Design of Smart Homes

Everyday our lifes getting more directed by technology. Smart homes become more popular and it will place an important place in our lives.

Smart home technology was created to provide automatic and coordinated operation of all systems of life support and safety. It recognizes changes outside and inside, reacting to them appropriately because of the user’s command or independently.

The main feature of this technology is the integration of individual subsystems and devices into a single complex which is controlled by the automation.

Modern apartments, flats, cottages, country houses represent a sophisticated engineering complex. Smart home is able to take on the responsibility for the management of energy system, heating systems, plumbing, ventilation and conditioning.

The work of such systems must be coordinated so that the owner will have a possibility to get  the maximum benefit from using them. Thus, the batteries will not heat a room with open windows pointlessly and wireless technologies will allow the client to be informed of any emergency situation immediately, no matter where he is.

Today smart homes technologies attract more and more people who appreciate comfort and modern technical solutions. However, it should be noted that the arrangement of the smart home is a serious step and the final result depends on how well the prepare for selection, installation and commissioning of all systems was made.

One of the options for creating a smart homes are DIY solutions when a user manually constructs and connects the smart devices. Typically, these solutions are offered “out of the box” and they do not need special settings.

However, professional systems that are called Custom Install are more interesting – professional companies install and configurate them, moreover, the project of such decisions is often discussed during the stage of construction of the house.

What we need to pay attention?

A smart home should not be initially designed as a standalone system. It is necessary to foresee ways of interaction with higher-level systems, e.g. control systems for buildings, emergency systems as well as systems of resource metering and systems of content delivery. It turns out that firstly it is necessary to have a possibility for interaction with the outside world, in order to provide the highest quality service which is provided to the user.

That is why design of a smart home system has the same importance as the design of the building in which the system is installed. Of course, if there’ll be an error, consequences will not be fatal, but periodic defects in the work of air conditioners and disconnection of water supply because of the improperly installed sensor leaks will not allow to use the room in a full way.

There is only one way to prevent possible problems: to create a project. Undoubtedly, there is a possibility that during the time of creation of drawing and putting the house in operation the owners may get additional requests, so the correct plan should always have the potential for some expansion of the system, so you won’t have to change everything that has been already done.

Ideally, design of a smart home system should begin simultaneously with the design of the building (or apartment), because a fairly large number of electrical and signal cables are involved in this system, and there’ll be impossible to hide them under the plaster.

In addition, it is necessary to provide not only space for the equipment, which will definitely need ventilation, but also to hide hatches for access to the cable routes at key points. Thus,  on the initial stage of design an architect and an engineer should work together.

The first step in this work is the creation of a conceptual design. It should describe all tasks which this system will do. This information is needed for the preliminary selection of equipment, which details in turn  can affect the characteristics of the entire system.

The design of smart homes control is created based on the needs of the consumer. A response to each request is a device that performs a particular task. The combination of such devices is the periphery of the smart home. The component parts of the system are the sensors that provide information about the status of the objects of the physical world and actuators which provide the impact on the condition of the objects in real world according to the commands.

There are also networks of data collection, networks of distribution of the commands, that receive data from sensors and give commands to actuators, and a DCS, for example the condition of sensors and actuators.

There are some more main parts of the system of the smart home control which are the client application and the intellectual core which is a software system responsible for the work of smart devices.

It is important to remember that one of the important challenges is to ensure the connectivity of sensors and actuators with the core of the control system. The system of communication must provide a reliable identification of the active devices, must have enough bandwidth and must support the easy integration with new devices.

Ways of Organizing Smart Homes Network

There are three ways to organize smart homes network: to use wireless technologies, to lay special cables or to use power cables. There are two types of wireless systems: with a fixed topology and a mesh network. The first option is a classic network that is designed and deployed manually.

The second option is more promising and it is a network which can be configured by itself and it is based on the protocols like Z-Wave, ZigBee, Bluetooth and others. Wired systems are based on serial protocols like 1-wire. Their obvious disadvantage is the necessity of laying the special cables.

After gathering all the necessary information about the system you can make a technical  assignment for design, that is the second phase. It is important that the customer at the time of writing a technical task already has an understanding of the cost of the system and of the functions which it can provide.

After the preparation of the technical task the third stage comes, it is the development of a detailed project including all the documents: the set of construction drawings, equipment specification, schedule of works, etc. Installers, adjusters, an architect, a designer and other specialists work here together, that allows to take the wishes of the owners into account.

The result of the work on the project is a complete set of documents about the established system that satisfy the needs of the owners and takes into account the specification of a particular house or apartment. The client receives a detailed equipment specification and functional diagrams, also he receives drawings, a magazine about cables, schemes of electrical and instrument cabinets, etc.

Today technological progress which brings new benefits and convenience to our lives has filled the daily life of every modern person with different innovations. These technological innovations also affect the spheres of life.

The natural human instinct to have a comfort was the reason of the development of a high-tech system, with the help of which it became possible to carry out centralized management of all house equipment. Proper design of systems and the use of technology allow to fully enjoy the advantages that the smart home offers  and to equip the home of your dreams.