Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Please note: the JRF no longer conducts any research into this area of work. The information provided in this section is kept here for historical purposes.

Things to consider when specifying smart homes equipment

Levels of specification

The design of a smart home needs to take into account not only the form of the house itself but also the requirements, both generic and specific, of the people who may live in and visit the house. Three levels of specification can therefore be considered:

Basic infrastructure

What are the underlying technologies that will be used to provide interoperability  in the home? JRF has used Echelon's LonWorks communication protocol in the development of its smart homes, but this is only one of the potential ways of achieving interoperability. The underlying technology or technologies used will determine some of the subsequent specification decisions.

Context specific requirements

The design and structure of the building in which they will be installed will influence the technologies decided on. As discussed in the 'How does it work?' section there are a variety of ways in which communications data can be sent around the house, from dedicated cabling to wireless techniques. The choice of the most appropriate transmission media will depend on the house in which they will be installed. The homes developed by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation have so far been retrofitted with smart homes equipment and so have relied heavily on the use of the existing power cabling as a transmission medium. In a new build or major refurbishment project, a dedicated wiring bus system may prove more appropriate.

User specific function

The infrastructure and basic set of equipment can be customised by the addition of devices to meet the specific needs and preferences of the residents of the home. This will involve the installation of user specific pieces of equipment as well as the configuration of the overall system.

From these three levels of specification it can be seen that the decision on the basic infrastructure determines any subsequent decisions. The selection of communications protocols will influence the choice of installers of equipment or the training required to commission the system. Most of the current protocols are suitable for new build and refurbishment applications and for almost any size of home. Differing house types will affect only the way that the installation is carried out.

Recommendations

An appropriate understanding of the user and their needs will form an essential part of any specification. In developing its demonstration homes, JRF installed a wide variety of devices, each of which may be appropriate to specific users. It is extremely unlikely that anybody would need all the devices fitted. Motorised devices tend to be an expensive element of any installation and so the cost/benefit of their usage must be carefully considered.

As it will not always be possible to understand the specific needs of users at the time of specification, it may be beneficial to consider a basic set of devices and functions that are universally applicable. Once the end user of the home has been identified, additional requirements can be specified and installed as appropriate.

The distributed nature of most smart homes systems means that the failure of a single device is unlikely to disrupt the whole system. However, any such failure should not affect a user's ability to live in the house or, in the worst-case scenario, cause a danger to users. With this in mind, care should be taken to ensure that devices could be manually overridden. This is particularly important in areas such as entry and exit routes. The use of battery back-up systems, which are often incorporated in low voltage devices, should also be considered in case of power failure.

Details of equipment used by the JRF

The following links set out the results of our evaluations of some of the products used in the demonstration houses. These are intended to examine the affordability, reliability and ease of repair of the products used. A recommendation for future development of these products is included. It should be noted that a number of the products were heavily modified during installation to allow networked control and that this could have affected their performance.

Sensors and control equipment

Multi-sensor
Ceiling rose
Plug top
Security alarm controller

Motors and automation

Internal/External door motor (swing door)
Sliding door motor
Window motors
   1040-INT Mk 1
   1040-INT Mk 2
Curtain motors
   Swish Autoglide
   X-10 Curtain Motor
Vertical blind motor
Sink lifter
Cupboard lifter

Controllers

Programmable remote controls
   Take Control
   Infrared watch
   Evesoft controller

More about smart homes on this website