About 10 years ago some household appliance manufacturers ventured to equip their products with high-tech. In 2004, Bosch presented CoolMedia with a refrigerator with a built-in LCD TV. Also this year, Siemens prophesied the networking of devices over the Internet and the mobile phone as well as the control by means of a tablet and was thus far ahead of its time.
White goods, the second
The response of the consumers, however, was rather modest. However, household robots, whose first models came onto the market at about the same time, slowly but surely made their way through and are now available in many variations. In the age of networking, intelligent household appliances are now in demand, as some new innovations show.
Smart Grid - Intelligent Power
Two of the largest white goods manufacturers were present at the last year's IFA with the theme Smart Home: Samsung and Miele.
A standard for all
The Koreans presented a networked kitchen, where all devices can be controlled via WLAN and various apps. Nice: The Samsung Smart TV can also be used for operation. One example is the refrigerator: via a built-in touch screen all purchased food with their durability data can be entered. Thus on the screen and via the app on smartphone and tablet is recognizable whether the products are still usable. In addition, you can create a shopping slip, which can also be sent to smartphone and Co.
Connected in harmony
Unfortunately, there is no way to scan the barcode of the product on the refrigerator or the smartphone camera so that products can only be classified under "eggs" or "poultry". As Samsung could once again hand.
Certain programming is also possible for all devices. It is therefore possible to shut down all devices that do not require electricity at all times, while activating a vacuum cleaner robot that cleans the home while you are not at home.
For this scenario to work, however, must also be all household appliances of Samsung. Samsung is not able to recognize any networking with devices from other manufacturers or integration into existing smart home solutions. But this can still come, especially since the Koreans are also partners of QIVICON, Deutsche Telekom's smart home offer. After all, Samsung in its home country South Korea is already far ahead, as well as the competitor LG.
In the United States, however, Miele dominates in this area. Since 2011, the company has been offering networked functions in its devices under the name "Miele @ home". Again, there are apps for the smartphone.
With InfoControlPlus you can get the status of your devices. And with Smart Start, devices activate when the electricity price in the Smart Grid is just the most favorable. For this to work, either a gateway must be installed in already existing housebus systems (such as Busch-Jaeger's KNX system), which passes the commands. Alternatively, a communication module can also be used to establish a powerline system over the power grid.
For a long time electricity flowed in one direction: from the electricity generator, ie the power stations of the power generators, to the consumers. But this is changing now. And it must also be so that the power grid can meet the requirements of the future.
Even without power stations in the United States, the days of fossil fuels and nuclear power plants are counted. But alternative, clean sources of energy such as photovoltaics or wind power have a big disadvantage: if the sun does not shine or wind is blowing, no electricity is produced. In addition, in the United States the large wind parks are located in the north, while the largest consumers are in the south. These factors would put a heavy strain on a traditional electricity network.
The answer is Smart Grid. In such an intelligent energy network, electricity prices would fluctuate depending on the supply and demand. With intelligent power meters and smart devices, each user could save money while simultaneously relieving the burden on the network. In addition, "prosumer" (consumers who produce electricity at the same time) do not have to sell their electricity to the energy groups. Instead, they could immediately use it themselves or provide it to other consumers. In the United States, such an intelligent electricity network is currently being tested in six model regions within the framework of the E-Energy funding program.
In addition to Miele, other manufacturers such as Siemens, Bosch and Elektrolux are also represented in the CECED (Conseil Europeen de la Construction d'Appareils Domestiques). They agreed ten years ago on a communication standard for household appliances on KNX basis called CHAIN. However, for a long time, Miele was the only manufacturer to offer networked devices at all.
IKEA looks to the future
Perhaps that is why Miele surprised at the IFA 2013 with a sweep of his smart home policy. In the future, the devices will no longer communicate via Powerline, but via the open wireless standard ZigBee. The reason for the change is QIVICON, which works with this standard.
Like Samsung, Miele is a partner of Deutsche Telekom in its smart home solution. There are also applications from the QIVICON App Store from Miele. In contrast to the Samsung, the networking with other devices at Miele is also possible. However, the external control possibilities should be limited to "on" and "off". In addition, it is planned that, for safety reasons, it is only possible to switch off the appliance in the case of appliances such as the stove. Nevertheless, there are exciting opportunities.
One comes from the PaX door and window manufacturer, also a QIVICON partner who works under the name "PaXsmart" on intelligent doors and windows, which are to be available in 2017.
Such a smart gate could be networked via QIVICON with the corresponding Miele household appliances so that they automatically switch off as soon as one leaves the house. So, for example, there is no need to worry about whether the stove has been let down - without the smartphone.
In addition to Samsung and Miele, other manufacturers are also interested in smart home networking. For example, Bosch 2017 wants to show a networked kitchen.
The networking of various household appliances is also the goal of the EEBus initiative. It has emerged from the funding program "EEnergy" of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. Primarily, it is working on a solution to intelligently network power consumers and producers to meet the challenges of the smart grid.
For example, the refrigerator could build up a cold store when the solar system reports that electricity is being produced. This would relieve the electricity network as a whole and the used energy would be used up again. As a practical side-effect, the devices would also be interlinked, beyond the manufacturer's boundaries. How could such a thing look?
To keep the stove and the door open: instead of simply turning off all the appliances, a smart door would automatically register when the stove was left on leaving the home, and would report the SMS to an SMS. Whether the stove remains connected or not, everyone decides.
To achieve this, EEBus is working on a "middleware of universal translators between existing fieldbus systems". The disadvantage of this is that it is again cable-based information transmission. A wireless system such as QIVICON could be integrated only indirectly - via a radio bus gateway.
In general, the EEBus solution would be more interesting for house builders, less for retrofitting in rented housing and houses.
The primary focus, however, is on efficient energy use. Here, too, there are already suitable household appliances. This can be seen on the "SG ready" sign. It indicates that these devices can be networked with a Smart Grid. This means that they switch on automatically when the electricity price is the most favorable during the day. LG devices with Smart ThinQ are already ready for Smart Grid. But they are only available as imports in the United States.
The next problem: The intelligent energy network does not yet exist. However, this could be the case by 2020, since according to an EU regulation 80 per cent of all households have to have an intelligent electricity meter. SG-ready devices can already be networked with the in-house photovoltaic system - a smart grid in small.
Again, Miele is a pioneer again. A prerequisite for this is the Sunny Home Manager of the energy management solution SMA Smart Home. The T 8881 S EcoComfort solar dryer from Miele goes even further. This is connected directly to the heating system, which in turn is connected to the solar thermal system on the roof. The warm air for the dryer is extracted directly from the hot water by means of a heat exchanger. There is also a "SolarSpar" option for Miele dishwashers.
And what does the "networked kitchen" of the future look like? This is precisely the question posed by the Swedish furniture giant IKEA and commissioned a study in 2010, in which three possible scenarios for the kitchen were designed in 30 years.
One of them is a smart kitchen called "Skarp" in the style of IKEA. The devices are operated via Touchpanels in the iPad style, the cleaning of dishes and work surfaces is done automatically. And with the help of apps, intelligent thermostats and electricity meters, energy is saved.
If you look at the current development, this future is likely to be reality in less than 30 years.
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