14/06/2009 by David Slade.

Various policy mechanisms already exist that could support smart features, particularly once their benefits are better understood. These will help to raise the profile of smart features and firmly place them in the range of options available for lowering the environmental impact of homes. Some new approaches will also help to support smart features.

The existing policy mechanisms discussed are:

• home information packs
• the code for sustainable homes
• building regulations
• energy efficiency commitment
• energy end-use efficiency and energy services directive

The new mechanisms discussed are:

• a strategy for existing stock
• an intelligent buildings rating

Home Information Packs (HIPs)
HIPs are mandatory when selling homes with three or more bedrooms and a roll out to the rest of the market is expected at some point. HIPs are prepared by sellers for homebuyers and include an energy performance rating, based on the fuel costs of running a home, and an environmental impact rating, based on carbon dioxide emissions. Both ratings will be familiar to people, as they are the same design as the energy efficiency ratings seen on white goods. The assessment process set out the running costs of a home and the intention is to make low impact, energy efficient homes more desirable because of their lower running costs.

Homes will receive ratings from A (most efficient) to G (least efficient) with specific aspects of the homes, such as the walls or roof, rated separately and the running costs broken down into heating, lighting etc. The assessment will include recommended measures to improve energy efficiency and the expected cost savings. Sellers do not have to achieve a certain rating in order to sell their home, but this could change and would be a key way to incentivise environmental improvements.

Alternatively, purchasers could be required to implement a certain number of the assessment’s recommendations within two years of purchase. This would increase the market for a wide variety of energy saving options and, with a solid evidence base in place, smart features will be a useful addition to the range of options available to homeowners.

Smart features and HIPs
Smart meters are likely to assist the rating process, as they will be measuring, recording and displaying a home’s resource use. But if smart features are to become a viable option for homeowners looking to improve their rating, the assessment process will have to recognise them as ways of improving environmental performance.

CLG did consider including smart features in the assessment process but they settled on measures that deliver guaranteed levels of energy saving, whereas definitive values can not yet be assigned to smart features. This is a fast changing area though and the list of features included can change. Further research will strengthen the case for smart features and other features will have to be included once conventional options like wall insulation become more widespread.

The assumptions behind the energy ratings present a more fundamental barrier, as they assume certain conditions in a home in order to compare the energy savings delivered by different options. But smart features deliver savings in a different way. Rather than assuming that a home is heated to 18ºC for 16 hours per day on a weekend (as the assessment does) and then comparing savings, the benefit of smart features is that a whole home would not be heated unnecessarily if only a few rooms are in use, or if people are not even at home. The impact of behaviour change on the savings delivered will also need to be considered.

The assessment process will therefore have to become more flexible so that it can recognise the environmental benefits of smart features. But it is crucial that it does, as the assessments in HIPs are one of the few mechanisms that cover new and existing homes, where smart features have a lot to offer.

Require homes to achieve certain energy and environmental performance ratings before they can be sold and recognise smart features in the assessment process as ways to achieve an improved rating.

Code for sustainable homes
The code came into effect in April 2007 and sets national standards for the sustainability of new homes. It has six levels, with minimum standards of energy and water efficiency that have to be achieved at each level, as well as a range of additional points that can be gained for other sustainability measures. The code covers:

• energy/carbon performance
• water use
• materials
• surface water run off
• waste
• pollution
• health and well being
• management
• ecology

After a positive response to the CLG’s proposal to make a code rating mandatory, they are consulting on further details. Developers can have their homes assessed against the code and inform purchasers of the level achieved.

Alternatively, purchasers will be informed that their home only meets building regulations standard and effectively has a zero rating against the code. This aims to raise awareness of a home’s environmental features among consumers and make sustainability a greater factor in decision-making. To avoid confusion, the rating will be linked with the energy performance assessment of new homes and is likely to be presented in HIPs.

Homes will not be required to meet a certain level of the code. But the government’s 2006/07 consultation, Building a greener future: towards zero carbon development proposes strengthening the building regulations in line with the code so that, over time, new homes automatically reach ever higher levels of the code just by meeting building regulations.

The consultation suggests strengthening the building regulations to achieve a:

• 25 per cent improvement by 2010 = all new homes meet code level 3
• 44 per cent improvement by 2013 = all new homes meet code level 4
• zero carbon by 2016 = all new homes meet code level

Is the code smart?
Smart features are not singled out in the code’s assessment as a way of gaining additional points, but this could change when the savings delivered by smart features become clearer.

The real opportunity for smart features in relation to the code lies in the minimum energy and water efficiency standards at each level. As the building regulations get tougher and higher standards of the code have to be met it will get increasingly challenging to build homes that meet the minimum requirements for each level.

Once house builders have included the easier options for improving energy and water efficiency they will be looking for solutions that enable them to deliver the further improvements that they require. Smart home proponents believe that they will be able to offer the final set of savings that house builders will be looking for.

This view is also reflected in the Technology Strategy Board’s motivation for looking at smart features, as they are aware that the building industry will need support in meeting the challenges presented by these policy proposals. As with the energy and environmental assessments of homes discussed above, the code will have to display flexibility in incorporating smart features into the process and recognising their benefits. But it is vital that it does, as smart features will have an increasingly important role to play the higher the level of the code that builders have to meet.

Building regulations
Merging the building regulations with the code for sustainable homes provides a significant opportunity for the take up of smart features, but these developments will only cover new homes. There are also opportunities for using the regulations to improve the energy performance of existing stock.

Amendments to the Sustainable and Secure Buildings Act allow CLG to require homes that are changing occupancy or doing large scale building work to bring the rest of the home up to the building regulations standard on conserving fuel and power. So far, CLG has not chosen to enact this.

Other suggestions include requiring homeowners building extensions or doing significant refurbishment to bring the rest of their home up to a certain energy efficiency standard (based on the code or the energy performance assessment in HIPs). This would guarantee whole-home improvements in energy efficiency and smart features will be a good solution in homes where that is a challenge.

Apply the energy efficiency aspects of the building regulations to the whole home when extensions are being built or significant refurbishment done.

Energy efficiency commitment (EEC)
EEC requires all energy suppliers with over 50,000 customers to deliver energy savings in their customer’s homes. This contributes to carbon emission reduction targets by improving the energy performance of existing homes. Suppliers are given an energy saving target proportionate to their customer base and are currently working to EEC phase 2 targets.

EEC 1 ran from 2002 – 2005 and suppliers exceeded the required savings
EEC 2 ran from 2005 – 2008 with a target more than double that of EEC 1
EEC 3 is runing from 2008 – 2011 and will change to a carbon emission reduction target

EEC3 will become known as the carbon emission reduction target (CERT) from 2008 and will require a further doubling of EEC2 targets. EEC credits various energy efficiency measures with delivering certain amounts of carbon emission reductions and the measures covered by CERT have already been finalised. Smart heating controls are included, but the clear winners are still options like cavity wall insulation. This has been the method of choice for meeting EEC targets so far and, given the savings it delivers, its low cost and the 10 million homes still without it, it is likely to remain so for some time.

CERT does however provide some opportunity for smart features, as discussed above.

Suppliers will be allowed to meet a limited portion of their commitment through ‘innovation activity’ that explores measures whose carbon savings are still uncertain, and where savings depend on behavioural change. Suppliers will not be penalised if they fail to deliver the expected savings and once carbon savings are established, the measures in question can be added to the general range of measures recognised by EEC/CERT. This mechanism is ideal for exploring smart features, as many of them involve behaviour change and require further research to better understand the savings they will deliver.

The future of CERT up to 2020 also provides a strong driver for smart meters. The government envisages energy companies working with customers to reduce energy use, with a new business model that makes this a profitable activity. But suppliers will only be able to achieve this if they have the frequent and accurate data on how their customers use energy that smart electricity meters will provide. Without them, energy companies will not be able to evolve into the energy service companies envisaged by government.

Introduce provisions to ensure that suppliers take advantage of the innovation activity element of CERT and use it to trial smart features. Energy end-use efficiency and energy services directive. This EU directive was agreed in November 2005 and was implemented in2008. As long as it is financially reasonable, it requires:

• the installation of meters (new or replacement) that accurately reflect energy consumption and provide information on time of use
• billing based on actual consumption that is presented simply and frequently enough for customers to regulate energy consumption

The directive is an ideal opportunity to promote smart electricity meters, as they are the only solution that will allow both increased information on energy use for consumers while enabling suppliers to provide accurate bills. Smart electricity meters are also crucial to the future of smart homes in general. Some pressure is  on the government seize the opportunity presented by this directive and to provide a mandate for a smart electricity meter roll, with a requirement for smart electricity meters in all homes within 10 years. The roll out will not happen immediately, but it is a critical first step that will enable energy companies to start making real progress.

Provide a mandate for smart electricity meters being requiring homes to have one fitted within ten years. Include clear milestones and require the provision of free real time display options to all homes to illustrate consumption.

A strategy for existing stock
Smart features can make a useful contribution to lowering the environmental impact of existing homes, because of the challenges they present to many of the easier, more conventional options. The code for sustainable homes provides a comprehensive approach to environmental impacts for new homes and the same thoroughness would be welcomed when looking at existing homes.

It would be helpful to bring the various policy mechanisms that can incentivise environmental improvements in existing homes into a comprehensive strategy. CLG’s review of the sustainability of existing stock may be a precursor to this, but existing homes will need to be addressed in a more strategic way if they are to make a real contribution to the UK’s carbon reduction targets. And a coherent strategy is required if the goverments ambition of all homes becoming zero carbon over the next decade is to be realised.

Develop a strategy for improving the environmental performance of existing homes so that they can contribute to reducing domestic carbon emissions.

An intelligent buildings rating
TAHI is exploring the idea of an intelligent buildings rating and the Building Research Establishment (BRE) is also working with BERR to develop one. Some countries already have this, such as Japan and South Korea, but they assess the number of smart features in a building, rather than the business and lifestyle improvements that the technologies support. BRE aims to focus more on what smart homes enable. As smart features in homes become more common a smart rating could be included in HIPs. It would make a home’s intelligence an increasingly key feature in decisions, in the same way that existing policies aim to raise awareness of a home’s environmental performance.

With the consideration of including an intelligent buildings rating in HIPS as smart features develop.

Posted in BERR, Building regulations, Sustainable and Secure Buildings Act, Building Research Establishment (BRE), Energy efficiency commitment (EEC), smart meters, Home Information Packs (HIPs), Code for sustainable homes, Smart homes | Print | No Comments »

14/06/2009 by David Slade.

Smart features are unique in their delivery of environmental benefits, as they are influenced by the way that residents engage with them. Cavity wall insulation will deliver a quantifiable amount of energy saving regardless of occupant behaviour.

Intelligent heating controls, for example, will not, as their benefits depend on the settings that residents decide on.

Many smart features will deliver a certain level of environmental benefit regardless of resident activity. In addition, if people install smart features because they are required to improve the environmental performance of their home, they will have a pressing incentive to make the most of the benefits that smart features can offer. But the impact of residents’ behaviour still needs to be addressed when seeking to incorporate smart features into existing policy mechanisms and assessments. Many of the policies discussed below use a set of assumptions that are inappropriate for smart features. These assumptions will need to be rethought once there is clarity on the benefits of smart features and they start to have a higher profile in efforts to improve the environmental performance of homes.

Be innovative and flexible with policy mechanisms in order to recognise and incorporate the environmental benefits of smart features.

Posted in Smart homes | Print | No Comments »

14/06/2009 by David Slade.

The development of smart water meters has also not progressed as quickly as smart electricity meters, as the debate on whether to universally meter water is still underway.

Only a quarter of UK homes are currently metered and a negligible percentage of these have smart water meters.

The potential environmental benefits of smart water meters are their ability to:

• reduce consumption
• reduce peak demand
• detect leaks and increase efficiency

Metering trials conducted since 1970 have consistently resulted in water use falling by 5 - 21 per cent. It is generally assumed that water meters can reduce demand by an average of ten per cent by making people more aware of how much water they use. Smart water meters have the added benefits of being able to provide more detailed information on consumption and presenting it in a more user-friendly way, as well as enabling variable charging to reduce peak demand.

The size of the UK’s water system (number of reservoirs and pipes) is determined by peak demand in the summer, but it is driven by a small percentage of the population with very high consumption. Their use requires higher capital investment in infrastructure, with the associated environmental impacts, and the costs are passed on to the whole population. It would be preferable to introduce a higher tariff in summer which would be applied above a certain level of use. People would therefore pay more for discretionary use (e.g. excessively watering gardens or filling paddling pools every day), which is likely to reduce overall demand. Smart meters would be required for this, as ‘dumb’ ones would not able to assess consumption patterns against the seasons and differentiate between discretionary and necessary use if, for example, consumption is high because of large family.

Smart water meters can also detect leaks in homes by measuring flow rate. Current estimates suggest that one third of water leaks are in domestic properties, where customers are responsible for them. A smart water meter could highlight them and prevent ongoing wastage once the leaks are mended.

Progress so far
Water companies have been looking at water meters more thoroughly due to increasingly frequent water shortages and the potential for smart water meters to help reduce capital investment requirements is a further incentive. The Environment Agency aims for 70 per cent of homes to have water meters by 2030 and the water industry is in general agreement with this. If they are to go for water meters on this scale it makes sense to go straight to smart ones, although not all will. Companies are also mindful of the EU Energy End Use Efficiency and Energy Services Directive and the possibility that similar metering and billing requirements will be placed on them, which makes smart meters yet more attractive.

Work is underway on developing a common data specification for smart water meters but the regulator, Ofwat, needs to be confident that meters will deliver a ten per cent reduction in water demand to justify passing the costs of smart meters on to consumers. This highlights the need for more consistent and sustained research to confirm the data.

And even with sound evidence of a ten per cent drop in consumption from a trial, unexpected weather may still change peoples’ behaviour. They may be willing to pay far more for water to maintain their gardens during a very hot summer, despite more expensive variable tariffs, than a trial that took place in a mild summer may suggest. Suppliers need to have confidence that consumption will fall, whatever the weather, as it will influence decisions about whether to invest in additional water supply capacity.

Progress is required to confirm the extent of the savings that smart water meters offer and to address the complexities created by uncertainty about peoples’ behaviour. But they will be the missing piece that will provide households with a full picture of their resource use alongside smart electricity and gas meters.

Posted in Energy Services Directive, Smart water meters, smart meters, Smart homes | Print | No Comments »

14/06/2009 by David Slade.

Smart gas meters have had far less focus and have frequently been considered in conjunction with smart electricity meters. Once smart electricity meters are in place the easiest way to provide consumers with consumption information on gas would be for the gas meter to share the electricity meter’s display unit. Rolling out smart electricity meters is therefore the crucial first step in getting smart gas meters and dual fuel households will probably be the initial focus.

Three quarters of domestic carbon emissions come from heating and hot water use, but this consumption will only register with people when their gas consumption is displayed alongside their electricity use. So smart gas meters, with their ability to raise awareness of consumption and to prompt reduced use, will be needed in order to make real inroads into reducing domestic energy use. They will also help to maximise the potential of other smart features, such as intelligent heating controls.

Information on daily gas usage combined with the ability to control it better will have a significant impact on peoples’ consciousness of their heating and hot water use. So far though, little research has been done to explore these savings.

Posted in Smart gas meters, smart meters, Smart homes | Print | No Comments »

14/06/2009 by David Slade.

Broadband internet and digital TV are seen as the first steps towards smart, networked homes, as they have the potential to be gateways into homes for a wide range of smart applications. Their take up has been rapid; by March 2006, 43 per cent of UK homes had broadband internet connections compared to two years earlier when only 15 per cent did.6 The take up of digital television is driven by government policy to switch all TV to digital by 2012 and 77.2 per cent of British homes had digital TV in some form as reported at the end of 2006.

The technology industry sees smart homes as the next big thing and many companies have smart or digital home programmes. But analysts argue that consumers’ key concerns are still simple problems, like getting all the computers in a house to link to the same printer.

Other than the most technology literate or the very wealthy, consumers do not yet seem to be demanding the advantages of networked homes. Smart homes are therefore more likely to evolve as people purchase different features that link up to each other over time, rather than through an instant technological upgrade.

Even so, many companies and groups are already looking ahead to fully smart homes. The Automated Home initiative (TAHI) aims to “promote, provide the environment for and launch large scale deployments of ‘smart houses’ and the services…for them so that people can see and experience the benefits the connected home can bring and demand them for themselves.” Their working groups look at different aspects of smart homes and want to avoid features developing in isolation, as the ability of smart features to communicate and work together through a home network will be essential to their desirability. TAHI has been feeding in to the European level development of a smart homes specification, as well as developing a mark of interoperability.

A number of BEAMA members already produce smart home technology and the association has a smart homes working group. It sets out what a smart home is, what it can offer and the technologies available on a comprehensive website that promotes their members and provides developers and homeowners with information. Such initiatives will be increasingly important to the development of smart homes, as features start to become commonplace.

Smart homes around the world
The smart homes market in most developed countries is similar to that of the UK, with some key exceptions. South Korea is a clear leader in this area and looking at their achievements illustrates the real potential of smart homes.

Smart homes in South Korea

Following a financial crisis in the 1990s South Korea invested heavily in developing innovative technology. They have introduced the world to the internet fridge, oven and washing machine and are a laboratory for developing the home of the future.

This will help to solve their domestic challenge of dealing with a greying population, as well as providing them with massive export opportunities.

In 2007 the Ministry of Information and Communication will have invested approximately £247 million in supporting the development of original information technology (IT). Part of this will support home networking, which has already received loans to develop 44,000 networked homes. The ultimate aim is to network 10 million homes, with plans to introduce a home network building certification system.

South Korea’s investment in networking is such that they are increasingly looking beyond the smart home to the smart city. The networked home strategy is now part of a larger project to network entire cities, called U-city, which is being promoted by around £11.5 million worth of subsidies to local government bodies and the construction and housing sectors. Dongtan New Town, Korea’s first U-city, is being tested and rolled out from March 2007 and all 1,010 residential units are now networked.

Home networks in South Korea are provided by LG Electronics’ HomNet product or Samsung’s HomeVita. Lotte Castle apartment complex in Seoul is an example of fully networked homes. They have wireless broadband and a HomNet environment that is controlled via TV, a remote control or a keyboard. Cameras relay real time images from other areas of the home and the outdoor playground, DVDs can be copied onto the home’s hard drive, gas and electricity use is tracked, a health monitor checks blood pressure, body temperature and heart rate and there are on-screen controls for the washing machine, the microwave, the air conditioner and the oven.

The entire home can be controlled remotely by mobile phone and residents will be notified of any problems, such as the gas being left on, and can get real time images of their home over the phone.

Other networked homes have voice activated controls, refrigerators that can update residents on their contents and mirrors that display their daily appointments, as well as toilets that send health updates to their doctor.

The focus of smart homes in South Korea is to make life easier, rather than environmental benefits. But as the environmental performance of homes becomes increasingly important in Europe, a key export market, these aspects are likely to be developed and highlighted. The UK’s pursuit of smart homes will be nowhere near as single minded but it does demonstrate what is possible and provide scope for applying South Korean innovations to our environmental ambitions.

Smart homes in the UK
Smart homes in the UK can be found at extreme ends of the housing spectrum.

Wealthy homeowners looking for the latest technology to manage their homes have been installing smart networks and smart applications are also being put into social and sheltered housing because of their healthcare and energy efficiency benefits.

Retrofitting existing homes to make them smarter and to lower their environmental impact, is also now possible.

The mass housing market is between the extremes of high-end mansions and social housing. The average homebuyer is not demanding smart features and developers have no interest in a home’s performance once it is sold, so they have no driver to install energy saving smart features. The market for smart homes, building contractors generally considered that they would remain a rarity except in high-end properties and sceptical about the potential of smart retrofitting, believing it will remain a niche area.

In contrast to this pessimism, smart home contractors and manufacturers are very positive, regarding “the forward march of the intelligent home as almost inevitable.

Posted in daily appointments, DVD, Cameras - real time images, mobile phone, toilets, internet fridge, HomNet, internet washing machine, internet oven, oven, microwave, Air Conditioning, Dig­ital Transition TV, Voice-Activated Controls, Smart homes, Broadband internet, Automated Home initiative (TAHI), washing machine, health monitor systems, BEAMA, Home automation network (HAN) | Print | No Comments »