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The Smart Home Is Still Looking for a [Green ] Market

That the "The Smart Home Is Still Looking for a Market"

might be predictively expressed as:

"The Smart Home Is Still Looking for a _Green_ Market"

"Mass market consumers have almost no interest in using ?technology? for home ?automation? or ?control,? ? concluded a market study sponsored a smart-home research group, supported by companies including Whirlpool, Cisco Systems, Direct Energy, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Zensys."

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' "What is needed is a "killer app" ? a compelling use ? and some government encouragement, according to Tim Woods, a partner in the consulting firm Poco Labs and an expert in smart home technology. The killer app, Mr. Woods said, will be energy efficiency. To jumpstart that market, he said, the federal government will need to mandate the installation of smart meters in homes '
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While most electronics companies are still trying to establish green credentials, 2008 could mark a turning point for previously obscure "home automation" technologies that now are being advertised as a way to save electricity ? not just personal energy.

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" Sculley suggested that a social movement to embrace a ?green? lifestyle, one that makes choices to reduce energy consumption out of a something more than a desire to simply save money, might be the key. And that movement was likely to come from a younger generation, one coming of age in the early 21st century. "

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"Sculley ... the home controls market completely lacks comparable simplicity, a comparable ?user experience? to which the user attaches value and importance, and a collection of partners that clearly know their roles in and contribution to the market. "

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... Marc Marc_F_Hult
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Reply to
Marc_F_Hult
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No surprise.

Want a killer app? Make a smart wall wart.

The only way that's going to work is if the meter has a display that shows active consumption and real-time kwh pricing. Show people what they're using RIGHT NOW and what it's costing RIGHT NOW and you've got a chance to alter behavior. Otherwise it's going nowhere.

Reply to
Bill Kearney

Eliminating dumb transformer-based supplies in favor of higher efficiency, switching power supplies is a step in that direction at the expense of yet more RFI and powerline noise.

There are also these:

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By installing a distributed DC power system, I've partially accomplished the 'smart' (read: 'energy efficient') part while also 1) reducing wall acne through the proliferation of wall warts themselves and 2) providing intrinsic battery backup that 3) is natively accommodating of directly using DC from off-grid power sources such as solar.

Back in 2000, Savoy's CyberHouse software was updated so that, in conjunction with Cutler-Hammer's Advanced Power System (APS), it did exactly that and much more.

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Didn't "go anywhere then (either?) ...

... Marc Marc_F_Hult

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Visit my home automation and electronics Internet Porch Sale at

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Reply to
Marc_F_Hult

Considering I despise X-10 that's not much of a sacrifice.

Agreed. It's a shame there isn't a 'standard' form of wall plug for DC devices. Granted, there's the problem of /which/ voltage level to supply. But had there been a standard for, say, 12VDC it'd be helpful.

As I recall it was rather pricey.

Reply to
Bill Kearney

Actually, there is a very familiar one ;-) and it is widely used in marine as well as auto applications:

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CyberHouse itself was about $100. The license for the APS 'plugin' was another $100 or so. Could easily pay for itself in the first year -- as if cost savings were the only reason to control and reduce household AC power.

The hardware was also cost-effective especially if installed in new construction or as part of a major rehab. The monitoring and control functions seem to be almost indispensable for genset- or solar+inverter-backed household power if available backup amperage is less than main breaker rating -- which it almost always is.

I have the APS hardware but don't have it in use at this time primarily because mine has the Home Plug & Play? compatible CEBus interface -- 'member

*that* ? ;-) -- as well as Cutler Hammer's industrial INCOM interface, but not RS-232. I bought it surplus for not much more than the price of shipping. I contemplate rebuilding the control electronics, retaining the enclosure, circuit breakers with built-in DC ON-OFF control and current transformers.

Here is the $49 ethernet-control WebControl device that is a candidate for the retrofit:

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It provides ethernet connectivity, web server, IP address security, timers and scheduling, Boolean logic, Real Time Clock (RTC) as well as NTP time synchronization, email notification, FTP, eight TTL OUT, up to eight 1-wire temperature sensor inputs, one Honeywell humidity sensor input, three 10-bit analog IN, and 8 TTL IN. (Alas, the separate RS-232 and RS-485/422 ports "provided by the hardware are not used by the firmware".)

It purports to be FCC Part 15 and CE conforming.

All for the price of a bare, unprogrammed BX-24 or ZX-40a MCU without so much as a PCB ...

... Marc Marc_F_Hult

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Visit my home automation and electronics Internet Porch Sale at

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Reply to
Marc_F_Hult

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