMO of Greenwave, explains: “The promise of the Internet of Things is to provide an interactivity layer to the physical devices that can create efficiency for the user. That offers the opportunity to save time, money, and the headaches from dealing with the myriad of devices and services we touch each day.” Greenwave markets a smart home software platform that includes applications for energy management, interconnected lighting and home surveillance.
The goal is self-learning systems
Complex, smart building control systems are still something of a vision at present however. Many functions can only be controlled manually, or by timers, or based on simple events. As Williams admits: “The automation part and cross communication between devices is not yet fully mature, mostly because of the protocol fragmentation in the market with a lot of self-contained proprietary solutions with limited or no interoperability.” He does, however, predict that those hurdles will have been overcome in a few years’ time, and the market will see the emergence of more self-learning systems capable, thanks to intelligent “event triggers”, of managing the interaction between different devices dependent on specific situations and strategies, and based on information from the Internet of Things. They will enable home equipment to make independent decisions, relieving owners of the need to do so: automatically reducing the heating temperature when a window is opened; raising or lowering blinds depending on the position of the sun and the ambient temperature; or switching the lights off when there is no one in the room. Outstanding examples of such intelligent applications using the Internet of Things are Smart Metres. Rather than just measuring energy consumption, they enable power companies to communicate virtually in real time with consumers and actively shut down power-hungry equipment in response to demand spikes. The result is lower electricity bills for customers, while power companies are able to cope more effectively with load spikes.
Flexibility thanks to energy-autonomous wireless solutions
Laurent Giai-Miniet, CEO of EnOcean, comments: “For the ‘smart’ aspect in building automation, measured data from many different points must be available to an intelligent controller.” His company, based in Oberhaching near Munich, has developed batteryless wireless solutions in which the wireless modules draw their power by means of miniaturised energy converters from motion, light or temperature differences based on the principle of energy harvesting. They enable switches and sensors to be positioned very flexibly, without the need of any cabling or batteries. “From the viewpoint of the Internet of Things, this technology can be applied to install millions of interconnected devices very easily,” asserts Giai-Miniet. The EnOcean head even sees smart building automation as ultimately being a model for the Internet of Things: “In a building automation system, sensors serve as sensory organs which capture and transmit a wide range of data. They provide the automation systems with the temperature, humidity, presence detection or CO2 data necessary to manage the building efficiently and intelligently. This principle of building automation can also be applied to other automation processes – which is exactly what characterises the Internet of Things.”