With all of the recent advances in sensing and remote technology, the movement toward smart homes is growing daily, and homeowners have more choices than ever before when it comes to creating a more intelligent home. However, choosing the right bits and pieces to install for a smarter home system can be quite confusing if you aren’t a native techie, so for many of us, smart homes are still far in the future.
But a new type of device is said to be a step toward a “learning” home, so that instead of installing various sensors and controllers around the house for smart home functionality, users can be empowered to start with the simplest solutions.
The device, called Neurio, is a whole house power monitor that installs on the home’s breaker panel, which sends realtime energy use data to a cloud service via WiFi, and can inform users not just about overall energy consumption, but can also notify them when an appliance is left on.
“Neurio is a home intelligence technology that makes your ordinary appliances smart and your home more efficient. Using a Wi-Fi power sensor and a cloud service with some smart pattern detection algorithms, Neurio monitors your home’s electricity to figure out what your appliances are up to – without the need to install sensors on every device.”
Neurio uses an app called Wattson to deliver the data to the user, which can help by breaking down electricity usage by appliance and inform them of the true energy cost for appliances. The app allows users to see realtime energy consumption, so that when an appliance is turned off, it’s apparent what the energy savings could be.
“Imagine if your washing machine sent you a message when it was done, or if your oven sent a reminder if you forgot to turn it off. With Neurio, we are introducing the learning home. Neurio lets regular appliances take part in the smart home, learns our preferences, and interacts with us when necessary. The innovative technology and advanced algorithms in Neurio make this possible with a central sensor and a powerful online application.” – Janice Cheam, President and CEO of Energy Aware Technology
The Neurio system also integrates with Raspberry Pi, SmartThings, and IFTTT, plus it has an open API so that triggers for home automation can be set up.
Find out more at Kickstarter campaign page.