Summary:
- To get acquainted with most common technologies available for home automation and domotics, emphasizing the comfort management systems, access-control, security, and safety systems.
- To describe the main technologies available, namely:
- Temperature sensors
- HVAC systems (Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning systems)
- Access control and security systems
- Bar code for access control
- Magnetic cards, chip cards, contact less cards Biometrics identification
1. COMFORT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
Comfort management in houses can be seen from a variety of different views. Among common features that most users would like to have available we can mention the following ones:
- Configuration and control of equipments for heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC). Hopefully, the configuration and control should allow definition of different areas with different parameters;
- Control of cold and hot water for sanitary purposes;
- Control of lighting devices, including local controls and integration with central management system; this integration allow the implementation of specific control automation procedures (for instance automatic switching-off of lights of the basement or of the pantry or larder);
- Integration of sound and image systems;
- Control of garden irrigation, according with specific needs of the ground;
- Remote control and monitoring of different equipments and appliances (this could start as a comfort requirement, although it can be applied to elderly support or children monitoring);
- Configuring usage of specific equipment for taking advantage of reduced rate energy periods;
- Control of window protections and curtains;
- Door control automation (namely for garage control).
In the present section, we will briefly describe a couple of systems that contribute to the definition of comfort within houses.
Starting with the lighting system (which will be addressed also in a different chapter), we can identify the following goals, which should be adequately integrated with the comfort management system:
- Lighting control in order to allow energy savings;
- Definition of different scenarios (combining solar and electric light), tuned with different types of usage for the different areas of the house;
- Capability to memorize and repeat daily procedures;
- Programming of different timings associated with the pre-defined scenarios;
- Integration of specific sensors to support automation;
- Integration with other home systems allowing reaction to specific alarm situations. For example, if the intrusion detector system emits an alarm, adequate lights should be turned on.
Finally, the recent advances in audio-video-multimedia, and availability of systems like “home theater”, should be taken into account, allowing easy connections with television channels, internet and radio channels. Integration with internal surveillance channel and voice communication within house should be considered.
Broadcast of sound, video and messages within house will be more and more common in the near future, as wireless technological solutions are ready to be delivered allowing installation of new functionalities without the need to have the network supported by wires, but through radio links instead.
In this sense, integration of the different systems can support a more relaxing life at home. For instance, arrival of a person at home can be detected by the access control system and activate a specific lighting scenario with a specific ambient music…
In following sections, we will analyse the HVAC systems and the (probably) most important type of sensors for comfort management: temperature sensors.