Home automation

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Home wiring history

A typical domestic patch panel.

Traditionally, homes have been wired for four systems: power, telephones, cable TV outlets, and a doorbell. Typically, components and wiring for these are kept within a closet or a patch panel. motorola bluetooth hs850

Home automation has been around since World War I. A television remote was first patented in 1950,[citation needed] and a remote control device was first used by the Germans in World War I to control motorboats. From there, the evolution of controllers and automation has been growing and still continue to grow to this day. e2c

In advanced installations, rooms can sense not only the presence of a person but know who that person is and perhaps set appropriate lighting, temperature, music or television levels taking into account the day of the week, the time of day, and other factors. hs850

Other automated tasks may include setting the air conditioning to an energy saving setting when the house is unoccupied, and restoring the normal setting when an occupant is about to return. More sophisticated systems can maintain an inventory of products, recording their usage through an RFID tag, and prepare a shopping list or even automatically order replacements.

Some practical implementations of home automation are for example when an alarm detects a fire or smoke condition, then all lights in the house will blink to alert occupants. If the house is equipped with a home theater, a home automation system can shut down all audio and video components to alert the user to a possible fire or a burglar.

Standards and bridges

Specific domestic wiring and communication standards include BACnet, INSTEON, X10, PLC BUS, KNX (standard), System Box, LonWorks, C-Bus, SCS BUS with OpenWebNet, Universal powerline bus (UPB), UPnP, ZigBee and Z-Wave that will allow for control of most applications. Some standards use communication and control wiring, some embed signals in the powerline, some use radio frequency (RF) signals, and some use a combination of several methods. Control wiring is hardest to retrofit into an existing house. Some appliances include USB that is used to control it and connect it to a domotics network. Bridges translate information from one standard to another (eg. from X10 to European Installation Bus).

Technology

Transmission medium

Transmission speed

Maximum distance to the device

Ethernet {IEEE 802.3}

Unshielded twisted pair

10 Mbit/s 1 Gbit/s

100 m

Optical fiber

1 Gbit/s 10 Gbit/s

2 km 15 km

HomePlug {IEEE P1901}

Electrical wiring

14 Mbit/s - 200 Mbit/s

200 m

Universal Powerline Association

Electrical wiring

200 Mbit/s

200 m

ITU G.hn {G.9960}

Electrical wiring / Telephone line / Coaxial cable

up to 1 Gbit/s

N/A

HomePNA {G.9951, G.9952, G.9953, and G.9954}

Telephone line

10 Mbit/s

300 m

Wi-Fi {IEEE 802.11}

Radio frequency

11 Mbit/s 248 Mbit/s

30 m 100 m

FireWire {IEEE 1394}

Unshielded twisted pair / Optical fiber

400 Mbit/s 3.2 Gbit/s

4.5 m 70 m

Bluetooth {IEEE 802.15.1 (v1.1 only)}

Radio frequency

1 Mbit/s 10 Mbit/s

10 m 100 m

IRDA

Infrared

9600 bit/s 4 Mbit/s

2 m

C-Bus

Twisted pair / Electrical wiring / Radio frequency / Infrared / Ethernet / Wi-Fi

1200 bit/s 9600 bit/s

1000 m

LonWorks {ISO/IEC 14908}

Twisted pair / Electrical wiring / Radio frequency / Infrared / Coaxial / Optical fiber / IP tunneling

1.70 kbit/s 1.28 Mbit/s

1500 m 2700 m

INSTEON

Electrical wiring / Radio frequency

1.2 kbit/s

1,000 m+ (Electrical wiring), 50 m+ (Wireless)

X10

Electrical wiring

50 bit/s 60 bit/s

European Installation Bus / KNX {ISO/IEC 14543-3}

Twisted pair / Electrical wiring / Radio frequency / Infrared / Ethernet

1200 bit/s 9600 bit/s

300 m 1000 m

EHS

Twisted pair / Electrical wiring

2.4 kbit/s 48 kbit/s

Batibus

Twisted pair

4800 bit/s

200 m 1500 m

ZigBee {IEEE 802.15.4 (radio-layer only, not protocol)}

Radio frequency

20 kbit/s 250 kbit/s

10 m 75 m

Z-Wave

Radio frequency

9.6 kbit/s 40 kbit/s

1 m 75 m

USB

Twisted pair

12 Mbit/s 480 Mbit/s

5 m

System

The elements of a domotics system are:

hardware controllers or software controllers

sensors

actuators

Architecture

From the point of view of where the intelligence of the domotic system resides, there are three different architectures:

Centralized Architecture: a centralized controller receives information of multiple sensors and, once processed, generates the opportune orders for the actuators.

Distributed Architecture: all the intelligence of the system is distributed by all the modules that are sensors or actuators. Usually it is typical of the systems of wiring in bus.

Mixed Architecture: systems with decentralized architecture as far as which they have several small devices able to acquire and to process the information of multiple sensors and to transmit them to the rest of devices distributed by the house.

Interconnection

By wire:

optical fiber

cable (coaxial and twisted pair), including:

xDSL

powerline, including:

INSTEON

X10

Wireless:

radio frequency, including:

INSTEON

Wi-Fi

GPRS and UMTS

Bluetooth

DECT

ZigBee

Z-Wave

ONE-NET

EnOcean

infrared, including:

Consumer IR

Both Wireless and Wire

INSTEON

Classifications of domestic network technologies

Device interconnection:

FireWire

Bluetooth

USB

IrDA

Control and automation nets:

C-Bus (protocol)

Universal Powerline Bus

Konnex

Lonworks

X10

ONE-NET

EIB

EHS

BatiBUS

ZigBee

EnOcean

SCS BUS - OpenWebNet

Data nets:

Ethernet

Homeplug

HomePNA

WiFi

Tasks

HVAC

Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) solutions include temperature and humidity control (climotics). This is generally one of the most important aspects to a homeowner. An Internet-controlled thermostat, for example, can both save money and help the environment, by allowing the homeowner to control the building's heating and air conditioning systems remotely.

Lighting

Lighting control systems involves aspects related to controlling electric lights.

Extinguished general of all the lights of the house

Automation of switched off / ignition in every point of light

Regulation of the illumination according to the level of ambient luminosity

Natural lighting

Natural lighting control involves controlling window shades, LCD shades, draperies and awnings. Recent advances include use of RF technology to avoid wiring to switches and integration with third party home automation systems for centralized control.

Audio

Major companies associated with Audio Distribution include: Crestron, [Russound], NuVo, Control 4, and Niles.

There are three components that allow the consumer to listen to audio throughout your home, or business:

CAT 5e/ CAT6 cable from Audio central unit.

2 sets of speaker cabling (4ply from amplifier, and 2 ply from key pad to ceiling or wall speakers).

A keypad to control your volume and sources.

This category includes audio switching and distribution. Audio switching determines the selection of an audio source. Audio distribution allows an audio source to be heard in one or more rooms. This feature is often referred to as 'multi-zone' audio.

Video

This includes video switching and distribution, allowing a video source to be viewed on multiple TVs. This feature is often referred to as 'multi-zone' video.

Integration of the intercom to the telephone, or of the video door entry system to the television set, allowing the residents to view the door camera automatically.

Security

Control and integration of security systems.

With Home Automation, the consumer can select and watch cameras live from an Internet source to their home or business. Security cameras can be controlled, allowing the user to observe activity around a house or business right from a Monitor or touch panel. Security systems can include motion sensors that will detect any kind of unauthorized movement and notify the user through the security system or via cell phone.

This category also includes control and distribution of security cameras (see surveillance).

Detection of possible intrusion

sensors of detection of movement

sensors of magnetic contact of door/window

sensors of glass breaking

sensors of pressure changes

Simulation of presence.

Detection of fire, gas leaks, water leaks (see fire alarm and gas alarm)

Medical alert. Teleassistance.

Precise and safe closing of blinds.

Intercoms

An intercom system allows communication via a microphone and loud speaker between multiple rooms.

Ubiquity in the external control as much internal, remote control from the Internet, PC, wireless controls (p.ej. PDA with WiFi), electrical equipment.

Transmission of alarms.

Intercommunications.

Robotics

Control of home robots, using if necessary domotic electric beacon.

Home robot communication (i.e. using WiFi) with the domotic network and other home robots.

Other systems

A homemade Internet-enabled cat feeder.

Using special hardware, almost any device can be monitored and controlled automatically or remotely.

Including:

Coffee pot

Garage door(s)

Pet feeding and watering

Plant watering

Pool pump(s) and heater, Hot tub and Spa

Sump Pump (need info and links)

Costs

An automated home can be a very simple grouping of controls, or it can be heavily automated where any appliance that is plugged into electrical power is remotely controlled. Costs mainly include equipment, components, furniture, and custom installation.

Smart Grid

In 2009 President Barack Obama asked the United States Congress "to act without delay" to pass legislation that included doubling alternative energy production in the next three years and building a new electricity "smart grid". On April 13, 2009, George W. Arnold was named the first National Coordinator for Smart Grid Interoperability. In June 2009, the NIST announced a smart grid interoperability project via IEEE P2030.

Home automation technologies like Zigbee, INSTEON and Zwave are viewed as integral additions to the Smart Grid. The ability to control lighting, appliances, HVAC as well as Smart Grid applications (load shedding, demand response, real-time power usage and price reporting) will become vital as Smart Grid initiatives are rolled out.

Organizations

CEDIA

Continental Automated Buildings Association

CENELEC

Fast Track Team SmarterHome

Microsoft

MIT AgeLab

SIMO TCI

DLNA

Insteon

Honeywell

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Home automation

Building automation

Crestron

DASH7

Digital home

e-Home Automation

Emergency light

Energy harvesting

EnOcean

Floor plan and house navigation system

Gate operator

Hall Research

Home automation for the elderly and disabled

Home of the future

HVAC

Information appliance

LinuxMCE

Nice

Power line communication

Power over Ethernet (PoE)

Speech recognition and Text To Speech (TTS)

Touchscreen/Touch panel

Xanadu Houses

The Virtual Crib

References

^ "Remote control technology was first developed for military use". Inventors.about.com. 2009-10-30. http://inventors.about.com/od/rstartinventions/a/remote_control.htm. Retrieved 2010-02-18. 

^ "Home automation costs". Totalavcontrol.co.uk. http://www.totalavcontrol.co.uk. Retrieved 2010-02-18. 

^ "Obama's Speech on the Economy". New York Times. 2009-01-09. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/us/politics/08text-obama.html?pagewanted=4. 

^ "NIST Announces Three Phase Plan for Smart Grid". National Institute for Standards and Technology. 2009-04-13. http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/smartgrid_041309.html. 

^ "NIST announces smart grid interoperability project via IEEE P2030, June 2009". Nist.gov. 2010-02-03. http://www.nist.gov/smartgrid/. Retrieved 2010-02-18. 

^ "About Us". InsteonSmartGrid.com. http://www.insteonsmartgrid.com/About-Us.html. Retrieved 2009-11-20. 

^ Fast Track Team Smarterhome as "intelligent" home automation system

^ Microsoft Grace system

^ Miscrosoft's "Grace"-system

External links

Home Automation at the Open Directory Project

Home Automation Guides Provides advice for DIY home automation projects, including weather sensing, furnace control, voice recognition, and surveillance

Categories: Home automation | Domestic technology | Building engineeringHidden categories: Articles needing cleanup from September 2009 | All pages needing cleanup | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements from September 2009