Smart home helps with our home comfort and security
Smart home is a perfect solution for everyone whose apartment lacks comfort, convenience and security. Various smart devices will lower our home temperature at night, have the place heated until we wake up and cool it when we go to work, all that and more achieved by special application that allows us to create timers, based on our routines and comfort needs. Smart home systems and devices often operate together, sharing consumer usage data among themselves and automating actions based on our preferences.
Underfloor heating
Underfloor heating provides more comfortable and even warmth than any other heating system. It is economical to run and virtually maintenance free. It mainly uses radiant heat, the most comfortable form of heating, giving an even distribution of warmth over the whole room.
Radiators transfer energy using convection, heating the air above and around them at a high temperature, causing the warm air to rise. This results in the floor being the coolest part of the room, with the mass of warm air at the ceiling level. Underfloor heating resolves this issue by ensuring there are no cold spots and the heat gets evenly distributed, where it is most needed.
Underfloor heating works by distributing warm water through a circuit of pipes beneath the finished floor. To maintain consistent temperature throughout the property or individual zones, the heat is monitored and controlled by intelligent thermostats.
For this type of heating we can use any heat source, such as standard, combination, condensing or biomass boilers, heat pumps or stoves. Warm water gets pumped from the heat source (e.g. boiler) to the control pack, where it mixes to approx. 50°C. The control pack fits to the manifold that connects to the UFH pipe circuits. One or more thermostats control the time and the temperature of the heated water, distributed through the pipe circuit. A wiring Centre performs central switching of the zone actuators, control pack and boiler, when and as it gets the signal from the thermostats.
When the heating is switched on, the entire floor area is warmed to between 25 – 28°C, providing even distribution of heat at slightly higher than room temperature.
In the traditional type of underfloor heating system, the UFH pipe is stapled to insulation and covered in screed. This kind of installations are ideally suited for a new build constructions. The load bearing characteristics of the finished floor can vary, depending on specific user requirements, screed type, screed depth and reinforcement (if applicable).
Smart heating
Thanks to the invention of smart meters, our heating can be now controlled remotely, so we will never have to walk into a cold house again. It allows us to control the temperature in different rooms, at different times, remotely, and even in different locations, without having to switch the boiler on or off. It also prevents a chance of forgetting to turn off our heating while we are out of the house.
Depending on the smart system we pick, we can control our heating with a specially designed remote control, an app on our phone, or both.
Most of us turn off our heaters during the night and wake up in the freezing rooms, only to blast the heating right before we leave the house. All of this costs more energy and money than necessary. An efficient heating system that adapts to our needs will save electricity. Smart home adjusts the heating in various situations like when we sleep, are out of the house etc., to smarter consumption.
We can use smart heating systems for hydronic, electric, underfloor, radiator heating or panel heaters and it is easy to apply for existing or new heating systems. If our home has an electric or hydronic underfloor heating, we can control it with a smart thermostat. With the special smart plug, we can easily measure the power consumption of our electric panels, set the temperatures of each device and turn them on or off when they are not needed.
Remote water heater
Enjoying a hot shower whenever you feel like it, is one of life’s simple pleasures. It comes though at a high cost. Having constant supply of hot water means it is being constantly heated and reheated, which leads to needless energy consumption and high power bills. Getting a smart water heater is the best way of saving energy, while not giving up on the comfort of hot water when we want it. If our traditional one still works fine, we can get all the benefits of a smart water heater, by just upgrading it with a smart controller.
Smart water heaters and controllers establish a wireless connection to our phone or computer. From there, we can monitor their status, set schedules, and precisely adjust the output temperature. If there is a leak or malfunction, sophisticated sensors can alert us and a licensed technician.
Smart energy control enables consumers to easily set their hot water temperature, as well as change the operating mode of the water heater to automatically adjust to their use patterns. Additionally, the control provides diagnostic feedback on the operation of the unit.
