Smart home technology should increase living comfort, make buildings safer and help save energy. To do this, various components must work together smoothly. Find out everything you need about sensors, actuators, the control unit in the smart home, and the programming options.
Smart home technology aims to increase comfort, make living safer, and use energy more efficiently. For this purpose, the technology in the smart home takes over many tasks that the residents would otherwise have to do themselves. Here you can get an overview of the technology in the smart home.
The term smart home needs to be more precisely defined. The concept, also referred to as smart living, connected home, home automation, or eHome, means intelligent systems that
There are various ways to integrate smart home technology into a building. If the smart home is considered right from the start in the new building, very functional systems can be created in this way, and costs can be saved simultaneously. However, modern radio systems also enable retrofitting in existing buildings. Here is an overview of the components of smart home technology.
To function, the smart home system needs a lot of information. These are largely obtained via sensors. For example, these devices can measure or perceive temperature, brightness, or movements. However, sensors can also be used to determine whether windows and doors are closed or whether stovetops are switched off.
The gateway has many names, including base station, central station, hub, or bridge. What is always meant is a central control unit that networks all components of the smart home technology with each other. For example, sensors send their information to the gateway, which then uses the data in the smart home cloud to derive control processes and issue commands to the responsible actuators.
The gateway is connected to the cloud and the internet in most systems. In the meantime, however, smart home systems are also being developed that work offline.
Actuators implement the commands developed based on the information from the sensors or the gateway. For example, actuators are attached to lamps, radiators, loudspeakers, televisions, shutters, and household appliances such as washing machines or dryers. For example, if a sensor reports that the room temperature has exceeded a desired value, the actuator regulates the heating to bring this value back within acceptable limits.
Smart home technology is yet to be ready to work completely without human intervention. Therefore, various input devices offer the possibility of manually intervening in the processes at any time. The desired programming and automation can also be carried out via input devices. Typical are:
The input devices show the current status – for example, temperature, power consumption, and brightness – and options to regulate them directly. They can be attached to the end devices (e.g., the heating) or central locations. Language assistants such as Amazon Alexa, Siri from Apple, or Google Assistant are also used to control the smart home. In addition, access to many functions via smartphone is also possible remotely, i.e., while on the go.
For all parts of the smart home technology to communicate, they must be networked. This is possible by cable or by radio. If you are planning a smart home in a new building, you can plan the corresponding (bus) cabling simultaneously and thus create a well-thought-out system that is less susceptible to faults and works regardless of thick walls or distances. The best-known standard for physically networked systems is KNX. However, retrofitting an existing cable system is expensive and time-consuming – walls must be torn open and new cables installed.
Wireless systems use the in-house WLAN or other wireless standards such as ZigBee or Z-Wave to communicate with smart home technology. Thick ceilings, walls, or reinforced concrete can pose a challenge for wireless systems. On the other hand, these systems can be used in any building – even in rented apartments without possibly laying cables. Anyone who decides on a radio system should consider whether the selected devices are compatible and use the same standard.
A separate branch of smart home technology is what is known as Ambient Assisted Living. It aims to make it easier for seniors and people with physical disabilities to live in their homes and thus delay or even avoid moving to a care facility. AAL systems can, among other things
For Ambient Assisted Living systems, the focus is even more on easy and intuitive usability. Among other things, large switches, voice control, and easy-to-understand user interfaces contribute to this.
“Gadgets” are sometimes used to refer to devices specially designed for the smart home, are easy to integrate, and take on various tasks in the smart home. They are usually controlled directly via WLAN or Bluetooth. Examples of such gadgets are:
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