Smart Homes & Buildings (2)

IHS Markit predicts up to 43 percent of all low power wide area networks (LPWANs) will be based on Semtech’s LoRa® devices and the LoRaWAN® protocol by 2023*. As of December 2019, more than half a million LoRa-enabled gateways have been deployed globally, supporting 135 million LoRa-based end nodes**. With the global adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions and the growing market share of LoRa-enabled applications, it is becoming more and more difficult to identify a business segment that could not benefit from some level of connected devices. With new LoRa use cases being announced regularly, and growing numbers of worldwide LoRaWAN network deployments (public or private), it seems the only limit to these applications is the imagination of the developers and system integrators solving real world business challenges today.

Real estate is the second highest operating expense for employers behind salaries. At the same time, the workforce is rapidly transitioning into an “anytime, anywhere” work ethos. Despite these realities, little has changed in the way office space is utilized. As a result, very expensive office space is going unused. Worse still, without adequate data to prove otherwise, facility managers often request additional budget to lease even more space due to the belief that they are out of room in their existing facilities.

As the vertical market director for Smart Homes and Buildings in Semtech’s Wireless and Sensing Products Group, and lead for the Smart Buildings Working Group of the LoRa Alliance®, I recently had the pleasure of attending the International Facilities Management Association (IFMA) World Workplace® Conference and Expo in Phoenix, Arizona. According to IFMA, the event is the largest and longest-running event series for facility management (FM) and workplace professionals, attracting an audience of nearly 5,000 professionals from 17 countries.

At Conserv, we built one of the first environmental monitoring solutions using Semtech’s LoRa® devices and the LoRaWAN® protocol to bring better care to the world’s 450,000+ art and cultural collections in museums, libraries, archives, and private collections. Accurate and consistent monitoring is important because unhealthy collection environments – those with excessive heat, humidity, light, and vibration – do irreversible damage to valuable, sensitive objects. Sounds straightforward, right?

The emergence of smart buildings is not a new development. Building automation has been around (typically behind the scenes) since the mid-80s, having evolved from BACnet to a host of IEEE protocols, and recently from strictly wired, to both wired and wireless sensors. Building Management Systems (BMS) have played an important role in this evolution. However, historically these have had a limited role outside the realm of managing HVAC systems and the other physical operations within a building.

Among the many fascinating topics that captivated the 180,000 plus attendees at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) were innovations for smart homes and buildings. From smart kitchen appliances to voice assistant-enabled lighting, consumer electronics companies are leveraging the Internet of Things (IoT) to connect everyday devices to the Cloud to create new experiences for consumers at a rapid pace. Business Insider forecasts that in the United States alone, more than one billion smart home devices will be deployed by 2023.

Water is one of the more expensive items on the utility bill – costing Americans on average  $15-$77 per month. From the dishwasher and washing machine, to toilets and the shower, water use is unavoidable. At the same time, consumers all around the globe are aware of the need to conserve water in order to minimize environmental impact, prevent drought and create a more sustainable planet.  A recent report from ABI Research indicates IoT smart city technologies could drive more than $20 trillion in economic benefits by 2026.

For businesses, water can often be one of the most expensive utilities. Additionally, it can be hard to keep track of just how much is being used in order to prepare for the costs. For big corporations, concerns are much larger than whether or not a sink has been left running. Supermarkets, for example use millions of gallons per year in refrigerated display cases, frozen food cases and storage freezers. If a leak occurs, or proper efforts are not taken to assure systems are running efficiently, water waste becomes a very serious and costly issue quickly.

The United States Fire Administration estimates that nearly $14.3 billion in property damage was lost to fires in the U.S. (2015). The vast majority of these fires are small commercial fires, which do the most property damage, and are the largest risk for human injury. These fires can spread in a number of minutes; so early detection is key to preventing property damage and loss of life.

According to a study published by alarm.org and conducted by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, enabling a home security system can decrease the likelihood your house will be targeted for burglary.