Super convenient "House" future that does not fit economy and IT Smarting

Do you use smart home appliances?"OK Google", "Alexa (Alexa)", "Hey Clova".The smart speaker with AI, which responds when you call out, is a typical smart home appliance.There are small things in my home, listening to the weather forecast and having the boiling time.

スマート家電の所有率TOP3は？

"Smart home appliances" are home appliances that can work with smartphones and tablets or connect to the Internet.You can use a special application to operate home appliances like a remote control with a smartphone.

The Living Tech Association is investigating the actual situation of smart home appliances.Looking at the ownership of people who own smart home appliances, the number one is "smart speaker" (46).9 %).It is a natural result because it is used by the writer of the mechanical sound.

The second is "Cleaning Robot" (35).2 %), and this is also something I have.The third is "Smart Light" (24).6 %), the fourth is the "Smart Home Appliance Controller" (20).4 %), the fifth is "air conditioner connected to the net" (19.2 %).

"Smart light" is a lighting fixture corresponding to the Internet, and can be remote control and audio operation from smartphones and smart speakers.Some seem to be able to adjust the brightness and color of the lighting.

In addition, the "Smart Home Appliance Controller" usually has a remote control for each home appliance, but it controls them together with a smartphone.You can turn on and off air conditioners and lighting from the go.

What are the benefits of using smart home appliances?If you look at the survey results on "what kind of convenience has risen and what effect you feel", "voice operation" (32) (32).3 %), "Housework Reduction" (31).5 %), "Remote control" (30).9 %) was ranked higher.

Voice operation and remote control are the benefits of connecting on the Internet, but also has the effect of reducing the housework.What can I do?

In fact, there is a person who uses smart home appliances for smart (⁉).I asked how he was using it.

She is a busy working and has children, also uses cleaning robots, and has two smart speakers at home.Her smart speakers are said to be used not only in common use, but also in the child -rearing scenes, such as playing radio and music by operating voice when they want to change their mind.

For example, using the reminding function of a smart speaker to set the list to read out the list with voice when the child goes out time, or brushes and sleeps from a smart speaker installed in the child's room during the child's sleeping time.It is set so that the promotional announcement flows.In addition, he uses the reading function of a smart speaker book to read a picture book to children, and use it as a supporting role in raising children.

Smart speakers are also used as a hub for smart home appliances, and they operate the lighting and dimming of the bedroom, and operate air conditioners and TV on and off.In this case, you can do various things while working, doing housework.

In addition, using the "smart outlet (smart plug)" in the washroom to make sure that you have forgotten to cut the hair iron used to go out after going out.I also use a feeder.

If you use these smart home appliances according to the scene you want to use, it is surprising that this is convenient.

住宅のHEMSと連携すればもっと便利なIoT住宅に

In the house, there are many housing facilities such as water heaters and floor heating as well as home appliances.In addition to smart home appliances, using HEMS will make it more convenient.

HEMS stands for "Home Energy Management System".It visualizes energy such as electricity and gas in houses, and automatically controls equipment to save energy consumption.

In recent years, the number of families with housing equipment that has the function of generating power and storage, such as solar power generation systems and storage batteries, is increasing, which has become increasingly important.

HEMS, on the other hand, continues to evolve and can be linked not only with home appliances such as energy -related devices and air conditioners, but also with residential equipment such as smart speakers, electric locks, and electric window shutters.

Houses that control energy, energy, energy saving, etc. using HEMS were called "smart house", but evolved into "houses that can use IT (information technology) to make living conveniently".It is also called "IoT (Internet of Things) Housing".

IoT住宅の仕組み

So, I asked Panasonic, a member company of the Living Tech Association, about the mechanism.Panasonic's HEMS (product name is "Aiseg2") is said to be able to cooperate with various devices.

In HEMS, there is an Echonet Lite standard as a standard for linking devices between different manufacturers.

Echonet Lite is a communication standard for connecting home appliances of different manufacturers and monitoring, and is also approved as an international standard.If it is a product of the ECHONET Lite standard, it will be possible for manufacturers to cooperate with HEMS (assuming that the manufacturer is confirmed with each other).

The only thing that can be used by using HEMS is the batch operation by setting the scene.In the scene of "when returning home", lighting, air conditioning, bath hot water, etc. are put on together, and lighting and air conditioners are turned off in "when going out".Rather than operating individual devices, specify the scene set with a smartphone or smart speaker.

What I was interested in is that it can also be used to watch the elderly parents of their parents.If you make your parents' home into an IoT house, you will be contacted by your smartphone if there is no air conditioner on a hot summer day, you can understand the risk of heat stroke, or check the amount of power usage, and you can check safety.This is because you can see the situation of your parents' house even if you are away.

It is said that the parents can also inform the children when they suddenly become ill with a battery -based card transmitter.Since it is a transmitter that can be carried around without wiring, if you press the button when you feel sick, you will contact the specified smartphone via HEMS, so when your child is in the same house, it is of course away.You can rush even if you are in the place.

In addition, when the fire alarm sounds, lighting throughout the house is turned on for evacuation, in cooperation with weather warnings to automatically close the electric shutter, or start charging storage batteries in preparation for a power outage.It is said that it can be used in disaster prevention.

It is a condition that coordination with smart home appliances and HEMS is "if you can master it", but it seems that your life will be safe and convenient.

However, I asked Panasonic, saying, "Isn't smart home appliances more expensive than ordinary ones?"Many of the latest model home appliances are compatible with the Internet, not a special product.Rather, it is an issue that the existing product is not compatible with the Internet.

For example, the price of the basic device (controller) of HEMS is 80,000 yen with a monitor function and 40,000 yen without a monitor (tax -excluded retail price).It can be used by inserting a basic device into an outlet and registering a HEMS compatible device.Except in some cases, such as electricity measurement, there is no need for a particularly large work.

However, in the case of retrofitting, the purchase price will be high, as it is necessary to replace it with the latest model at once even if there is a useful life in the home appliance that you want to cooperate with.Therefore, it is most efficient to use an IoT house when building a new house.

クラウドAPI連携によるスマートホームサービスも登場

In Mitsubishi Estate, the company has developed a comprehensive smart home service "HOMETACT" and announced that it will begin to introduce it from a newly built rental apartment.There are two things that differ significantly from the past.

The first point is that the "introduction barrier" is low.(1) There are a variety of smarter apps and cannot be operated together, (2) Users must install and set them themselves, (3) emergency response in aftercare and troubles.The lack of support is a factor that prevents IoT.

On the other hand, Mitsubishi Estate has developed an original Hometact app so that it can be operated by collecting IoT devices (audio operations can be operated using smart speakers).In addition, we have established a customer service system such as "Installation / Setting Service" and "Call Center" in partnered with BicCamera Group.

The second point is that it is smarter by "Cloud API linkage".API is an abbreviation of Application Programming Interface and is a mechanism to share software functions.In this case, we ask each company to publish APIs such as Rinnai of water heater, life smart for smart switches, and cleaning robots, and embeds these software functions in Hometact software to summarize.I understood that I was able to do it.

If it is API linkage, it is possible to cooperate if it is a device that can connect to the Internet regardless of the ECHONET Lite standard, such as HEMS.However, the challenge is that there are not many cases where APIs are published in Japan.This collaboration has become a reality, as developers in cooperation with many home appliances and housing equipment manufacturers have been collaborated.At this time, smart speakers are limited to Google Nest and smartlights are limited to Philips, but they will expand their collaboration in the future.

In this way, IoT houses will become widespread in the housing industry.If the house becomes smarter, the lives of those who live there will become more and more convenient.We, the living side, thought we had to be smarter so that we could use it.