Manage Your Smart Home With An App!

DEDICATION

Apparently behind every important guy is a great girl. This book is dedicated to that girl — my loving wife and girlfriend for over 20++years — Olive!

Of course my dedication extends to our five precious children:

»   Aoife (our little GAA star)

»   Ciara (Our little fashion queen)

»   Gerard (AKA Gerdie the hard man)

»   Dearbhla (Our 4 year old little princess)

»   And Baby Aoibhinn (our little

     Thumbelina, who is now in the terrible two’s!).

Also a big dedication goes to my Mother and Father living in Dear Old Skibbereen, West Cork; and my two young brothers — Owen and Brian. And finally my Electronic Production drinking buds!

Gerard O’Driscoll is 43 years old and originally from Cork in Ireland, married to Olive with five kids ranging from 3 to 14 years old — so a busy house!

Over the past 20 years, Gerard has served in a variety of management, engineering, and commercial positions in both public and private industry sectors. Gerard is an accomplished international telecoms expert, educator, serial Internet entrepreneur and angel investor. Other professional achievements include the authoring of various books:

Over the years Gerard has been given the role as commentator on industry events and trends in the various industry sectors and been quoted in a number of premier business publications. Additionally he has presented papers at a handful of conferences around the world.

In recent years, Gerard has become involved as an angel investor in a portfolio of start-ups & emerging growth companies in mobile apps, e-commerce, e-Learning, subscription commerce, food, Wearables and digital home sectors.

On the education front Gerard hold electronics and information technology qualifications from the University of Limerick in Ireland.

ORGANIZATIONAL AND TOPICAL COVERAGE

Chapter One: Defines HA 2.0, and lists some reasons why you should at least consider installing automation elements of a system. The chapter concludes with a categorization of HA 2.0 functionalities, namely essential and nice to have.

Chapter Two: Here I focus on the four most popular technology platforms used by HA 2.0 systems, namely structured wiring, Z-Wave, Insteon, and Zigbee.

Chapter Three: Provides an overview of the various home controller types and introduces you to next generation smart hubs.

Chapter Four: I address readers who wish to gain an in-depth understanding of HA 2.0 alarm systems. Detail is provided on six key smart systems that you can use to enhance your family’s home security levels, namely smart alarm systems, Smart IP cameras, Smart combo alarm devices, smart access control, smart locks and smart doorbells.

In addition to covering the integration of alarm and fire detection systems with your smartphone App, this chapter also deals with adding IP camera, water and freeze alert capabilities to your HA 2.0 system.

Chapter Five: This chapter deals with adding air quality control, fire protection, water and freeze alert capabilities to your home.

Chapter Six: Describes the various benefits of automating your lights at home. Furthermore, the chapter outlines the steps required to install wired and wireless Smart Home lighting control systems.

Chapter Seven: Smart home systems help you save money by reducing your energy consumption. In this chapter I explain how to use energy saving devices such as smart thermostats to reduce your monthly electricity bill. This chapter also explains how to use your smart home system to track where and when electricity is used around the house.

Chapter Eight: Addresses readers who wish to gain an in-depth understanding of next generation Multi-room Music (MRM) 2.0 systems – both wired and wireless versions!

Chapter Nine: I explain how to build a multi-zone HDTV distribution system around your house using Cat5e, wireless or Powerline technologies.

Chapter Ten: In this chapter, I explain how to go about controlling your shades and blinds with an App. Benefits and the steps you need to take to start enjoying the energy saving potential of shade control are provided here.

Chapter Eleven: Describes how to set up an area in your home to support a home cinema. In addition to explaining each of the elements required to build your home cinema system, this chapter also describes how to plan and install a Wi-Fi to IR system – such an addition allows you use a smartphone or tablet to control your home cinema devices in addition to your HA 2.0 system.

Chapter Twelve: Efforts have already started to make kitchens around the world smarter. In this chapter I explain the concept of smart and connected kitchens. I explain smart appliances, their benefits and describe various types of smart kitchen components.

Chapter Thirteen: It is now possible to connect your garden to the Internet. In this chapter I explain the benefits, components and how you might go about installing an Internet connected smart sprinkling system. Details about managing your indoor and outdoor plants with an App is also described here.

The connection of outdoor weatherproof speakers to your smart home system is also covered towards the end of this chapter.

Chapter Fourteen: The internet of things (also abbreviated as IoT) is here. This chapter defines IoT and how it relates to smart homes.

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WHO SHOULD READ THIS BOOK

This book is intended to be read by the following people:

Home owners interested in controlling their lighting, alarm, safety, heating and entertainment systems on their smartphones or tablets while out and about or at home.

Home builders interested in identifying specific smart home automation ideas that will differentiate their offerings and improve overall property sales.

This Book is a useful tool for electrical contractors and alarm installers who are unsure about how to start offering smart home installation services to their customers.

Anyone else curious about how to setup a next generation smart home system at a reasonable cost!

Home Automation Overview

The first iteration of automation for the residential sector, also known as Home Automation 1.0 (HA 1.0) has been available for the past three decades – primarily confined to high-end households and ambitious technology enthusiasts.

Figure 1.1, illustrates the timeline of the HA 1.0 era:

Figure 1.1 HA 1.0 Timeline

THE KEY FEATURES OF THE ABOVE DIAGRAM ARE:

Mid Seventies – A home automation protocol called X10 was introduced to the marketplace.

Mid Eighties – New standards were released and failed to gain traction amongst the general population.

Nineties & early noughties – Although interest in home automation was growing at the end of the 1990s, uptake was dominated by professionally installed proprietary solutions and DIY products based on the X-10 automation protocol.

Mid noughties to late noughties – X10 products start to lose popularity with the release of next generation standardized products based on – Zigbee, Wifi and Z-Wave.

The failure of HA 1.0 to capture people’s imagination has been attributed to a number of reasons, namely:

Complexity – Many of the HA 1.0 products released in the early years of home automation were buggy and technically complex.

Multiple incompatible standards – Over the years there have been attempts by various organizations to create standards to drive the adoption of home automation systems across the globe. Poor interoperability of devices from different suppliers and limited support from the manufacturing community has kept penetration of HA 1.0 products to a minimum.

Expensive to install – Although HA 1.0 did provide for DIY type products, in general an end-to-end home automation system required expensive install professionals to ensure that the equipment worked correctly. Incorporating a full home automation system into a new house required a significant upfront investment.

The media – Coverage of home automation 1.0 systems was typically confined to case studies of large high-end houses owned by celebrities, or demonstrations of futuristic smart homes. This approach has embellished the belief in most people’s minds that home automation is not affordable and is only available to affluent people in our society.

A solution looking for a problem – HA 1.0 solutions were nice to have; but did not solve any specific problem for consumers around the globe.

Limited to DIY enthusiasts and high-end properties – The HA 1.0 market is quite small and limited to people who install automation in their homes as a hobby, and to systems that get installed by professional home integration experts.

Today, user perceptions towards home automation have begun to change. People are starting to learn about the possibilities of using their smartphones to control their homes.

What is HA 2.0?

"No longer is home automation confined to the privileged in society!"

The latest generation of automation, dubbed home automation 2.0 (HA 2.0) is changing the way the average person thinks about controlling their home.

HA 2.0 refers to the ability to use a device such as a standard remote control, a smartphone, tablet, or PC to control particular life enhancement systems within your home. Examples of critical systems you might want to control from anywhere in the world include lighting, heating, alarm, and cameras.

The term often means different things to different people; some people think of HA 2.0 as a system that allows them to turn their heating and lights on from their iPhone whilst on the way home from work, whereas others define an HA 2.0 system as a means of cutting down on energy costs.

What it means in reality is that home automation solutions have reached a stage in their evolution, where it has finally become affordable for the ‘man on the street’ – no longer is home automation confined to the privileged in society!

HA 2.0 Ecosystem

Almost daily, we hear of new and innovative home automation products being launched onto the marketplace from a diverse range of stakeholders.

Figure 1.2 illustrates the key players within the HA 2.0 ecosystem:

Manufacturers

Utility companies

Telecommunication providers

Online e-commerce stores

App developers

DIY’ers

System integrators & installers

Figure 1.2 – HA 2.0 Industry Ecosystem

As you can see from the above diagram HA 2.0 is on the way; however, in order for HA 2.0 to achieve mass market uptake, closer cooperation between all of these stakeholders will be required over the coming years.

HA 2.0 Market Drivers

Home Automation is positioned at the nexus of the following eight booming market trends:

Standardization has happened! – Global standards, protocols, and data distribution systems are available, which allow home automation control structures such as security and lighting systems to interact and integrate with each other.

The Internet – The wide adoption of the Internet has resulted in the growth and advancement of HA 2.0. Users can activate an App running on their smartphone or tablet device to remotely access their surveillance cameras, adjust home lights, turn up the air conditioning or close their curtains from anywhere in the world.

Proliferation of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets: The near-ubiquitous ownership of smartphones is driving demand for Apps that allow consumers to monitor and control their alarm, lighting, heating, cameras and entertainment systems remotely over the Internet. Awareness that these devices can be used to control all of these in-home systems is starting to slowly creep into society.

Availability of Affordable HA 2.0 products: Most HA 2.0 products do not require professional installation and are pretty affordable to buy. Low cost products based on mature technologies such as Z-Wave, Zigbee, INSTEON and Wi-Fi have eliminated the pre-requisite of re-wiring a house to install an automation system.

Much more than the cool factor: Not only is App control of a person’s home considered to be cool, but HA 2.0 products can help to enhance living standards, increase home security levels and cut down on energy expenses.

Major service providers are reselling HA 2.0 home monitoring products to their customers – Cable operators, telecom companies, large international home security companies are looking for new growth opportunities and have started to offer home control and alarm subscription products to their existing basw of customers.

Government Initiatives – Governments around the world, including our own here in Ireland, are encouraging the adoption of smart grid technologies in order to reduce household energy consumption. HA 2.0 products such as appliance control modules, automated light switches, and smart thermostats are viewed by most as valued additions to these initiatives.

Expectations are growing! – People’s expectations are growing from generation to generation. In addition to basic telephone and TV services enjoyed by our parents, younger people nowadays (such as myself ) want features such as HDTV, multi-room music, surround sound and IP cameras included in their homes.

HA 2.0 Benefits

As with everything in life, the benefits of motivating yourself and spending money needs to produce some tangible results! Although the benefits of adding automation to your home will vary from person to person, there are some general ones that most people can enjoy as result of adding HA 2.0 system to their property:

It’s simple to use: Once installed, a HA 2.0 system provides easy control of all your lights, heating, security and entertainment systems via a tablet, smartphone or PC.

Improved comfort & convenience: HA 2.0 systems allow you to setup ‘scenes’ that will increase comfort levels at home. Scenes are normally used to perform a number of actions at a particular instance in time. For instance, I have an ‘ALL OFF’ scene on my iPhone that switches all of the lights OFF around the house – it’s handier than jumping out of a warm bed on a cold Irish winter’s night and turning off the light in the bathroom, which was left on by one of our kids Popular scenes that you may want to consider once your HA 2.0 system is installed include:

A scene called ‘Heading to Bed’, which turns OFF all your lights, arms your alarm in night time mode, turns OFF your music and reduces the set-point levels of your thermostats.

A scene called ‘Wakeup’, which turns the music ON at a low level in the bedrooms and main bathroom. Additionally, this scene could also be configured to turn ON the lights at a particular dim level and raise the thermostat set-point levels for the downstairs zone.

A scene called ‘Party’, which turns the music ON in all your downstairs rooms, switches ON all of the outside lights and dim lights in your dining area. In winter time, you might also want to consider setting your thermostat to activate the boiler to increase temperature levels around the house.

Enhanced security & safety levels: A HA 2.0 system has the potential to make your family safer. Here are my top three