Lowe’s reiterates its commitment to offering a connected lifestyle to homeowners, through its new range of connected home products and services. The company has added Iris Comfort and Control, Iris Smart kit and, Iris Safe and Secure to complement its recently launched cloud-based home solutions. Lowe’s extensive range of products will help to take out some of the inconvenience out of running a modern home.
Tendril releases new version of Tendril Energize software. This upgraded version of the software will enable support for customers who are not connected to a smart meter or an advance meter infrastructure. Therefore, customers with no meter reading data and only monthly bills can use the application to manage their energy use and save money on their utility bill.
Swisscom has finally launched their home automation solution, ‘Quing Home’ after announcing plans for the solution last year. The new home automation and monitoring solution is similar to those recently launched by Comcast and Verizon. Quing Home is the first of its kind to be available to the Swiss public, allowing them to control their home appliances and manage their energy consumption as well as keep an eye on their home.
Technology startup Tado has launched its internet-connected home thermostat. The now device is operated by an app on your smartphone and reacts to the weather forecasts to change your indoor climate. You home heating system is connected to Tado via the app on our phone and unlike traditional thermostats; Tado does not have knobs, buttons, or even a display.
Comcast has launched a home monitoring and automation service for its Vermont customers. Called the “Xfinity Home”, the service offers a range of security and energy management solutions, such as the ability to manage your thermostats remotely. In addition to asking your neighbour to keep an eye on your home while you are away, you can keep an eye on it as well. Xfinity Home offers live video stream from your in home wireless cameras.
With an already establish line of smart grid aware home appliances GE has launch a new set of energy management solutions. Based on the Brillion range of products, the new “Whole-Home Sensor”, “Smart Plug Control” and “Brillion Programmable Thermostat” will assist homes in monitoring and managing their energy use. The different devices will work with GE’s Nucleus energy manager to give near real time energy information.
AT&T initially indicated that they were planning to enter the home monitoring and automation market, has made it official. They will be unveiling it at this year’s GSMA Connected House Congress in Barcelona. The new home monitoring platform for service providers – is called “AT&T Digital Life”. The IP web based solution will give service providers the capabilities to offer their customers customizable, web-based home automation, energy and security services.
The entire energy sector eyes are on Hawaii’s second largest island of Maui. The island's electricity provider Maui Electric Company (MECO) and the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute at the University of Hawaii (HNEI) said they want to reduce their dependency on imported Diesel Oil. Currently 15 percent of the island’s electricity is generated by renewable energy and they have set themselves an ambitious target of increasing this number to 70 percent by the year 2030. Therefore, Maui Island has become a test bed for the latest in smart grid technologies under a Japanese-businesses and US joint partnership.
The Portuguese are building a city that has never been see or built before, except in the minds of the designers. A place where the environment feeds off us and wee feed off it. Through the use of the Urban Operating System (UOStm) the physical structure will be fitted with embedded sensor technology that allows it to manage it resources based on feeds it gets from us and the other systems, such as other machines and the atmosphere.
For a while Google and Microsoft were encouraging utilities and consumer to get connected through their solutions to learn more about their energy use. Google launched the Google PowerMeter through it iGoogle platform, Microsoft launched Microsoft Hohm and Cisco launched the Home Energy Controller gadgets and software. They all promised information at our finger tips so we can make more informed decisions on how we use our home energy.