Energy Is Conserved By Home Domotics For Saving On Lighting And Thermal Energy Conservation

Home Automation Systems is not really new. During the nineties, I was CEO of a electronics high tech corporation and to impress our clientele we decided to develop a PLC (programmable logic controller) based system, which switched the air conditioning actuators and lights off and on in function of people's presence in every individual office. In the night the very same system acted as an advanced burglar alarm system that would activate a siren, alert an alarm service, call phones or any combination thereof. Fully automatic and the burglar alarm mode only required a key switch at the entrance of the office to activate and deactivate the burglar alarm; as with any regular alarm system. The question: "which amount of energy is conserved?" was only a secondary concern at the time. That changed soon after installation...

It worked fine; however with one note: When a person would sit quietly behind his desk; sometimes the light would be turned off. I still remember my co-workers waving at the sensors. Somehow this was also positive because it stimulated activity… However, what was really a surprise was how much energy is conserved by this (in our view) uncomplicated system; we recorded savings of up to 35%. How is this to explain? Both in a residential and commercial environment, people regularly tend to forget to switch off the lights when they go out of their room. I remember that before the installation of this system, the lights and air conditioning in the training room and meeting room were regularly on during most of the day. Moreover, when I would come back to the office after business hours, colleagues or cleaners had at times refrained from switching off lights. Moreover, it was regularly too nice and cool in some rooms.

To my surprise, now, 20 years later, I did not see a system on the market, comparable to the one as described above. Few seem to worry too much about how much energy is conserved... What is available currently in the home market is primarily gadget oriented; i.e. turning audio/video equipment on and off online or opening and closing curtains and alike devices. For office purposes, expensive building automation systems are available. But, these do not feature presence . What would the reasons for that?

First of all it could be the sensors; like we experienced almost 20 years back. But, the technology that would allow 100% detection is available these days. Consider automotive collision sensors.

Secondly, it could be the control software that is rather complicated if done right. In essence, you want the same level of automation like in the commercial systems, but for a system cost measured in 100's of $'s to 1000's of dollars for advanced wireless systems or those with many functions and many input/outputs. But definitely not in tens of thousands of $'s.

Wired or wireless

Wired is more economical, but needs more installation labor. Especially in existing buildings, the cost difference may be compensated by the much lower installation cost.

As time passes by, wireless systems will likely become more attractive as installation cost will rise, while Domotics will become more economical as they become a high volume product.

As contractors and architects do not have Domotics on their mind as a mainstream product for the residential market, it will take quite some time and a lot of missionary marketing work by vendors. The larger the potential low cost Home Automation Systems manufacturers are, the faster this could happen. An alternative is that the systems are being sold via Internet High Technology Marketing. This implies that huge article marketing campaigns, webinars and email marketing are used to realize market recognition.

In the GE ECOmagination Challenge (a technology contest) that runs until March 15, 2011), more than 500 technologists, inventers, engineers and students contend for superior solutions in energy conservation. It is worth your while to have a look in case energy conservation in the home energy efficiency market has your interest. Moreover, there are many promising green energy solutions at the GE ECOmagination Challenge(competition).