46th ISTE Annual National Convention & National Conference 2017
International Journal of Advance Research and Innovation (ISSN 2347 – 3258)
Home Automation for Better Tomorrow
V.Kamaraj / M.Balaji / S.Salivahanan / V.S. NagarajanProfessor & head, Department of EEE / Associate Professor, Department of EEE / Principal / Assistant Professor, Department of EEE
SSN College of Engineering / SSN College of Engineering / SSN College of Engineering / SSN College of Engineering
Chennai, India / Chennai, India / Chennai, India / Chennai, India
/ / /
1
Gulzar Group of Institutes, Ludhiana,Punjab-141401 (INDIA)
46th ISTE Annual National Convention & National Conference 2017
International Journal of Advance Research and Innovation (ISSN 2347 – 3258)
1
Gulzar Group of Institutes, Ludhiana,Punjab-141401 (INDIA)
46th ISTE Annual National Convention & National Conference 2017
International Journal of Advance Research and Innovation (ISSN 2347 – 3258)
Abstract — Home automation systems are gaining importance in recent times with the need for energy conservation. The advent of new cost effective technologies has led to the growth in production and usage of automation systems. The typical home automation systems include thermostats, lighting automation, smart metering and energy management system and home security system. This paper deals about the noteworthy home automation products available in the global market, apart from dealing with the history of evolution of automation worldwide and Indian scenario of home automation.
Keywords—home automation; energy; Indian scenario;
I. Introduction
Home automation or smart home (also called as Domotics or Domotica) involves the control and automation of lighting , heating , air-conditioning , ventilation and security.
Eighteenth century is an era where automation had its evolution. In early 1785, Nikola Tesla invented the first remote control to control a boat. Early home automation began with labor-saving machines. Self-contained electric or gas powered home appliances became viable in the 1900’s with the introduction of electric power distribution and led to the introduction of washing machines, water heaters, refrigerators, sewing machines, dish washers and clothes dryers.
The first vacuum cleaner had its evolution in 1901, and over the next few decades washing machine had its existence.
By 1930’s, inventors had turned their idea towards home automation. Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce invented the computer chip as a building block for smart home technology in 1950’s and the world’s first commercially available computer was introduced in 1951.
Jim Sutherland introduced the world’s first automation system ECHO-IV( Electronic Computing Home Operating) in 1966 which could store, relay messages and control home’s temperature and turn appliances on or off.
The world’s first network ARPANET which comprises of Internet of things (IOT) smart technologies that was introduced in 1969. The kitchen computer had its evolution in 1967 which could store recipes.
In 1975, the first general purpose home automation network technology X10 was developed. It primarily used electric power transmission wiring for signaling and control, where the signals involved a brief radio frequency burst of digital data.
By 1978, X10 products included a 16 channel command console, a lamp module and an appliance module. In 1991, there was a lot of research in gerontechnology (combination of gerontology and technology) which could make lives of senior citizens easier. “I have fallen and I can’t get up?” life alert is an example of gerontechnology.
In early 2000s, smart homes began to increase in popularity. Domestic technologies, home networking and other gadgets began to appear later. By 2012, according to ABI research, 1.5 million home automation systems were installed.
Today’s smart homes are more about security and living greener. They help us to ensure that our homes aren’t expending unnecessary energy and also help alert us to intrude us (whether we are in home or not ).
Current trends in home automation include remote mobile control, automated lights, automated thermostat adjustment, scheduling appliances, mobile/email/text notifications and remote video surveillance.
CNN prophesies that the smart home of the future will be a bit like what we have seen in the animated series, “The Jetsons”.
According to [1], there are three generations of home automation, they are
1. Generation 1: Wireless technology. eg: Zigbee based computerization
2. Generation 2: Artificial intelligence based control of electrical appliances. e.g: amazon echo
3. Generation 3: Interacting robots. eg: Rovio, Roomba
The organization of the paper is as follows: Section II deals with thermostats. Section III discusses about the various lighting automation products. In section IV, smart energy management system has been discussed. Section V deals with the home security system. Finally, section VI concludes the discussion.
II. Thermostats
A thermostat is a component which senses the temperature of a system so that the temperature is maintained near a desired set-point. It can be the main control unit for heating or cooling systems in applications such as ambient air-control.
Earlier thermostat control was developed in the 1830’s by Andrew Ure, a Scottish chemist, who invented the bimetallic thermostat.
It is a “closed loop” control device which exerts control by switching heating or cooling devices on or off (i.e.), air conditioners, ovens and refrigerators.
Thermostats can be constructed in many ways and may use a variety of sensors. The significant thermostats available in the international market are nest [1] and omnistat [2].
A. Nest
The Nest learning thermostat is an electronic , programmable and self- starting wifi enabled thermostat that minimizes heating and cooling of homes to conserve energy.
It is based on machine learning procedures i.e., at the initial stage , where one needs to regulate the thermostat to provide the reference data set up. It can then learn people’s schedule, as per their usage as shown in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1 Nest learning thermostat showing weather’s on energy usage
B. Omnistat 2 thermostat
Omnistat 2 is the latest generation of programmable communicating thermostats and provides digital temperature control. Wireless omnistat 2 thermostats, shown in Fig. 2, utilizing Zig Bee home automation technology are perfect for new construction and residential or small commercial retrofits.
Fig. 2 Omnistat2 multistage heat pump with humidity control thermostat rc-2000
III. lighting automation
Lighting or illumination is the deliberate use of light to attain a visual effect. Proper lighting can enhance task performance and improve the appearance of the area. Lighting automation plays a significant role in recent times as the need for energy savings has increased.
The significant lighting systems available in the international market are made by Leviton [3] and ABB automation [4].
A. Leviton automation
At present, a Leviton automation system provides comprehensive energy saving solutions to reduce the energy usage.
Using Leviton systems, one can gain control over 100% of energy management needs. For eg: dimming a light by just 10% can double the life of the bulb. Leviton systems can automatically set lights to 90%, saving money every time a light is turned on.
It is a modular system for sophisticated lighting control. This advanced product line includes dimmers, switches, remote controls and plugin controls as shown in Fig. 3. When typed into a Leviton security and automation system, it automatically sets light to any smartphone or tablets.
Fig. 3 Leviton automatic lighting control
B. ABB automation
ABB products pave an easy way for planning, installing, managing or renewing lighting products, systems and services. It turns house or apartments into an intelligent home with automatic lighting. One such automated lighting system is represented in Fig. 4, which has the following features:
· Low installation cost
· Low maintenance cost
· Low energy consumption
· Safe & continuous operation
Fig. 4 ABB LED escape route lighting system
IV. Energy managament system
Energy management systems are essential in saving money for the users, by proper scheduling of loads based on the user requirement. One such standard smart energy management system is discussed in the following section:
A. ZigBee smart energy management system
ZigBee [5] smart energy is the world’s leading standard for interoperable products that monitor, control, inform and automate the delivery and use of energy and water.
It helps create greener homes by giving consumers the information and automation needed to easily reduce their consumption and save money as shown in Fig. 5.
Fig. 5 ZigBee smart energy system
It provides features like:
1) Dynamic pricing enhancements ,
2) Tunneling of other protocols,
3) Prepayment features, over-the-air updates and
4) Compatibility/Interoperability.
The following are the benefits of using ZigBee smart energy system:
1) Affordable,
2) Easy to use,
3) Reduced energy consumption and
4) Reduced environmental impacts.
V. Home security system
Home security system includes alarm systems, lighting, motion detectors, security camera systems, etc. that are installed on a property. It forms a line of defense against burglary and is also used to monitor the safety of kids and elderly people.
A significant product in providing home security is tuxedo touch, manufactured by Honeywell automation [6], which is discussed as follows:
1) It can be controlled using smartphone and receive important alerts about events occurring in and around home, whether the user is at home or away,
2) Doors can be locked and unlocked, and security systems can be armed or disarmed through the keypad or lock.
3) Kids can be monitored easily. The user can also record upto two-minute video clips on an SD card for visual verification of an alarm event or system activity.
4) A built-in web server provides on-premises control of the security systems through smartphone or tablet.
5) The user can receive emails, text messages, video alerts of important events in real time such as child arriving home from school.
6) The user can view live video on upto six cameras at a time, which is a great way to monitor kids, elderly relatives, pets and property.
The user interface of tuxedo touch is shown in Fig.6.
Fig. 6 Tuxedo touch
VI. Conclusion
Thus, the usage of home automation systems provides energy and cost savings to the user. With reference to Indian scenario, it is one of the fastest growing market for home automation. The industry has been witnessing an annual growth rate of 30-40 %. Owing to the demand for electricity in India, conserving energy also becomes imperative for the future and herein lays the opportunity for automated system. India is in a transition towards the use of renewable energy resources, for which subsidies are provided by the government. Therefore, adoption of automation will further aid the effective harnessing of renewable energy resources.
REFERENCES
[1] https://store.nest.com/product/thermostat?selectedVariantId=T3007ES
[2] http://home.leviton.com/products/wireless-omnistat2-multistage-heat-pump-thermostat-humidity-control/
[3] http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/SectionDisplay.jsp?section=37663&minisite=10251
[4] http://new.abb.com/low-voltage/news/news-archive/new-abb-led-escape-route-lighting
[5] http://www.zigbee.org/zigbee-for-developers/applicationstandards/zigbeesmartenergy
[6] https://www.security.honeywell.com/hsc/products/intruder-detection-systems/keypad/graphic-touchscreen/786167.html
1
Gulzar Group of Institutes, Ludhiana,Punjab-141401 (INDIA)
46th ISTE Annual National Convention & National Conference 2017
International Journal of Advance Research and Innovation (ISSN 2347 – 3258)
1
Gulzar Group of Institutes, Ludhiana,Punjab-141401 (INDIA)