IoT part 2 - Smart Homes
Contributed By - Hari Gottipati
In the peak summer, when you go home and turn on your air conditioning system, it is going to take 15 to 30 minutes to cool down your home. Instead, if there is a way to turn on your air conditioning system 15 minutes before you reach home, it will cool down your home by the time you arrive. Not only do you save the power by turning off your air conditioning system while you are away from home, but this option will also cool down your home by the time you walk in. A con-nected thermostat is handy in this situation. Isn’t it? If everything in the home is connected and controlled by an accompanying app, you can make your home energy efficient with comfort and convenience.
What is a Smart Home?
From door locks to lights to switches to appliances connected to the Internet, it’s called a connected home. When all these devices can work together to automate processes in the home by sharing the information, it is called a smart home. In other words, automation is the key to turn a home into a smart home. In the above example, if you could turn on air conditioning 15 minutes before you reach home, it’s a connected home, and it is not automated. Manual intervention is required to turn on the controller. If the thermostat can detect that you are 15 minutes away by tapping into your phone’s GPS tracker and turn on air conditioning automatically, it’s called a smart home. Often the automation requires a hub that shares the information between a phone’s GPS tracker and a connected thermostat.
Smart devices for homes
There are tons of smart devices out there in the market for your home. Depending on the budget and automation needs, you can pick and choose what is best for you. Here is the sample list:
Cameras, equipped with motion sensors and night vision can alert you when you have intrud-ers. Wired and wireless, battery based and power based indoor and outdoor cameras can record video and set off a siren. Price range could be between $30 - $200.
Doorbells, often combined with the cameras allow you to see who is at the door and communicate with them through doorbell speaker from your mobile phone. These will tap into your existing doorbells and ring the doorbell on top of triggering a call to your mobile phone. Price range could be between $100 - $250.
Locks, with which you can provide keyless access to your home, and with an equipped camera, you can see when they access your home, even remotely. Or you can provide one time access when they communicate with you using the inbuilt speakerphone on the lock. Price range could be between $150 - $250
Thermostats can learn from your settings, and over time it will automatically adjust the settings. It will also allow you to control your home’s temperature via mobile app and provides a comprehensive usage for heating and cooling. Price range could be between $200 - $250.
Lights can be controlled from your smartphone. You can also adjust the brightness, and change the color right from your smartphone. Price range could be between $15 - $50.
Switches can be used to control anything including lights. If you have a bunch of lights connected to one switch, it’s easy to control all those with one smart switch. Even budget wise, one smart switch is cheaper compared to a bunch of smart bulbs. Price range is around $40.
Plugs, which allow you to control anything that is plugged, as well as monitor energy consumption. Price range is around $40.
Smoke and CO Alarms, which will alert you when levels of carbon monoxide are high or the presence of smoke. Price range could be between $100 - $200.
Sensors:
• Motion sensors, which will alert you to intruders when it senses motion. Some of them are pet-friendly and will not trigger any alarm with pet presence. Price range could be between $35 - $60.
• Door/Window sensors, which will alert you when the door/window is opened or closed. Price range could be between $35 - $60.
• Temperature sensors, which will track the temperature of the location where the sensor is placed. These will help you to control your thermostat based on the temperature of a specific location in your home. Price range could be between $30 - $50.
• Water leak sensors, which will alert you when a water leak is detected. Price range is around $40.
Sirens will be turned on when doors/windows are opened unexpectedly with a loud noise. Price range is around $50.
Water valves, which will control your water supply with an automated valve. It can detect water leaks, and you can automatically shut off the water supply when a water leak is detected. Price range could be between $100 - $200.
Sprinkler controllers, which will allow you to control schedule remotely. It automatically skips a scheduled watering cycle when rain is predicted in the local weather. Price range could be between $200 - $300.
Smart Hub
Smart Hub is the central device that makes all the above devices work together. Each device may equip with a different protocol (Ethernet, Wi-Fi, NFC, RFID, Bluetooth, Bluetooth LE, Zigbee, Z-Wave, etc.), but the hub understands each protocol and facilitates the communication between heterogeneous devices and establishes a collaborative network. For
example: when you walk into your home after 7 PM, a Zig bee motions sensor detects your presence and tells hub about your arrival and in turn hub turns on a Z-Wave bulb. You don’t need to have a hub to use smart devices as they can directly connect to the internet via your home Wi-Fi, but to make smart devices work with each other, one needs to have a hub.
To be continued…