When you look around at many of the smart home systems coming to market, most of them require a total revamp, meaning you have to throw out your existing hardware and replace it with new gear in order to get the advantages of new technology.
When you look around at many of the smart home systems coming to market, most of them require a total revamp, meaning you have to throw out your existing hardware and replace it with new gear in order to get the advantages of new technology. But now, some newer smart solutions are coming to the retrofit market that enable you to make use of what you already have at home.
In 2014, leading power and automation group ABB launched free@home in response to calls for smart home devices that can control an ensemble of functions, including lighting, heating, blinds or door entry from a smartphone or tablet. Against this backdrop, the system is considered by many as a major step forward since it opens up the entire home automation market to electrical installers and wholesalers.
“For an electrician, installing free@home is reasonably simple and not very time-consuming. It saves money. Its core piece, the System Access Point makes possible accessing the system via a PC or a tablet. Using an already available network or an ad-hoc WLAN connection, the functions of the system can be defined and programmed without any difficulty,” Olaf Stutzenberger said, Global MarCom manager of Building Automation at ABB.
The system provides several advantages, one of which is that it is easy to install, and the other being the fact that, compared to conventional electrical installations, there are few additional costs, which makes it particularly attractive for consumers.
The new ABB-free@home wireless communication is based on a 2.4 GHz frequency totally encrypted communications protocol, adapted in a mesh network – which links the devices together to amplify the network. According to Stutzenberger, free@home wireless can be used as a stand-alone solution or as an extension to the wired version of free@home.
“With the new wireless components, completely new opportunities for using free@home can be achieved, particularly in the area of renovated and modernized buildings. They make it possible to enjoy the advantages of this comfortable and intuitive smart home system without any chiseling and plastering,” he explained. Moreover, up to 64 participants can be installed for each communication path, wired or wireless – which is enough for a common house.
Updates featuring voice control & IFTTT
The need for natural, conversational interaction between humans and their devices is increasing as people rely on them for more daily tasks. ABI Research predicts that consumers who engage with voice functionality on a monthly basis will grow to more than one billion by 2021, an 80 percent CAGR. Needless to say, voice control and conversational interaction is a natural fit for both smart home devices, as their primary purpose is to offer hands-free, efficient data display and interaction for users.
“One of the newest features provided now by ABB’s free@home is speech control. From now on, intelligent speech control will provide even more comfort, security and energy efficiency in the smart home,” Stutzenberger exclaimed.
What’s interesting about this new-fangled feature is that this update not only allows receiving and executing spoken commands, but also gives the user a reply, for example, when asking which room the lights are on or off. “Spoken interaction is activated quite easily, as the user touches the microphone button in the free@home app.” According to ABB, no special programming is necessary, as the system uses the room, floor and device names that were already predefined in the system settings.
Another new feature to the updated system is the connection of the free@home app to the myABB-Livingspace portal. This way, all members of the family can use their mobile devices to change things on the go and for security reasons it is point to point encrypted. Moreover, with IFTTT becoming increasingly popular for connected home devices, a new menu item called “Actions” now allows users to create chains of conditional statements within the free@home ecosystem.
KNX and open APIs
“KNX provides uncomplicated access to the smart home for installation specialists and users, as the ease of implementation and operation is obvious,” Stutzenberger said, adding that it is currently the only open standard for house and building system technology in the world because it complies with the requirements of the international standard ISO/IEC 14543-3, as well as those of both the European standards (CENELEC EN50090 and CEN EN13321-1 or EN13321-2).
Free@home is a bus-based system developed by ABB, a communication protocol that makes really easy to design a connected smart home. Furthermore, it can be easily scalable just by connecting the new items to the BUS.
ABB believes that although the free@home system is a proprietary system, this should not be an obstacle in setting up a smart home, as compatibility with various systems and components made by other manufacturers is provided for. Proprietary solutions that have open Application Programming Interfaces (API) meet this requirement, and free@home is one of those solutions.
“Ultimately, there must be certain interoperability among different solutions and standards. We believe that proprietary solutions can be successful too, as long as they offer open programming interfaces, APIs.”
Reaching new heights
The wired variant of ABB’s free@home system has seen its share of successes in the last two years, a result which demonstrates that the concept of a smart home has reached the end clients, and is in demand both for new buildings and refurbished buildings. “We are just starting to expand free@home with wireless devices. As the market for existing buildings is significantly larger than that of new buildings, a higher demand is to be expected here in the future,” he noted.
Commenting on whether the company plans to add more control functions to its existing ecosystem, Stutzenberger however responded that the list of ideas and possible additional applications for the free@home system is something to look forward to in the long run.
“Although we cannot yet disclose what will exactly be done, but you can be sure that the attractiveness of the system will grow in the future. After all, a smart home should also be made enjoyable for all,” he concluded.
Product Adopted:Energy Efficiency