If you are a fan of Lutron products or you are looking for a DIY connected home solution then these recent releases from Lutron should be right up your street. They have just released the Lutron App for Apple iOS and Google Android devices – phone and tablets. Also there is the Lutron Smart Gridge, a wireless device that can control your other Lutron and third-party connected devices.
Emerson has launch its first heating and cooling monitoring solution, ComfortGuard. The solution will monitor the home’s heating and cooling in real-time to alert the homeowner of any immediate issue and any that are developing. With ComfortGuard enables homeowners to improve their home’s HAVC service by preventing energy waste and costly repairs.
Over the last couple of weeks the news has been a washed with speculation on what the new Apple home solution will be. On Monday at the Apple annual Worldwide Developers Conference, the mystery solution was finally unveiled as Apple Homekit, a new connected home solution coming to your home soon. I think what Apple done this week; they should have done from 2009 or even earlier. Why? Because it was from then that the public and home automation solutions providers need their support.
One of the Achilles of the Windows platform in the connected home is the lack of support especially on the Windows phone platform. An app for the Windows phone seems to be an afterthought for connected home solutions providers. Well, this is about to change because Insteon one of the market leading home automation suppliers, has release Apps some windows based apps to manage and control Insteon devices.
Of the over 30 energy suppliers in the UK, for some time, only British Gas was offering a smart energy management platform as part of their energy services. Customer needing an energy management solution would have to do it independently or use British Gas Hive. Through a joint partnership with Nest, the smart thermostat company, nPower is offering their own smart energy management service to compete with British Gas.
The home automation market today receive a new entrant from Emerson, The Sensi is their first universal Wi-Fi Thermostat. The Sensi comes with its own App that allows you to control it from a smart phone, tablet or PC. Already a big name in the thermostat and HVAC controls industry Emerson said they want to tap into US $600M market. Emerson said the Sensi give you the added flexibility you cannot get from a standard programmable thermostat, in that it can adapt to your busy schedule.
The changes in social structure and economics have always influence our movement and more so in our modern society. This has lead to strain on certain resources in certain areas prompting the need to better manage these resources with smarter technologies, leading to the creation of smart cities. The building of smart cities such as Songdo, South Korea and Living PlanIT, Portugal are proof of how a city’s resources and infrastructure can be connected to support a cohesive lifestyle, between people and their environment.
China’s Broadlink Electronic has release range of smart home appliances built on Marvell’s Internet of Things (IoT) platform. The range is base on Broadlink’s “Smart Life and Smart Lifestyle” vision featuring the RM2 Universial Home Controller, A1 Air Quality Monitor and the SP2 Smart-Socket. Together this range of DIY home automation products allows homeowners to control their television, garage doors, light switches and any connected home appliances.
There is no doubt that the connected home needs an Operating System (OS) or some agnastic software environment to manage its diverse devices and services. For the last four years the only company that shows any potential in filling this gap was Microsoft with its prototype homeOS platform. I think this is about to change with the introduction of the Alljoyn platform backed by the Allseen alliance, a new industry body promoting interoperability between devices under the concept of the “Internet of Everyt
iControl is now offering the Netgear STS7000, a Google Android based tablet that can manage their “iControl Connect” solutions. It is ZigBee and Z-Wave compatible, therefore you can access and control your home automation systems such as security, energy management and lighting, through it touchscreen interface.