By 2026, 573.7 million households worldwide will have smart home devices[i]19 million of which will be South African[ii].
To make more South African homes smarter faster, CBI Electrician: Low Voltage recently launched its line of IoT (Internet of Things) home automation products called the Insightful range.
Established in 1949 in South Africa, CBI-electric: low Voltage is a designer, manufacturer and supplier of quality low voltage electrical switchgear, protection and control equipment that can be found in many homes throughout South Africa.
The new Astute series expands this offering with high-tech solutions to control and manage almost every aspect of your home, including monitoring, energy efficiency, voltage fluctuations, and remote control and automation of appliances, among others.
Energy efficiency:
Smart home devices help homeowners monitor energy consumption so they can control consumption.
Users can not only monitor which items are consuming the most electricity, but can also turn them off when not in use and schedule when they come back on.
For example, users can control when geysers and other appliances that use heavy energy are turned on.
They can also determine in advance which days the pool pump runs and for how long.
This feature is crucial for saving electricity, which in turn helps users save money.
Voltage fluctuations:
The instability of the voltage before and after the load is switched off means that there is the potential for voltage fluctuations in the distribution network and therefore in your home.
These fluctuations can be higher or lower than the standard voltage of 230 V AC.
These high and/or low voltages can damage instruments, and the best way to protect against this is to only apply voltage to the instrument after it has stabilized.
With smart home automation devices, users can easily set a minimum and maximum “safe operating voltage range” via an app.
Therefore, if the voltage is unstable, the smart device will monitor the voltage level and pass power to the load (device) only if it is within a safe operating voltage range.
Remote control and automation of devices:
When it comes to controlling their appliances, users have the ability to turn them on and off remotely.
This can apply, for example, to lighting, air conditioning and underfloor heating. Automation allows users to set timers and schedules to activate and deactivate their devices at specific times and on specific days.
Their lifestyle and security requirements can help determine how best to configure these remote controls and automation for optimal use.
Smart homes are no longer the future, but the reality of today, and they will soon become even smarter.
Going forward, they will be more connected, which means they will be able to anticipate user needs, which in turn equates to easy integration into your daily routine.
These smart devices provide insight, control and automation – all at your fingertips. Start investing today in the smart homes of tomorrow.
For more information, go to https://cbi-lowvoltage.co.za or follow CBI-electric: low voltage on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
