An automated or smart house is essentially the improving and increasing of living standards and the satisfaction of basic human needs such as comfort, functionality and safety.
When talking about an intelligent home system, we wish first of all, to improve and simplify our comfort in such a way that with the push of a button you can lower the blinds, turn on /off the lights in the house, adjust temperature for a cold night and arm the security system. These things will save you undoubtedly several roads that will also save your time and certainly will increase your comfort level.
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The implementation of intuitive and user-friendly solutions in these smart homes makes them become increasingly more a reality today.
Scenarios and Practical Applications of Smart Houses
Every morning you follow the same ritual:
a) Turn on some lights;
b) Open the window blinds;
c) Adjust the thermostat;
d) Disarm the security system;
e) Start the coffee maker.
Do you know you can do these actions simultaneously pressing a simple button installed near the bed in the bedroom, and thus you can earn a few extra minutes of sleep?
Lighting Management System
Lighting management system is an efficient solution for power consumption, while increasing significantly, the user comfort. In recent years, governments in a growing number of countries, adopt rules and standards to improve the energy performance of buildings, whether residential, industrial or commercial. For example, in many European countries in accordance with the European Standard EN15193, this system enables energy savings in lighting installations by about 30% and the return on investment over time.
Lighting management system ensures the efficient lighting energy consumption by controlling the turning on/off of lighting in different areas or the levels of brightness where and when needed. The primary benefit of this system is materialized in a decrease of energy consumption.
Lighting management can be used in green building projects as a solution for energy efficiency, and an excellent and capable solution at the same time to provide a high level of comfort for users.
More than that, energy losses can be eliminated by using the automatic lighting control, which allows the artificial light to be distributed intelligently to a suitable level of brightness for the right space at the right time.
Control in an Occupied Space: Lighting is turned on or off depending on vacancy or occupation of a space. In addition, this smart strategy is not dependent on time or scheduled times but answers to the specific use of a particular space.
Control in Vacant Space: Lighting is turned on or off depending on the space that becomes vacant. It actually responds to a particular individual space use and is not being correlated with a pre-programmed period, or a specific time frame.
Light Intensity Control (Dimming): The levels of brightness are adjusted in accordance with the requirements related to the desired effect or the proper brightness levels for the different activities of the occupants.
Control of Programmable Time Intervals: Lighting is intelligent managed according to the programmed time intervals, based on periods when spaces are occupied/unoccupied and vacant /closed.
Control of Brightness Levels: This strategy involves the proper adjusting of light intensity generated by the light fixtures in various ways to achieve the specific objectives.
The main types of brightness control levels include:
Natural Light: For spaces within buildings that receive abundant natural light, this smart strategy uses the light to supplement or replace the artificial lighting.
Maintaining the Brightness: This strategy is oriented to maintain a constant lighting level throughout the life of the lighting fixtures. To do this properly, the brightness of bulbs will be reduced in the first part of their life span and gradually increased over time.
Setting the Brightness: This approach uses the settings of brightness levels to provide enough light for every specific activity of the occupants. For example, someone involved in activities such as drawing or reading, will need a greater amount of light than a person who arranges merchandise on the shelves.
Audio / Video Control for Your Home
With control interfaces such as a Touch Screen display you can also manage many other systems from your home not just the lighting such as temperature blinds and your audio/ video equipment. Thus, with a simple touch, you can turn on the audio system or get down the projection screen and turn on the projector.
The existence of universal remote controls, such as touch-screens control both the TV, and the audio systems and therefore you can choose between different sources of music: CD Player, Tuner, Internet Radio, DVD Player, Media Server. With the same remote control, you can access many other systems based on predefined scenarios or you can individually set each subsystem.
Audio / Video Control in Different Spaces
One area in which control Audio / Video is found increasingly more for various applications, is the space bound for presentations and communications, especially for business communications.
Board rooms, conference, meeting and training rooms – can use successfully, the integrating control system audio / video during the presentation and communication activities.
Thus, those involved in these activities will can at the same time to control and modify the light intensity to drop the projection screen and start the projector, to enable the audio conference system and to get down the blinds, if the sunlight is too strong. All these control options streamline the work and improve the occupant comfort.
Energy Efficiency
Modern lifestyle is characterized by dynamism and lack of time, but so much is geared towards making your life becoming simpler. Integration of intelligent systems in your home or in your office can simplify a lot and improve your living environment and can also streamline the energy consumption.
Lighting and cooling are the main sources of costs in most homes and offices, and the simple integration of intelligent systems can reduce significantly the costs through a more efficient consumption.
Lowering blinds or curtains when is cold and heating only the rooms that you use saves you money on heating costs. Also, using only lights where you need them, adjusting their intensity, depending on natural light and using different lighting fixtures to create atmosphere or pre-defined scenarios, the space will not only look better, but you will save a lot of money .
However, solutions can move forward with climate control such as weather stations that will help to control house systems depending on the external environment, intelligent shading systems that track the sun, to keep out from heat the rooms that you want them cool. How much you choose to automate or integrate such intelligent systems, it is only up to you.
Home Energy Saving
Automation system enables an efficient control of energy in your home.
Thus you will be able to:
– to automatically turn off the heating / cooling when open windows for ventilation
– to adjust the temperature in each room
– to reduce lighting levels after a certain period of time
– to close and open the outer light, depending on the natural light intensity and the presence of someone outside
– to interrupt the power supply in certain rooms
– and so on
Smart Homes with “Proto Homes” | How To Build A House (howtobuildahouseblog.com)