The “smart home” is on its way to becoming the driving force for industry, business, trade and the housing industry. The acceptance and the market are already there. Even today, according to a representative VDE consumer study, about one in five Germans can imagine networking his home.
Particularly for younger people under 34, the ability to control and monitor electrical devices in the home by display, PC or, when they are not at home, by means of a mobile smart phone, is attractive. However, home networking has much more to offer: greater energy efficiency, more comfort, a wider range of multimedia services and greater security as well as advantages for senior citizens and in preventive health care measures. In addition, the smart home market has considerable economic potential.
On account of leading positions in technological fields such as e-energy/smart grid, smart metering and “embedded systems” as well as a pioneering role in international standardization, home networking could even become an export hit “Made in Germany”. Important preconditions for this are not only standards for expansion-friendly and compatible components and systems and the quality assured examination of the same, but also qualified technicians and favorable framework conditions. “Not only the infrastructure is important, it is also important that equipment and systems should be simple and intuitive to operate. They should function interoperable in all applications in the sense of plug-and-play integrated in systems, to protect the users’ investment”, says Wilfried Jäger, Chairman of the Management Board of VDE Testing and Certification Institute GmbH.
From a technical point of view, home networking could take off right now. For example, with the introduction of electronic household meters (smart meters) the legislative authorities have created the technical preconditions for more energy efficiency and energy savings and increased motivation to achieve intelligent energy management. In addition, according to the latest VDE calculations, technological developments in the fields of consumer electronics, IT and home appliances could lead to potential energy savings of up to 40 percent for selected product groups. In particular the use of microelectronics in “embedded systems” promises the production of devices that are significantly more energy-efficient in the future. Furthermore, consumers can look forward to intelligent and comfortable solutions for the merging of the areas of consumer electronics with information and communication technology (ICT). And finally, on account of the demographic changes in Germany, the technical support for an independent life in one’s own four walls in old age is gaining importance. “Ambient assisted living” is a special and, in view of demographic developments, particularly important application of intelligent building automation, which is being promoted by the innovation partnership between VDE and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
The challenges on the way to the smart home as a lead market are largely in the area of norms and standards. “Norms, standards and new test philosophies are a basic requirement for the interaction and safe functioning of different components and devices in one system”, confirms Dr.-Ing. Bernhard Thies, Managing Director of the German Commission for Electrical, Electronic, Information Technologies of DIN and VDE. “Subsequent tests and certification procedures are also meaningful in order to meet the particularly high requirements for the safe functioning of complex systems and equipment”. The VDE Testing and Certification Institute actively accompanies these topics with its testing and certification services. In particular with the focus on smart technologies, the VDE Institute as an officially recognized test center for the new generation of electricity meters and as an approved center in accordance with the Energyusing Products Act (EBPG) has set new standards for testing institutes and quality tests for product qualification. Home networking only works when all components in the system interact properly. And team play – that is, open standards, cooperation and partnership – will also decide how successful home networking will be with the consumer.
“Vernetzt Wohnen+Leben” (roughly translated as “Living with Home Networking”) is therefore the motto of the associations VDE, ZVEH and ZVEI, whose goal is to promote innovative technologies in the field of home networking and to speed up their implementation in industry, business and trade.