In futuristic themed movies, we are often bombarded with images of what futures homes would look as they would often re-conceptualized home-living and the technology associated with it.
For instance, if you are a big fan of Marvel movies, you would know how sophisticatedly technology-bounded Tony Stark’s (a.k.a Ironman) home is, all thanks to JARVIS.
However, while this imaginary house seems non-existential two decades ago, this might not seem to be far-fetch now that houses and building around the globe embracing the concept of smart home system in residences.
In this part of the world, the concept of smart home is new but not entirely unfamiliar among members of the public, as it is in line with the State government’s initiative on environmental sustainability.
For instance, 652 houses in Samariang Avenue at Jalan Sultan Tengah in Petra Jaya would be the first in Sarawak to be integrated with a smart home system by Centex Commercial.
The smart house project is reported to be completed sometime by the end of this year (2022).
The smart home system would help enhance comfort for homeowners as well as providing high-level security, simplification of daily activities and reducing electricity usage.
So, what is a smart home?
A smart home refers to a convenient home setup where appliances and devices can be automatically controlled remotely from anywhere with an internet connection using a mobile or other networked device.
Smart home sustainability may prove to be key in optimizing and protecting our environment, natural resources and quality of life.
This is because, there is a rising demand in energy that quicken the pace for global warming and therefore, contributing towards climate crisis.
In smart home, sustainable designs seek to reduce negative impacts on the environment by reducing consumption of non-renewable resources, minimize waste and create healthy, productive environments.
Smart home system is designed to learn about their owners or occupants, which eventually anticipating their needs.
The systems use this knowledge to make predictions about possible future behaviours of their owners and take actions that enhance comfort and convenience, save money, and reduce environmental impacts.
This is because more and more applications and devices leveraging smart-home understanding of the home environment to drive down wastage and inefficiencies in energy and other resource consumption.
For instance, power usage.
A sustainable green smart home would monitor how and when power is consumed and manage power in the home based on that data.
For instance, a smart-home system would turn off the lights and devices that are on but not in use.
Other than that, by using intelligence and information that the system has learned about the residents, such as it making decisions about whether to lock doors and windows, turn on or off the air conditioner, lights or entertainment systems, activate the security system and more.
Another example is water conservation.
Often, undetected water leaking would lead to wastage and sometimes causing costly damage in the home, and resulting in high energy and water bills.
Thanks to Artificial Intelligence (AI), an installed a leak detector can send an alarm when the tank fails.
A smart home can alert the home owner and control the power and water systems that feed it.
The trend toward sustainability is boosting markets like smart home. According to Mordor Intelligence, smart home is expected to hit $314 billion a year by 2026.
Here, the commercialisation of home-centric digital innovations and devices for modern living will encourage more Sarawakians to start embracing the digital economy.
