Industry vets ally for Home Automation

Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
Underscoring the importance of collaboration in the smart home space, 10 top companies -- Whirlpool Corporation, Bell Canada, Cisco, Direct Energy, HP, Legrand, Leviton, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Zensys as well as the Z-Wave Alliance -- announced today that they are teaming up to conduct an in-depth study about the state and future of the smart home.



Quote:

"Cross-industry collaboration is key to the adoption of smart home products and services," said Henry O. Marcy, vice president, Global Technology, Whirlpool Corporation, the study's lead participant. "Our research reveals that consumers want comprehensive connected home solutions. They don't want to have to cobble together smart home products and services themselves."



Ummm yes we do. The problem with today's Home Auto stuff is the specialized vendors that charge a mint to install.



Quote:

Consumers will be asked about the connected home solutions they own currently, their immediate and long-term home technology wants and needs, their home technology product and service purchasing habits and intentions, and their preferred channels for making and installing smart home solutions.



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Following are some of the potential applications that will be tested in the study:









Quote:



-- When the phone rings, the caller ID shows up on a television screen



-- The home's temperature can be controlled remotely, allowing the

homeowner to save on energy costs by adjusting the home's temperature

according to changing weather conditions



-- Multiple rooms in a home can be video-monitored via the Internet from

anywhere in the world



-- A homeowner can adjust the home's lighting remotely, allowing travelers

to give the home a "lived-in" feel



1. No I don't want my TV experience to be interrupted by my phone. How about a voice that announces the call.



2. Can pretty much already be done today with thermostats that can be programmed



3. Can be done today with IP cameras. Hell Bonjour and an IP camera makes it a piece of cake.



4. Automated lights have been done for a LONG time.





Home Automation has to be more than "hey look at how cool this is". There have to be tangible benefits to installing such a system. How about dryers that sense when the humidity has dropped below a threshold and they turn off and send and email/alert to the owner?



The problem with Home Auto today is that if the big players get into it ..it's only going to be more of the same. 20k estimates with a lifetime to actually reap any ROI in them. Benefitting from Home Auto is IMO purlely from an emotional level.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    frank777frank777 Posts: 5,839member
    Here's where I'd go with the idea:



    Your home computer should be linked to your home electrical and water system.

    You should be able to identify how much energy is being used in every room of the house, and for what.



    The homeowner should also be able to tap into resources on the web that measure savings if, for example, a solar panel or updated appliances are installed.



    Your computer should also be able to warn you that a pipe is slowly leaking in the upstairs bathroom.
  • Reply 2 of 8
    mdriftmeyermdriftmeyer Posts: 7,503member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Frank777 View Post


    Here's where I'd go with the idea:



    Your home computer should be linked to your home electrical and water system.

    You should be able to identify how much energy is being used in every room of the house, and for what.



    The homeowner should also be able to tap into resources on the web that measure savings if, for example, a solar panel or updated appliances are installed.



    Your computer should also be able to warn you that a pipe is slowly leaking in the upstairs bathroom.



    You don't own your connection to the Power Grid. You can only manage efficiencies if the manufacturer were to develop a meter system to manage it, your electrical system installed heat transfer LED sensors throughout your home and wirelessly sync to your main heat source to optimize which doesn't matter because you don't have more than one source of heat distribution to draw upon.



    We don't have small scale, zoned-heaters to connect sections of the home and isolate them from the rest of the home.



    If room A on the northside is 5 degrees cooler in that zone then that zone's furnace could initiate until 5 degrees is normalized, so on and so forth.



    It's all possible and financially retarded.
  • Reply 3 of 8
    frank777frank777 Posts: 5,839member
    I wasn't really thinking about the heating system.



    I was thinking that your computer could tell you that your TV sucks X watts of power each month, your fridge does 10X that and your power bar on your mac stays on all night sucking power.



    New homes in Ontario are being outfitted with smart meters to allow time of use billing, so it's only a step from there to have your computer linked in and show you where you can cut energy use and save money.



    This is about the 'future' home right?
  • Reply 4 of 8
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,419member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Frank777 View Post


    I wasn't really thinking about the heating system.



    I thinking that your computer could tell you that your TV sucks X watts of power each month, your fridge does 10X that and your power bar on your mac stays on all night sucking power.



    New homes in Ontario are being outfitted with smart meters to allow time of use billing, so it's only a step from there to have your computer linked in and show you where you can cut energy use and save money.



    This is about the 'future' home right?





    Yes THAT is the future. If we really want to become a Green planet we must be able to think about power as a resource with money attached. I sold white good (i.e appliances) back in the day and NO ONE cared about the energy specifications. With an adequate readout of power consumption one should be able to create "What if" scenarios. "My fridge costs me $80 a year to run...if I buy a new fridge can I get more features and reduce my annual power costs?"



    How many times have we put something in the dryer and did a "best guess" as to how long our clothes would take. Once your clothes are dry the extra heat is just wasted power.



    What about Water Tanks? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to shut those off at times so you don't have hot water sitting there that you'll never use. What about hybrid homes with smaller tanks augmented by tankless water heaters?



    I think that we should have gotten some sort of control over light sockets a long time ago. I admit that I routinely fall asleep with the lights on. Waste.
  • Reply 5 of 8
    mdriftmeyermdriftmeyer Posts: 7,503member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hmurchison View Post


    Yes THAT is the future. If we really want to become a Green planet we must be able to think about power as a resource with money attached. I sold white good (i.e appliances) back in the day and NO ONE cared about the energy specifications. With an adequate readout of power consumption one should be able to create "What if" scenarios. "My fridge costs me $80 a year to run...if I buy a new fridge can I get more features and reduce my annual power costs?"



    How many times have we put something in the dryer and did a "best guess" as to how long our clothes would take. Once your clothes are dry the extra heat is just wasted power.



    What about Water Tanks? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to shut those off at times so you don't have hot water sitting there that you'll never use. What about hybrid homes with smaller tanks augmented by tankless water heaters?



    I think that we should have gotten some sort of control over light sockets a long time ago. I admit that I routinely fall asleep with the lights on. Waste.



    It's called a Re-heat Agent. On-demand Hot water. I have one.



    http://www.bosch.us/content/language1/html/1708.htm
  • Reply 6 of 8
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,419member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer View Post


    It's called a Re-heat Agent. On-demand Hot water. I have one.



    http://www.bosch.us/content/language1/html/1708.htm



    Re-heat Agent lol. Satiating the human desire for differentiation. I hear the Bosch units are good as well as the Rinnai. America still hasn't really grokkd the benefits of Tankless/Re-heat. Did you experience a tangible power savings or at least performance improvement?
  • Reply 7 of 8
    check out: Echelon



    www.echelon.com

    their logo does even look like the Apple logo



    :-)
  • Reply 8 of 8


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