Sedentarism also consumes energy

2001/11/25 Mendiburu, Joana - Elhuyar Zientziaren Komunikazioa

• Energia

A simple recommendation to reduce the electric bill is that you never leave the appliances at rest. It costs much more to leave the television "half off" of the controller than to get up and off from the device itself. Yes, yes you read it well! Sometimes, for comfort, the television is switched off more easily from the controller than from the switch, but the appliances that are left at rest consume much more than expected. And domestic spending goes up unnecessarily.

Videos, recorders, phone chargers, televisions, computers, kitchens, programmable microwave, answering machine phones, garage door motors, printers and other devices only stop consuming electricity when they are disconnected. And that, disconnecting, is never done, because otherwise programming would be lost. The deposition occurs between 3% and 13% of appliances, which means 2% of consumption in developed countries. A few years ago, before leaving on vacation, it was enough to remove the plug or mud to the refrigerator to ensure that no unnecessary electricity was going to be consumed. At present, the achievement of this goal is practically impossible.

Except in holiday season, the refrigerator remains on almost all year round in most homes.

Anyone who wants to measure energy consumption should look at the level of consumption of each appliance when buying appliances. Normally, low energy consumption appliances are usually more expensive, but in the medium or long term the price difference is compensated. The appliances, depending on the electric consumption, are classified in A, B and C. Those of group A are those of lower consumption, those of average consumption B and those of normal consumption C. Most people don't know these classifications and those who know them don't always choose the lowest-consumption appliances, as they are usually more expensive.

The programming of appliances and automatic systems have made it possible to live more comfortably and with greater security in the homes. Many of these automatic systems are already known. So, for example, the appliances to turn on the heating one hour before you get home or turn off when you want, and the appliances to turn on or off the lights at a given hour. Like these, security automation has gained great importance, such as anti-theft alarms, devices that detect the existence of fire or leaks of gas or water, etc. There are more automation systems: door opening controls, automatic answering machines, electric power saving accumulators, etc.

But development has not been limited to that and, subsequently, domotic came. One of the new words of the past decade.

The era of domotics

Home automation systems allow you to control all appliances by phone through the Master Dome.

Domotics, in short, consists of grouping the automation functions into a single system. The advantage of this integration is that a single installation is needed, that the user learns the operation of a single system, that the user is related to a company and a technical assistance system and, most importantly, that when all systems are integrated, the service is more optimized, for example, when the anti-theft system is launched, the home automation system can understand that the house has been empty and reduce the temperature by degrees at the same time.

In Euskal Herria there are several companies that have launched the system of home automation networks. Fagor, for example, together with the Ikerlan research centre in Arrasate, has been working in this field for some time. The result of this work has been Fagor Sare Domótica. In this network, appliances, heaters and safety and communication tools have been integrated. The core of the system is the Domo Mayor, which controls and monitors home appliances through the phone.

To give orders, the Domo Mayor uses the electrical installation of the house, so it is not necessary to perform a new installation. The system is fully modular, that is, the user chooses the devices and applications that he wants to introduce into the home network. It is the work that the user can perform to introduce or remove some element of the network, since it is easily programmed. In fact, in the offices and workshops there are people in charge of maintenance and installation, but not in the homes. The technological advantages of the future will also benefit the domotic system.

In this sense, CENELEC, a European entity that regulates the quality of electrical installations, will approve a new regulation to improve the quality of communication through the electricity network of households.

Those who research to improve home automation, in addition to optimizing the power grid, have another line of research: radio communications. This type of system has long been known: wireless headphones or traditional control instruments to open the garage doors, for example, use radio communication. This type of communications is cheap, but as these use the same radiofrequency, there are numerous interferences.

Experts also have great hope in the impact of Bluetooth, the new radio technology, on home automation. In short, Bluetooth technology allows you to connect everything that is connected by cable without using cables. But it is not limited to that. This technology is not just to connect the mouse, printer or anything else with the computer, but it allows you to connect devices that are not directly related and synchronize them automatically. For example, the mobile phone can be used to open doors, to connect with appliances, to carry documents from the phone to the computer, to read counters, etc.

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