IoT and Digital Transformation Using the Example of the Smart Home
DKE (German Commission for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies)
Standards. Make. Future. DKE – The German National Committee electrotechnical standardization in IEC, CENELEC and ETSI.
The digital transformation continues to advance. The Internet of Things (IoT) is also increasingly finding its way into our homes: everything networked, digital, intelligent – everything smart?
Klaus-Wolfgang Klingner, Director Corporate Standards and Business Environment at Hager Electro GmbH und Co. KG, talks about current technical developments and standardization in the field of smart homes and IoT and explains when a smart home is actually "smart".
Interview with Klaus-Wolfgang Klingner
DKE: About yourself: How do you relate to the topic of Internet of Things, Smart Home and standardization?
Klingner: For the Internet of Things to work right into our homes, the installation must transport not only energy but also information. Both have to be safe and simple. To this end, I am involved in DKE/K 716 and DKE/AK 901.0.4, among others. The former deals with standardization of the "Customer Energy Management System", which is dealt with at the international level in IEC/SC23K WG3; the latter with the creation of application rules for the "description of a technical information exchange at the interface to the property".
Smart home – how and why?
DKE: Has the role of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the smart home changed in recent months with regard to the pandemic?
Klingner: The pandemic shifted many office jobs to the home office, increasing the amount of time people spend using their own homes. Since the conveniences of a smart home are useful while working from home, I expect that more and more people will continue to do parts of their work from home in the future. The prerequisite is a good Internet connection, which makes smart home applications possible in the first place. At the end of the day, we will probably be able to conclude that the pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation in the home environment of people with office jobs.
DKE: Can you describe a sample use case for so-called “consumer IoT”? How does such a system work and what are the benefits for users?
Klingner: The current news make us want to use energy more efficiently and, if possible, generate it in our own homes. This is where an energy management system comes in. It can link information such as weather or tariff information from the utility as well as the calendar data of the users and thus optimize the use of energy so that the self-generated energy is used to the greatest possible extent. In this manner the energy purchased from the grid can be reduced.
An example would be to tell the energy management system in the morning that the washing machine is ready to start. The washing process is started as soon as the solar system has charged enough energy for an uninterrupted wash cycle.
DKE: What is needed for the machine-to-machine interaction in this Internet of Things?
Klingner: It is very important that communication is as simple and secure as possible and that any action on the part of the user is only requested where necessary. Conversely, intervention desired by the user should be possible at any time and the communication should be protected against unauthorized interference.
DKE: Can standards provide support here?
Klingner: Yes, there are already standards that describe usability in terms of the simplest possible interaction. But there is still room for improvement here. All cybersecurity standardization activities and the IEC 62443 standard are particularly relevant with regard to unauthorized intervention. In this case, for example, there are current standardization activities for the Radio Equipment Directive (RED), which are also being driven by the European Union. There is a demand for specifications to meet cybersecurity requirements for everything connected to the Internet. In the next one to two years standards are to be developed in this regard that implement the security, that is still described in very general terms in IEC 62443, at the product level as well.
Smart home with and without independent power generation
DKE: You mentioned self-generated energy from solar systems, for example. From the point of view of efficient energy use does this mean that a smart home only benefits those who generate their own electricity? What about consumers who do not want to or cannot generate their own electricity?
Klingner: These consumers are dependent on the tariff offers of the energy suppliers which, for example, stipulate that a car may only be charged at certain times when electricity is particularly cheap. The VDE-AR-E 2829-6-x series of application rules describes these use cases in particular. It proposes that energy suppliers clearly communicate the charging time and price ranges to consumers depending on the energy supply at their respective locations – be it hydropower in mountainous regions or wind power at the sea – and offer individual tariff models. In this manner the customer is able to employ energy management in order to use the electricity as soon as it becomes cheap.
What is important is to note that energy management is not just about saving energy, but about using energy when it is produced in the most sustainable manner. It is a matter of managing the process and this is most efficient when a solar system is in place due to the large savings effect. People who have a solar system and feed electricity into the grid currently receive about six and a quarter cents per kilowatt hour. On the other hand, if they consume it themselves, they'll have to pay 30 cents or more, which is why using their own electricity is so attractive. Last but not least, this also avoids unnecessarily costly grid expansion.
Despite these advantages, we still have a divided society when it comes to the single-family home, rental apartments or condominiums. In the latter case, even the owner cannot simply install a solar cell on the roof. This is the responsibility of the owners' association, which complicates the procedure. Our German law is still reticent in this respect.
Internet connection or not? Potential and risks of the smart home
DKE: In a smart home control of the heating or the alarm system can be carried out on location or via the Internet. The question is: Internet connection or not?
Klingner: The risks of external interference are low without an Internet connection, but it also limits the possibilities. This becomes very clear, for example, in the case of photovoltaic systems that are combined with storage systems: If the weather forecast announces a lot of sunshine for the coming day, then the energy management system can try to store the energy elsewhere during the night – for example, by fully charging an electric vehicle even though only a short trip is planned for the next day. In bad weather the system acts in reverse. It then only charges the amount of electricity into the car that is needed for the trips on the next day. The remaining energy is saved for use in the household.
DKE: Should safety systems be prescribed by legislation or is it better if the customer is able to decide for him- or herself?
Klingner: Securing one's own home against unauthorized access is a good example in this case. To my knowledge there is no law that prescribes how a home has to be secured. Everyone can decide for themselves, depending on their environment and the assets they want to protect. However, the problem with IT security at this point is that the assessment of threats hardly belongs to general knowledge these days. Here specifications need to be made and verified as to how products prove their security – similar to the way it is done when it comes to the safety of products in general. The EU has already taken the first steps in this direction with the latest extension of the RED. This concerns all products connected to the Internet.
Caution "smart"! – criteria for a "smart home"
DKE: Consumers instruct the washing machine to fill the laundry; if there is no Internet connection, then the heating is manually programmed before a vacation. These are all examples that raise the question of when a smart home is actually "smart". What can be said here?
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Klingner: This is a legitimate question. As far as I know, there is no protected designation for the term "smart home" yet. There will certainly be some changes in the future because a switch that can be activated does not make a home a smart home. The term is well received in advertising, which is why people are trying to sell everything that can be controlled remotely as "smart".
DKE: Is clarification of such definitional issues a task for standardization?
Klingner: Yes, although other terms have to be found that better express and clearly specify the subject matter. The term "smart home" is now such a strong marketing term that it has already been spoiled from a technical point of view. I would therefore not recommend standardizing this term, as there will always be manufacturers who advertise a smart home as such, although it does not comply with the standard. After all, standardization is not legislation, but is subject to voluntary application.
Standards as a guide in the requirements pool
DKE: There are countless requirements that a manufacturer of IoT devices and software must meet. How can manufacturers manage to take all of these requirements into account?
Klingner: With IEC 62443 a series of standards was created at the IEC that describes the basics very well. Although it is not directly applicable to smart home applications, it provides an initial orientation on the basis of which the corresponding cybersecurity can be developed. Corresponding committees have already begun this work.
DKE: Numerous smart home systems are still "isolated solutions". How do we achieve smooth interaction between all systems and thus interoperability?
Klingner: This is precisely where the strength of standardization lies, even though various approaches to communication between products from different manufacturers and sectors already exist. Examples are KNX and EEBUS or consortia such as Matter. Each of these systems has its advantages and disadvantages, and there are different requirements for the respective environment.
EEBUS, for example, is quite focused on flexibility and the simplest possible interaction, while KNX strongly emphasizes very good functioning. KNX is also aimed more at larger buildings such as office buildings, whereas EEBUS focuses on private homeowners.
DKE: Are KNX and EEBUS compatible with each other?
Klingner: There have been repeated attempts to implement this, but personally I would always make a decision between A or B.
DKE: Why are there so many different parallel developments? Is this diversity an advantage or a disadvantage?
Klingner: I think it is advantageous in the case of an interoperability solution, where several manufacturers from different areas join forces – for example KNX or EEBUS. Competition stimulates business. In the end, as in the case of Apple and Microsoft computers, one may prevail in certain areas.
It is a disadvantage if a manufacturer develops its own smart home solution in which its own devices can communicate only with each other, but not with competitor devices. I take a critical view of these pure isolated solutions from the various manufacturers.
Environmental protection, stand-alone solutions, etc. – future prospects of the smart home
DKE: There are various studies with differing results when it comes to the benefits of smart homes for environmental protection. In your opinion, to what extent can the smart home promote or endanger environmental protection?
Klingner: Smart home is a big heading here, under which a great deal is packaged. Depending on what is considered, a different result emerges. It should be kept in mind that it is not only energy efficiency and the reduction of energy consumption that are important for climate protection, but also the question of how sustainable the consumption of energy itself is. In this case energy management solutions that minimize energy consumption from the grid, i.e. those with photovoltaics, storage and heat pumps, can make a major contribution.
The keyword here is sector coupling, which attempts to control the needs of users in the areas of heat, electricity and mobility in such a way that the energy required can be generated in a manner that is as sustainable as possible.
DKE: What do you think will be the biggest challenges in the smart home market in the next few years? Do you see differences at the European and international levels?
Klingner: The biggest challenge is certainly the solution of communication across the various system boundaries, i.e. the sector coupling that I mentioned. I think that European technology is already very standardized. The extent to which things work better in Asia is something I can hardly judge from here. There is already a lot there as well, but here we come back to the problem of company and isolated solutions. How easy it is to integrate a new, external device into an existing system should not depend on experts and hobby technicians who are particularly good at IT.?The normal stay-at-home mum or dad must be able to manage this.
At the moment, we're not there yet in Europe, but there are many promising approaches. Many sectors such as lighting technology, household appliances, heating devices and the electrical installation industry are working together to find solutions here. From my point of view, the technology is already available. The communication is the complex part that is still missing.
DKE: Mr. Klingner, thank you very much for the interview!
For this interview we would like to thank
Klaus-Wolfgang Klingner | ? Heiko Wolfraum