Switch on your house

Smart homes are catching the fancy of the middle class. They are no longer considered a luxury.

November 28, 2014 08:37 pm | Updated 08:40 pm IST

An employee demonstrates using the air conditioner control function of the Samsung Smart Home system with a smartphone at the Samsung Innovation Museum, operated by Samsung Electronics Co., in Suwon, South Korea, on Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2014. Anticipation for a restructuring of the family-run Samsung Group, whose revenues amount to about a quarter of Korea's gross domestic product, escalated after the hospitalization of 72-year-old patriarch Lee Kun Hee in May put a spotlight on the firm?ƒ?’?†?€™?ƒ?€š?‚???ƒ?’?‚???ƒ?????€š???…???ƒ?€š?‚???ƒ?’?‚???ƒ?????€š???…???ƒ?€š?‚??s succession plans. Photographer: Woohae Cho/Bloomberg

An employee demonstrates using the air conditioner control function of the Samsung Smart Home system with a smartphone at the Samsung Innovation Museum, operated by Samsung Electronics Co., in Suwon, South Korea, on Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2014. Anticipation for a restructuring of the family-run Samsung Group, whose revenues amount to about a quarter of Korea's gross domestic product, escalated after the hospitalization of 72-year-old patriarch Lee Kun Hee in May put a spotlight on the firm?ƒ?’?†?€™?ƒ?€š?‚???ƒ?’?‚???ƒ?????€š???…???ƒ?€š?‚???ƒ?’?‚???ƒ?????€š???…???ƒ?€š?‚??s succession plans. Photographer: Woohae Cho/Bloomberg

In not too distant a future, many of us would be going in for smart homes, i.e., homes that will be fully automated, capable of being monitored and controlled from afar, usually with one’s own smartphone app.

It might have been nearly two decades for many of us to have seen car-borne individuals clicking a button on the remote to raise the garage shutter from inside their cars on approach to their driveways. It is no longer a daydream, nor a distant dream for residents of Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad or Delhi. The smart home movement is already on. Time magazine predicts that smart homes are expected to be a $12 billion annual business within five years worldwide.

A survey in Bengaluru of 220 projects offering a home costing more than a crore of rupees last year revealed that 80 of them were constructing fully automated homes. According to Madhav Rao, National Secretary of Indian Society of Heating Refrigeration & Air Conditioning Engineers (ISHRAE), construction of smart homes is projected to have a growth rate of 35 to 40 per cent. By 2016, 300 projects will have fully automated homes. ISHRAE will be organising Acrex India 2015 in Bengaluru between February 26 and 28 enabling 400 exhibitors to showcase the components going into smart homes.

Cloud computing driven

The smart home movement is principally guided by growing need for safety, security, comfort and requirement to lower energy consumption. And it has been chiefly enabled by cloud computing and arrival of smart appliances in the market. The twin developments have made it possible for developers to fashion homes that take care of the owner’s taste, wants, moods and in some circumstances, even idiosyncracies. For instance, it will be possible for the occupant to put on the lights of the driveway, air-conditioner and exhaust fans and draw down the venetian blinds before he starts for home from his worksite. There may be a ping on the smartphone if the tray in the fridge runs out of eggs. It will be possible to heat the food in the oven before arrival or to enable a cupboard to open with a biometric ID.

Tilak Thomas, architect with Thomas Associates, says an era is approaching where water will be costlier. “There is already a demand for pro rata charging of water used by each individual occupant of the apartment as the current system is considered unfair as it equalises the water bills for all occupants, regardless of their family size. Smart devices will make it possible.”

One would agree that all these come within the realm of need of a family where both spouses work and children attend school. A panel of architects, developers and innovators who recently joined a panel discussion in Bengaluru agreed that smart homes can no longer be considered an indulgence as the complexities of life have begun to demand such facilities.

Says Tilak Thomas, smart buildings have been there in the commercial sector and it is only now that people have started opting for smart homes. According to Ramakrishnan, Deputy Managing Director with Sobha Developers, the cost of such homes has come down due to cloud computing where in several smart devices can operate from the same platform. D. Nirmal Ram, National President of Acrex, feels that automation is following the same cost trajectory that was set by the cellphone nearly two decades ago. “It is becoming affordable just as cellphones became affordable for the common man.”

Challenges

But there remain several challenges to their becoming the in-thing. Smart homes will require a common platform for several sensors and gadgets to function together. Interoperability will therefore be a keyword as they will need to be integrated in order to operate them from the same smartphone.

Currently, electronic door locks, CCTVs, air-conditioners, exhausts, and venetian blinds, follow varied protocols and standards.

There are issues involved in their installation, commissioning, maintenance and repairs. Indians build a home for a lifetime and electronics has a high rate of obsolescence. Developers will have to deal with the issue of periodical replacement and retrofitting, setting standards and compliance by a variety of manufacturers. Automation professionals and technicians will need to be trained.

Indian context

Many joint families have elders who are not tech-savvy. The developers will have to deal with educating the family members. Any stringent access control system would need relaxation.

Technology will need to deal with all kinds of service providers to apartments or gated communities. Then there may be power failures where fallback upon manual system would have to be taken care of.

Avinash K. Goutam, CEO, Silvan Innovation Labs, says priority must be accorded to setting standards for smart devices and homes. But he is sure that even at the current stage of development, the cost of turning a home ‘smart’ is less than that of a wardrobe. Tilak feels the promise of low energy consumption would prove the main driver for smart homes.

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