2023-11-05 19:08:21
The connected home is already a reality for many users, but it is still too often limited to a few independent objects. The true smart home, the one that includes all the devices of our daily life, is still in its infancy, but is starting to reveal itself to better disrupt our daily lives tomorrow.
The connected home was omnipresent during IFA 2023 last September. However, it is the household appliance brands that are standing out the most with the appearance of increasingly complete and open ecosystems. Each manufacturer has its own philosophy and connected products are gradually becoming the norm. An exciting state of affairs, provided that connectivity brings real added value.
A home powered by connectivity and AI
One of the questions that comes up most often in the world of the connected home is precisely the benefit of connectivity. Reproducing physical orders seems very limited, especially for products that we use in person. We don’t fill the washing machine remotely and the refrigerator is always close to us when we cook. In addition, if we need to program actions, we can already do it directly on the device, without resorting to a smartphone. Then, adding technologies, such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or even an LCD screen, has a certain cost, which can be difficult to justify solely by their very existence.
Connectivity is becoming more and more the norm and certain manufacturers are fully investing in it, such as Samsung and especially Haier. As Vincent Rotger, president of Haier France, explains to us, “all products currently launched by the Haier group are connected, from refrigerators to ovens, including washing machines and dryers, for all the group’s brands: Haier, Candy, Hoover and Rosière“. The manufacturer compares the progress made in washing and cooling technologies and connectivity, associated with AI.
In the energy sector, the biggest gains are mainly technical. For example at Haier, the high-end X SERIES 11 washing machine offers an energy class A-40%, and the I-Pro Shine Series 7 dishwasher A-30%. Connectivity and AI are there to provide additional comfort of use and optimize performance.
Intelligence and connectivity can also have more immediate positive ecological consequences. Thus, more and more dishwashers and washing machines offer automatic dosing of detergents, depending on the type of laundry and the level of dirt. The X SERIES 11 washing machine goes even further by offering four automatic dosing trays to optimize the use of different types of detergents. Here, AI combined with a more efficient view of consumables makes it possible to reduce the level of chemical pollution.
The home of tomorrow must meet the same challenges as those of the connected city. Having separate elements that are increasingly intelligent and efficient is a good thing. But it is by creating a true interconnection between everyone that we can benefit the most.
The connected home from the kitchen to the roof
Whether it is a refrigerator which will detect food in order to optimize its conservation, or a tumble dryer which analyzes its contents to achieve the best efficiency/energy consumption ratio, domestic AI is already a reality. Each manufacturer develops its own ecosystem centered around an application, which is called SmartThings at Samsung or hOn at Haier. They allow you to finely control your devices and some are even capable of communicating via the Matter protocol. This last point is essential, because it is the only connected home protocol supported by the entire market.
Haier showed us an example of this communication between two devices. Via its BioniCook technology, the manufacturer can help cook a dish, which requires the use of an oven and an induction hob, so that each element is ready to be served simultaneously. We can imagine a multitude of micro-interactions like this. For example, the ventilation in the laundry room is activated when the dryer is in operation. That once you have finished cooking and the oven becomes cold, the robot vacuum cleaner goes to treat the kitchen. The possibilities for everyday scenarios are limitless, but represent just the tip of the iceberg.
The next step is to move from “connected micro-home» and its numerous interactions between connected devices, to a “connected home macro“. In the latter case, there is centralized management which brings together all the micro-interactions to deduce more global actions. Concepts of this type are not new and Haier’s SmartGrid is the latest example and one of the most successful. It interconnects all connected home objects to optimize each use and especially the energy aspect. All these products are associated with a production system using solar panels and very high capacity batteries.
By interconnecting household appliances, electric car charging stations, photovoltaic and battery systems, the manufacturer wants its hOn application to manage all aspects of the home. You can manually act to, for example, use battery energy to power an unscheduled wash while the rates are during peak hours.
Or that automatically, the application anticipates the charging of an electric vehicle by accumulating a maximum of energy during the day and limiting battery distribution to other devices. The application must learn from your uses to improve your comfort and your carbon footprint. Profiles can also be personalized for each member of the household, so everyone becomes responsible for their own uses and can act at their own level.
This is exciting, but requires complete control of the chain of connected products, small and large household appliances, photovoltaic production means, storage with batteries, heating and air conditioning. This is not the case for any manufacturer and makes the use of communication protocols that ignore proprietary ecosystems even more important. Furthermore, water and waste management is still missing from the concepts presented and yet is essential to achieve maximum efficiency. If the market is still looking for itself, it seems to have an increasingly clear vision, taking into account energy issues. The speed at which it will become established in our daily lives now depends more on consumers’ appropriation of these concepts, which includes accessible prices, the technologies are already there.
NB: this article was written during a press trip to the IFA organized by Haier. The brand was not involved in its writing or proofreading.
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