Hello guys! Today I am going to introduce you to my first ever (yet-to-be-launched) technology - designed, constructed and implemented from scratch all by myself. Technically speaking, this is the prototype that I intend to show my potential customers and investors. If the responses are good enough, I intend to scale the design; re-brand, repackage and add more features to it. But for the meantime, let me tell you what this is all about.
My design literally turns all your electric switches to switches you can operate from a mobile app in your smart phone. This means you can control any electrical appliances plugged to these switches remotely without being physically close to them. The design makes use of Bluetooth and Internet to communicate with your home appliances. The internet feature means an unlimited range; same way you can chat with friends from anywhere in the world via WhatsApp, you can as well control your home devices from any part of the world.
Initially, I thought I’d be targeting only people who may want to control their homes from afar for convenience or to show off to their friends. Little did I know it will go a long way to improving energy efficiency and helping the physically challenged. Many a time, we forget to switch off the security lights during the day; leave our air conditioners ON even when we are not at home or leave our TV sets ON at night while we doze off to bed. Other times there could be a power outage, and because we had these appliances ON before the outage, they remain ON even when power is eventually restored in our absence. These habits leave deep cuts in our energy consumption and we both know that when “NEPA” comes knocking on our doors with huge bills or when our prepaid meters shut down in the middle of an interesting Telemundo, there will be no hiding place. The physically challenged and the aged will be favored by this tech as switches which hitherto they could not reach or have difficulty reaching will be easily accessible to them through the mobile app.
Another feature of the mobile app that is worthy of note is the changeover system that turns off your generator and switches over to the mains when power is restored. This feature can be set to automatic too and can be delayed to switch after some minutes. In this case, the generator turns itself off and the source switched to mains when power is restored. Imagine sleeping at night with the generator ON and power is restored. Your generator turns itself OFF and the power source is switched from generator to Mains without having to lift a finger or rush downstairs to turn OFF the generator. This will subsequently improve your fuel efficiency
The advantages are numerous. For example, while at work, I may want to restrict my kids from watching the television until 4 pm. I may want to turn ON my air conditioner an hour before I’m home so everywhere will be chilly by the time I’m home. I may also want to turn ON the water pump few minutes to my arrival so I can have enough supply. I also want to turn ON the lights so everywhere will be lighted. While at home, I want my water heated for 10 minutes and some lights turned off after bedtime. All these activities can be automated by the mobile app.
What appliances can be controlled? Literally everything in your home; pumping machines, refrigerators, lights, ceiling fans, televisions, electric cooker, etc. Can be controlled using this device. You can still use your manual switches as this system only serves as an alternative and does not replace the traditional switches. An override button is also provided in an event that we want to revert to our manual switching methods.
How many users can control your home? Users who have the mobile app installed can log in with the home’s unique username and password in order to control your home. So as many users who have the app installed and are online can be granted access.
How can this technology be integrated in my home? Apart from having the mobile app, a “Control Unit” will have to be installed in your home. This control unit will have all the switches you intend to control linked to it. The Control Unit is what receives the commands from your mobile app and executes it. The size of the control unit will be determined by how many devices you wish to control. You may choose to control just a light bulb – that’s okay …You can add more devices later as it is designed in such a manner that makes provisions for more devices to be added.
