Cities create a colossal carbon footprint. Occupying only two percent of global land, cities account for 70 percent of carbon emissions and two-thirds of world’s energy demand, according to C401. And buildings in a city cause nearly one-fifth of global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Yet ever-advancing intelligent home and building automation solutions are helping to mitigate this environmental impact through more efficient management of electrical consumption.
On the home front, ABB’s free@home® solutions are being used to transform houses or apartments into smart homes, making daily life easier and safer, and reducing home energy consumption by up to 30 percent. ABB-free@home® combines all the useful functions of comfortable home automation and door communication into a single system that is easy to understand and operate.
With ABB-free@home® the entire home can be controlled as usual with switches, and even more practical, with a smartphone, tablet, or computer, via touch or voice control. Thanks to the cooperation with third parties, homeowners can also control further applications like Amazon Alexa, Philips Hue or Sonos speakers via ABB-free@home®.
Blinds, lights, heating, air-conditioning and door communication can be operated separately or together: The blinds throughout the home can be programed to automatically shift according to the sun’s positions, the lights in the bathroom and the radio in the kitchen can be switched on with the touch of a button or all lights and devices are deactivated via a switch when leaving the house.
For more efficient energy management, individual room temperatures can be fully automated depending on daily routines. The heating can be turned off or adjusted if a window is opened or if no one is at home. And each room can be programed to specific preferences, providing optimal comfort as well.
Regardless of whether outfitting a new building or updating an older property, installing the system is flexible and easy. With wired or wireless sensors, actuators and sensor-actuator units, as well as configuration and operation via an app, the system is future-proof and thus ensures electricians greater success and easier operation for end customers. The intuitive user guide of the app allows the configuration of ABB-free@home® to be made very quickly via a tablet or computer. With the app, configuration and operation of ABB-free@home® is as easy as surfing the internet. To start with, the floor plan with floors and rooms is created. Then all available devices in the rooms are activated and allocated to the respective floors and rooms.
Today ABB’s free@home® solution has more than 5 million components installed globally. As the global smart home market size is expected to grow to $135.3 billion by 2025 from $78.3 billion in 2020, according to Research and Markets2, the smart home is indeed a key element to the overall development of a smart, green city.
__
