home automation (HA)

While building automation deals with all functionalities around the building - around air conditioning and ventilation, energy supply and feeding, security and alarm devices, networking and telecommunication, home automation is about the comfort of the inhabitants of a house, about the intelligent control of lighting, air conditioning and about the security of the buildings. Building automation transitions to the smart home with its connected living.

One aspect of home automation is the networking of household appliances, their monitoring and control. In this way, daily needs can be reordered in a timely manner, even remotely. Another aspect deals with entertainment or lighting control, in which the lighting is only activated for energy-saving reasons when the room light is no longer bright enough and when a person is in the room. Ambient assisted living( AAL) is also part of improving quality of life.

From a technical point of view, home automation relies on wired networking or wireless technologies. For wired networking, there is the Universal PowerlineBus( UPB) and the Digitalstromproject; for wireless networking of in-house devices, there are various interesting technologies. ZigBee is one such technology, WLANs, Z-Wave, Enocean, HomeKit, Bluetooth Low Energy and DECT ULE (Ultra Low Energy) are others. These technologies are supported by apps.