The future of domestic energy efficiency

In Le Corbusier’s Vers une architecture, a collection of essays, he describes houses as "machines for living in". That was in 1923, and almost 100 years later, the idea prophesied by the famous French architect has practically become reality.

The Internet has revolutionised the very concept of the house, transforming it from a simple dwelling to an intelligent ecosystem, capable of adjusting itself on the basis of its inhabitant’s needs. The series of functions that once seemed more science fiction than domestic life, have now become the daily routine of millions of families. To turn off the light, turn on the air conditioner, start the washing machine, and many other things, all you need is a smartphone or a computer. "Domotics", as it’s called — from the union of the Latin term domus, meaning "house", and the Greek suffix -ticos, which indicates the disciplines of application — is concerned precisely with this: improving daily life via the study of technologies suited to implementation in living spaces to control devices remotely and monitor the operation of entire household systems.

But it goes beyond “convenience”. In fact, domotics can be the key to maximising energy efficiency in your home. Thanks to integration with other systems and to the use of presence and light sensors, a domotic system helps to save energy, respecting the environment and avoiding energy losses and irrational consumption.

Domotic systems make it possible to control how, when and how much energy (electricity, gas or water) is used in a house, fundamental knowledge for planning actions aimed at reducing waste. For example in the case of high energy demand, less important loads can be disconnected (even remotely), such as the TV in stand-by, and armed with these data, it is also possible to make informed decisions about whether to replace household appliances that consume too much, which perhaps have come to the end of their road.

Many people use these appliances without thinking about a time band for more economic consumption. In a smart house, this problem can be solved by simply entering the different costs into the system and programming it to turn itself on only at the most suitable time. If you then connect to a photovoltaic system, starting the washing machine and similar devices only when the energy generated by the sun is at maximum production, the savings is absolute.

Using temperature and humidity gauges and thermostats, you can also control the different types of heating and cooling systems, achieving the perfect temperature in every season. Intelligent management of the boiler makes it possible to customise heat diffusion, increasing the temperature in the coldest rooms or turning the heating off in unused rooms. Using algorithms, domotics records your temperature preferences in different weather conditions and adjusts the home heating/cooling as a result, thus preventing inefficient use of your system.

In addition to all this, you have the ability to control the status of your home at any time and from anywhere. Either at home or from the other side of the world, thanks to a single control unit, it is possible to connect to the lighting, heating, cooling and plumbing systems, and to electrical appliances. Did you forget to turn off the lights? All you have to do is check (and turn them off) from your smartphone.

Domotics can also free you from “phantom consumption", that is the energy that televisions, computers, microwave ovens and other electronic devices consume when they are in stand-by mode. Intelligent power strips can be added to cut off power to these devices and save, not only energy.

The costs of domestic automation are not always prohibitive. On the market, there are numerous do-it-yourself kits that incorporate many different automation options, but it is possible also to call in specialised companies to increase the positive impact on energy efficiency and make your home not only intelligent, but also eco-sustainable.

The massive introduction onto the market of smart home speakers, the now increasingly present voice assistants, has contributed enormously to the drive for energy efficiency over the last few years. Recent research, say the Avvenia experts, shows that smart speakers have led to a significant increase in sales of other smart objects for the home, above all those associated with domestic heating and lighting. In fact, there has been a 12% increase, calculated by the IoT observatory of the Milan Polytechnic, due precisely to integration with voice assistants and to the possibility for consumers to obtain important benefits in terms of energy saving and comfort in their homes.

In short, the new efficiency market is not based only on controlling energy or other services remotely, but also on the possibility of commanding them and monitoring them directly from the sofa or from the front door of your home. The key to domestic energy efficiency is increasingly often associated with ease of use, of which voice control is an excellent example.