We need Smart Homes, not just houses

In the budget presented yesterday by the Chancellor, housing is one of the concerns that reportedly are to be addressed, with a plan of building 300k new houses each year.

While this is good news, let me say it could be better. Because we don’t need just houses, we need smart houses.

The term “smart house” is rather vague, so let’s agree on a basic meaning. A smart house is a house which:

• Is energy efficient
• Enables the dwellers to be connected seamlessly to other people
• Hides the complexity of the underlying technologies to the dwellers.

Why do we need smart houses?

With an ever aging population, thanks to the progress of medicine and the increase in life expectancy, conventional houses are stretching the network of support offered by the society to its limit: the NHS, carers, relatives, friends.

The NHS is suffering from severe underfunding and the situation will not improve in the foreseeable future. Families are pulled in different directions - work, children, traffic - limiting the time they can spend with their elderly.

Aging friends and relatives can find it more and more difficult driving or walking to visit their friends.

Smart houses offer a solution. The ability to stay connected with the outer world without having to have people physically in the house, thanks to smart technologies, means people currently living at the margins of the society can start an interesting life again, being taken care of, being considered and valued.

Smart technologies can also help elderly people in their daily tasks at house: a light can be turned on automatically in the night when needed, an oven or a hob by a voice command… the possibilities are endless.

A panic button, sending alerts to relatives, carers and neighbours; a camera in the lounge to stay constantly in touch with relatives and friends can provide the sense of security and of “being remembered” to people living alone.

Smart heating systems can reduce the energy consumption while maintaining or even increasing the temperature in the room where the dwellers are. Not only this would ease the pressure on the Government budget for the Winter Fuel Allowance to over 64; a warmer room means also a reduced probability of developing colds, flus and their complications, which currently put another burden on the NHS. And, last but not least, it would also be great for the environment by reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases, and help the government achieve the targets for CO2 emissions by 2023-2027, which requires domestic emissions to be reduced by at least 3% every year (source: Committee on Climate Change, www.theccc.org.uk).

Remote workers

The ability to work from home is a great conquest of modern times. The employee (or the business owner) avoids spending time and money commuting from home to work and vice versa, avoids the stress of driving on jammed roads, and works from a nice place. The employer saves on office space, has a happier employee and, yes, saves also on heating. That cost is however transferred to the employee.

The crude reality, today, is that very often remote workers stay in a cold office room with coats and gloves as they can’t afford paying the energy bill if they keep the heating on all day.

A smart heating system allows people working from home to stay in a warm environment without keeping the heating on in the entire house for the whole day.

Families with children

A smart house would also help families with children.

With their parents busy at work, often the children are alone at home, and that brings a sense of guilt, anxiety and concerns about their safety to their parents.

With a smart house with indoor cameras, smart door locks, panic buttons, parents can check that their children have arrived at home, that they are safe inside, that they are studying, that they are not in danger.

And, again, keeping the rooms where the children are warm, without wasting energy on unused rooms, will reduce the energy bill and the emission of greenhouse gases, without exposing the children to cold temperatures.

Saving on lives

We are still under shock for what happened to the Greenfell Towers a few months ago. My question is: could have a smart system saved tens of lives? In a smart house there are smoke, heat and flood sensors, all connected not just to the homeowners, but also to insurance companies, for instance. And an alert, rather than just ringing a siren, would be broadcast to security centres which would ensure a quick response to a life-threatening event.

Saving on insurances

In Germany and France, which are ahead of the UK in terms of market penetration of smart houses, insurance companies are already offering dedicated packages to the owners of smart houses, cheaper than standard ones. The reason is very simple: with the ability to detect immediately potential dangers to the property (burglars, fires, water leaks) via smart sensors, the liability of insurance companies for hefty refunds to house owners is significantly reduced.

Thus, smart houses would enable British households to save money on their home insurance premiums, and insurance companies could increase their profits without ripping off their customers.

Developing a British smart house industry

In other countries where smart houses are more common, there’s a new industry developing, from manufacturers to innovative businesses. Many common brands in the UK are foreign companies: Honeywell, Nest, Tado, Devolo, Fibaro, Zipato, Control4, Loxone... At the last Smart Summit in London (September 2017) there was not a single British manufacturer of smart devices for houses (there was Dyson, which however doesn’t produce exactly smart “things”).

Creating a demand for smart houses in the UK would help all the little startups that today are struggling to grow and play a major role in the Smart House industry.

With a market for smart houses, there will also be a flourishing of companies consulting, designing, installing, configuring and maintaining smart houses - like mine, Think Better Ltd. These are jobs that require a quite high level of education, and would fit better to a developed country where young want to have good, highly qualified jobs.

So, in essence, what do we need?

• Fast, ubiquitous broadband connections, also in remote areas. Internet access must become like water and electricity: a basic, mandatory requirement for houses in a modern, developed country;
• Government-backed loans to allow homeowners to retrofit their existing houses with smart devices;
• A recognised professional scheme for smart house consultants/experts, to ensure that customers are correctly advised and the smart systems are designed and implemented correctly;
• A Government-backed incentive (e.g. deduction on taxable income) for smart systems, which could be funded by the possible savings on the NHS, on the Winter Fuel Allowance, and an increased corporate tax influx from a strong and growing smart house industry.

Massimo D'Ulisse

Founder and Managing Director

Think Better Ltd - www.thinkbetter.co.uk

The smart home at your fingertips