Homes and IoT

In homes, the application of IoT can be found in appliances, lighting, security, energy inside buildings and air conditioning systems.

We are talking about applying IoT in residential homes, offices, shopping centers, public buildings, and even sites with more special requirements such as data processing centers or hospitals. Energy efficiency being a clear growth engine of this type of solutions, it is not the only one. People – ranging from office building managers to homeowners – are increasingly interested in IoT solutions to optimize people’s comfort and safety, and in the possibilities they provide for remote access and operation of all devices, from HVAC systems to security cameras.

Some of the areas of Application of IoT in homes are: lighting control, climate control, gardening, smart appliances, security, air and water quality monitoring, smart switches, smart locks or smart energy meters.

And, lately, voice assistants based on natural language have come into play that, predictably, will end up being the user interface to handle the aforementioned applications.
The sensors that can exist in a smart home are:
 – Temperature 
sensors – Luminosity 
sensors – Water 
level sensors – Air
 composition sensors – Video cameras for surveillance 
– Voice/sound
 sensors – Pressure
 sensors – Humidity 
sensors – Accelerometers 
– Infrared 
sensors – Vibration
 sensors – Ultrasonic sensors

Cloud IoT platforms offer integrated solutions for home automation. An example is AWS IoT from Amazon that offers its IoT platform integrated with Alexa, its voice assistant. 

Commercial buildings 

Regarding commercial and office buildings, we find the same type of applications, to which we add the following: Parking management system and electric vehicle charging, intelligent water management system, elevator and escalator management system, security and emergency management, access control system, security system, energy management and network administration. 

One of the main challenges facing this type of solution is the disparity of manufacturers and the lack of standards and interoperability. In fact, in addition to the amalgam of protocols in the IoT universe (such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, EnOcean, etc.), very specific protocols are used in the field of smart buildings, such as DALI or Modbus, for lighting control, Opentherm designed for heating and cooling applications or MBus for measurement.

The other, how to ensure privacy and intimacy (cases of vulnerability of voice assistants have had a lot of impact. The most recent case has been exposed by Security Research Labs (SRLabs), who discovered a vulnerability in Google and Amazon smart speakers. 

According to an October 2019 report from MarketsandMarkets, the smart building market will grow from $60.7 billion in 2019 to $105.8 billion in 2024, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.7%. Major factors driving the smart building market include the increasing adoption of IoT and increasing industry standards and regulations.

North America is the global leader in the smart building and home market with 40% of the installed base. Asia/Pacific has about 35% and Europe less than 25%.

A very significant example of smart building is The Edge, in Amsterdam, which has become a global icon of Smart Building. Initially projected to have 100,000 m², thanks to intelligent solutions for space management it ended up being only 60,000 m², saving almost half of the initial space and reducing construction costs significantly. It has more than 28,000 sensors and actuators to manage energy and data flow. The company Deloitte, which is the main tenant, takes advantage of the building by collecting a large amount of data that serves not only to optimize the space, improve the comfort conditions of employees and save costs, but also to propose to third parties cutting-edge IoT solutions.

The engine of IoT solutions in buildings is energy efficiency. In this sense, public policies and regulation also focus on energy efficiency.
At the national level, some countries have created legislation to take steps towards a smart building environment, encouraging the optimization of air conditioning systems, the use of renewable energy, support for energy storage in buildings themselves or the deployment of smart meters. At the European level, the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (2010/31/EC) indicated for the implementation in 2020 of the so-called buildings with almost zero energy consumption, called nZEB (Nearly Zero Energy Buildings).
In Spain, a large part of the European directives on energy efficiency are developed in regulations at national and regional level. Certifications, grants and public subsidies around energy efficiency support IoT solutions in buildings and homes