Smart, Healthy Homes

Caroline Blazovsky, CEO of My Healthy Home, says in pursuing a healthy home, it’s important to look at all aspects of a home and how they directly impact health and wellness. “For example, it may be checking water supplies in the home for arsenic, lead, benzene, or bacteria or testing a home for mold and mycotoxin, which studies show may be immunosuppressive as well as potentially carcinogenic,” Blazovsky says. “Houses have a plethora of problems, and as we advance in testing technologies, we are seeing more issues than we realized.”

Blazovsky points out that the introduction of communicable virus states like COVID-19 makes scientists and consumers even more aware of how contaminants transmit and how air quality can hurt and/or help this situation. “By being able to monitor RH (relative humidity) through technology and sensor systems, we are able to use this to target ideal in-room humidification and dehumidification,” Blazovsky says. “So when our homes are faced with virus situations, the hope is to design a system that knows the RH needs to be higher, closer to 65%; but when we get too high, over 65%, it can dehumidify to prevent mold growth.”

Whether indoors or outdoors, high levels of air pollution affect disease states, and therefore must be addressed.

Now more than ever, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dan Bridleman, senior vice president of sustainability, technology, and strategic sourcing for KB Home points out that life revolves around the home. “(Homes) have become our offices, our schools, and our centers for health, comfort, and relaxation,” Bridleman says. KB Home notes that consumer interest in smart-home technology is on the rise, with 83 million U.S. households now reporting they have at least one smart-home device. To support this increase in demand, Bridleman says KB Home acts as a curator, selecting smart products and IoT devices that the company believes offer long-term personal value and that cultivate a flexible relationship between homeowners and their homes.

Victor Berrios, director of connected home IoT products at Universal Electronics, says the desire to understand one’s environment—including occupancy, energy usage, healthy air and illumination levels, etc.—and the desire to be able to make frequent, small adjustments to how one lives is driving consumer interest in smart-home solutions. These solutions play an important role in ensuring the health and safety of homes and those who inhabit them. “We see homeowners paying more attention to their HVAC utilization, air quality, plumbing maintenance (leak detection and management), which ultimately leads to extending the life of our homes while providing a healthier living environment,” Berrios says.

Understanding one’s environment is step one in addressing any potential issues. “If we work from the fact that knowledge and understanding of one’s consumption is step one to address sustainability, we start to see how critical IoT technologies are to enabling individuals, businesses, and governments in meeting sustainability goals,” adds Berrios. “IoT technologies provide a cost-effective way to measure and collect data regarding important parameters around energy management (and) resource efficiency, along with automation capabilities to act on those measurements to ensure that we can behave in a more sustainable manner.”

On the topic of sustainability, Donna Moore, CEO and chairwoman of the LoRa Alliance, says as the IoT has entered homes, it’s become important in saving resources. “Leveraging in- and around-home sensors is quickly finding traction for all types of monitoring: Is my toilet running? Is a pipe leaking? Does my lawn need water or not? Is my air clean indoors? Is my refrigerator working properly? What about outside? Do I need propane or fuel oil?” she says. “All of these applications drive sustainable homes by conserving or reducing waste, eliminating unnecessary deliveries, ensuring occupants’ safety, or preventing food spoilage.”

On a global scale, there is a shift toward recognizing the need for sustainability, along with the need for technologies that will allow businesses and governments to reach their sustainability goals sooner. Moore says at the LoRa Alliance, they see entities as varied as the United Nations, national governments, and even private citizens actively seeking ways to address issues like water and air quality, sustainable food supply, poverty reduction, and even trash collection and smart parking. They’re all looking to leverage technology to play their part in making the planet a better place to live.

From the sustainability and energy side of the equation, smart-home technologies can help load balance the energy grid by allowing schedules and intelligent controls of high power loads like air conditioning, as well as the increasing loads required by EVs (electric vehicles). “With incremental improvements and relationships between end users and utility companies, it’s possible to reduce and load balance energy with minimal or no impact on users’ lifestyle,” Jonsson adds. “(The) IoT is going to be essential for everything we do, including managing resources, energy, time, and health.”

Doorbell cameras are becoming hugely popular and contributing to the feeling of safer homes and smarter communities. As a crime deterrent and surveillance system, these systems are often effective. However, Joshua Miller, public relations representative for Flock Safety, says most property crime, like porch piracy and mail theft, goes unsolved because traditional technology doesn’t collect the right type of evidence. His company offers a license-plate reading solution that helps capture the evidence police need to track leads. “Stopping crime requires a community solution,” Miller says. “Residents lean on each other to get the answers they need, which has led to rejuvenated neighborhood watches and community events.”

Alain Louchez, managing director of Georgia Tech’s CDAIT (Center for the Development and Application of IoT Technologies), says it’s important to remember the important contribution of IoT technologies just outside the home. For instance, Louchez lists waste management and smart street lighting, which can improve neighborhood safety, as two key ways IoT solutions can make life at home and in communities much better.

Within a home’s four walls, he says the increasing use of smart metering and sensor/actuator technologies related to monitoring and controlling energy and water consumption will contribute to better resource efficiency on an even bigger scale—a global scale. “Also, the progressive shift to a subscription economy—i.e., consumers buying a service and no longer a product—will probably reduce overall waste,” Louchez says. “(For example), household appliances monitored by a host of sensors will have a longer life.”

The aggregation of smart-home data could also contribute to smarter cities. “By definition, smart homes mean that a lot of data are collected—e.g., presence of resident(s), temperature, consumption, health, activities, house structure integrity, cabling, etc.,” adds Louchez. “This information when and if properly accessed can, for instance, be very useful for emergency and risk management within a city.”