There were few smart ones.
The term «smart home» appeared in the last century. However, as experts say, «intelligent» buildings are still exotic for St. Petersburg. According to some estimates, there are still no full-fledged complexes operating using «smart home» technology in the city.
The main task that the “smart home” options complex is designed to solve is the maximum comfort of a specific tenant in a specific house. The technology makes it possible to adapt an apartment to the needs of an individual person – the owner of the home. As a rule, it implies energy-efficient technologies and includes wireless control systems and remote access control of the home infrastructure: lighting, ventilation, air conditioning, heated floors, household appliances and much more. The capabilities of this technology are extensive, up to the creation of an individual climate level for each room in the apartment with the ability to quickly and easily change the parameters of this level.
Command from a distance
An important feature of a «smart home» is that a person can set the desired environment with one command, while the automation monitors the operating modes of engineering systems and electrical appliances in accordance with external and internal conditions. The «smart home» system also includes communication networks (including telephone and local building network), building mechanization (opening/closing gates, barriers, electric heating of steps, etc.). Finally, if we are talking about individual residential buildings, such «smart» options as control of audio and video equipment, home theater, etc. from one point are used.
Experts believe that the concept of «smart home» is fully applicable to a private house, cottage — its owner is free to choose additional «intelligent» options that are developed for a specific owner.
In the conditions of a city apartment, we can talk about elements of a «smart home».
As developers say, practice has shown that a turnkey «smart home» is not in demand. Only an «intelligent» dispatching scheme is in more or less stable demand, which allows you to display indicators of all engineering and security systems — water, gas, heat and energy supply, video surveillance data, etc. — on a single control panel.
Otherwise, there can be no general solutions, so the range of services varies depending on individual needs.
“We are currently seeing a certain cooling of interest in large-scale high-tech solutions: the “smart home” has proven to be quite difficult to use, and many options have remained unclaimed in practice.
It is more important to provide the client with the opportunity to install exactly the set of “smart” engineering that he really needs,” says Larisa Inchenkova, Commercial Director of OJSC “Construction Corporation “Vozrozhdenie Sankt-Peterburga”.
No experience required
Sergey Odnoletkov, head of the development department at VMB Trust, says that complex residential projects using the smart home system have not yet been implemented in St. Petersburg. “Currently, a smart home is a work of personal creativity in a single apartment or country house. The purpose of introducing smart technologies into your living space is to maintain a comfortable existence (air regulation, cleanliness, control of household appliances, energy costs, lighting, etc.). The owner can order some smart home options and refuse others, so the price of one smart apartment will differ from another. Energy-saving technologies can be used in a smart home, but if the air conditioner, for example, is constantly running, then energy costs are unlikely to be reduced. A smart home is a means of increasing the comfort of life, and it does not imply a payback,” Mr. Odnoletkov believes.
Mikhail Furkatov, Director of Marketing and Sales at Home Lab, agrees with Mr. Odnoletkov: “To date, there are no completed projects in St. Petersburg within the framework of an entire residential complex or suburban village.”
Elizaveta Konvey, head of the elite residential real estate department at Knight Frank St. Petersburg, also says that in St. Petersburg there is not a single developer who would position their property as “smart”, since the market, in her opinion, is not yet ready for such a product. In Moscow, there are residential complexes that are positioned as “smart”. First of all, these are elite residential complexes. “In Russia, the “smart home” technology is perceived first of all as a technology that increases the level of comfort, then safety, and only last of all as energy saving, since no one really thought about energy saving until the last address of the president. Based on this, the main quality of housing that will be positioned under the “smart home” brand today is its elitism,” says Ms. Konvey.
Author: Elena Lvova
«Construction Weekly»©, No. (472) from 18.07.2011
From the editor:
Elena Lvova has produced a wonderful article asninfo.ru. In one article she mixed together a smart home, an intelligent building, energy-efficient technologies, wireless control systems, communication networks, and control of audio and video equipment from one point. The result is an interesting and useless … «garbage dump»…
Remember, Elena, when you were a child and you mixed all the watercolor paints, the color turned out to be complete nonsense. You have achieved this result completely, but you still haven't explained to us how a smart home differs from an intelligent building? Why is it written about some «control of audio and video equipment from one point»? What are you talking about? About a universal remote control that can only be used in one place?
«Experts believe that the concept of a «smart home» is fully applicable to a private house, a cottage — its owner is free to choose additional «intelligent» options that are developed for a specific owner» — you write on the one hand, and on the other — «a «smart home» turned out to be quite difficult to use, and many options in practice remained unclaimed.» There is a logical dichotomy, and an obvious one at that. If the owner is free to choose, then why does he choose complex and unnecessary options?
If you give your small child a car or a computer instead of a three-wheeled bike, it will also be complex and unclaimed. But the car, computer and the boy are not to blame, you are mistaken! That is why you write, and do not understand what you are talking about! It is very sad.
«To date, there are no implemented projects in St. Petersburg within the framework of the entire residential complex or suburban village» — this is NOT TRUE. Fortunately, there is information about this, real integrator companies and interesting objects, and all over Russia. All this, if desired, is quite easy to find, typing in the keywords — «Building automation».