The constantly rising energy prices are a burden on house owners as well as tenants of apartments. Intelligent heating control systems and energy management systems could significantly reduce the consumption of electricity and fuel, thereby reducing costs and carbon dioxide emissions. Before these systems can be used, considerable installation work is necessary. Depending on the effort, several thousands of Euros can come together. Here, SmartHome relies: the retrofit energy management system from RWE combines comfort, safety and energy saving potentials. In the first step, the starter package with the SmartHome control panel is sufficient. It controls the components that are input by radio and, on the other hand, commands the commands transmitted via a broadband Internet connection of the RWE central computer for controlling on the move. There are also two thermostats, a switch and an intermediate plug in the starter package.
Easy installation
The slightly chunky radio thermostats are screwed against the existing thermostat on the heating valve. This is what lay people do. After inserting the Mignon batteries, the radiator is already manually and automatically controllable. With the intermediate plug, electricity consumers such as lamps, heaters or air-conditioning units are directed. The slim switch, which is powered by a button cell, allows you to register user inputs, such as to switch on the supplied plug. Afterwards, the control center is supplied with power, docked to the broadband router and registered on the RWE homepage. The browser plug-in Silverlight allows all existing components to be registered in the control center. Finally, the modules are dragged and dropped using the mouse.
Comfortable operation
Individual rooms or components can be linked via profiles. This allows, for example, several switches to work simultaneously, for example, to switch on the light in several rooms, or several radiators to synchronize the room temperature synchronously.
Current Upgrade
If the configuration is correct, the components run independently, but also allow user intervention. This allows the thermostats to be controlled manually. If no intervention occurs, the time control stored in the control center applies. This makes it possible for the room temperature to drop to 18 degrees in the absence of the occupants and then to 21 degrees at midnight when desired. Also mobile access is possible. In the Praxistest the switching of the intermediate plug and the lowering of the radiator temperature with an iPhone worked very little: log in, control, finished. For security reasons, the smartphone communicates with the back end of the RWE server and not directly with the SmartHome center at home. The local computer, on the other hand, can be set up in such a way that it controls the entered devices without the need for a detour via the Internet. This shortens the response times. Mobile access also works with other smartphones such as BlackBerrys or Android phones. Only the passage "When buying a RWE SmartHome center, 24 months of mobile access are included" suggests that mobile phone freaks will have to reckon with additional costs. The press office, however, did not want to give any information about the height.
Conclusion
In June 2011, SmartHome has grown: window contacts, motion and smoke detectors as well as dimmable intermediate connectors were added. Thus, the energy concept is additionally enhanced by alarm system features, which significantly increases the number of possible applications. The user can, for example, program the window contacts to switch the thermostats off when ventilated. This saves a lot of energy, for example in the bathing room or in the children's room. Ordinary thermostats, on the other hand, increase the energy consumption when the windows are open. This is like spending money to the window. The more components are added, the more expensive the system. In our example calculation, an average single-family home already costs 1,500 euros. Anyone who wants to program even more ambitious control tasks can spend even more.
RWE-SmartHome is a smart system to retrofit houses and apartments with energy saving and safety technology. It is not quite cheap, but it is terrific easy to install and to use. In order to achieve the same functionality also in new buildings through established, wire-bound systems, the surcharge should be somewhat higher. In this case, the installation must also be carried out by a specialist company.
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