Governments around the world entered into a global climate deal at the recent Paris climate summit and therefore are enforcing related measures. Amid the growing trend, the top priority is how to improve buildings that are generally considered the most energy consuming. How to make use of technology such as IoT solutions and smart analytics to raise building operation efficiency is a critical topic.
Construction of Tatung Smart Manor, a large smart green community on a plot of land measuring 16,000 pings (52892.8 square meters), recently broke ground. The project is likely to become the first residential complex in New Taipei City to be awarded with both the Diamond-Grade and Gold-Grade Green Building Candidate Certificates. It combines energy saving, carbon reduction and water conservation concepts and features smart home, smart healthcare, smart security control and smart grid functionalities for the community. Tatung Smart Manor is a landmark of smart green buildings that brings concepts to life.
Breeze Yeh, Director, Smart Solution Business Unit, Tatung, indicates the Tatung Smart Manor project will be completed in three phases. The construction that has just begun falls in the first phase, including three smart green residential buildings with apartments having indoor floor space ranging from 22 pings to 72 pings. The project highlights the goal of reaching "433," meaning a 40% reduction in carbon emissions and a 30% reduction in both electricity and water consumption.
Connecting devices, systems and cloud to build up an all-in-one smart project
Whether the "433" goal can be achieved depends on close cooperation among end devices in people's homes, middle-tier architectures and the cloud platforms. Tatung, founded as a home appliance vendor and then expanding into the industrial appliance, motor, energy and ICT sectors, has built up R&D capabilities required for building smart homes, smart buildings, and even smart communities. As such, Tatung is able to unshackle itself from the conventional thinking of constructors and bring to life a top-notch community of smart homes that is rarely seen in Taiwan.
A smart apartment complex generally has to include at least three layers of smart living designs - the smart home, smart building and smart community. The smart home needs a smart home service gateway and more importantly, a smart in-home display (IHD) that serves as a communication interface between the home owner and the smart system. It should provide various scenario templates - such as those for home entertainment, sleep, and the time when the occupants are away from home - to meet the home owner's actual needs in everyday life. The different templates provide different settings of lighting, air conditioning, and curtains to achieve a safer, more convenient, more comfortable and greener life.
Take Tatung Smart Manor for example. Every home is equipped with an automatic gas shutoff valve and a smart electricity meter supporting as many as 12 circuit loops. By making use of the smart meter and Big Data analytics, home owners can compare power consumption among different circuit loops and thereby find possible improvements on the electricity use in different areas. By comparing the energy consumption on the same circuit loop before and after a certain period of time, one can even see if some old devices are no longer energy-efficient, and therefore should be replaced.
As to the smart building and public facilities, Tatung Smart Manor has sensors densely distributed throughout the common areas for the purposes of energy saving and security control. Take the swimming pool for example. Detectors for water flow, chlorine content and carbon dioxide levels are thoughtfully installed to help security guards monitor the swimming pool and determine when to close it or if there is still anyone swimming in the pool. Furthermore, chlorine content and carbon dioxide concentration readings can serve as the basis for the control of automatic opening and closing of smart windows.
Making good use of IoT sensor technologies to build green, safe and healthy living
In addition, micro weather stations are set up at outdoor areas of Tatung Smart Manor to collect weather information and upload it onto the back-end system, giving the residents timely access to the information about current weather conditions (including the level of PM2.5, which is an increasing concern for the public) and weather advice from the system through an app program. It should also be mentioned that there is a health center in the common area of Tatung Smart Manor that has long-term care instruments for residents to check physiological data including blood pressure, blood sugar, blood oxygen and heart rates. The data can be uploaded to the Tatung cloud medical care platform for personal health management. The health center can also work with medical care institutions as extended support for senior citizens or people with chronic illness to seek online medical advice.
Tatung Smart Manor also has solar power systems installed on the rooftops of all the buildings to provide power for the common areas of the buildings and shades for the apartments on the top floor. Furthermore, the community is also equipped with elevators that support height-different power generation and there are large ponds for rainwater harvesting. Sensors installed in soil and close to trees are meant for smart plant watering, along with other measures to reduce water and energy consumption.
Yeh states that the implementation of smart green buildings and communities is not necessarily limited to new construction projects and can also be applied to improvement of existing buildings or communities, and in either case, efforts on both system development and construction work have to be combined. Tatung is capable of providing comprehensive services including project planning, construction and maintenance. Tatung can also gather a team of partners and work with the government on experimental projects to gain experience, thereby creating a whole new business model and further expanding worldwide.
Breeze Yeh, Director, Smart Solution Business Unit, Tatung, points out the company integrates R&D capabilities in the home appliance, long-term care, solar energy, electrical power and water discharge sectors, and is well capable of planning and implementing construction projects, and providing maintenance services. This is why Tatung is able to unshackle itself from the conventional thinking of constructors and build a top-notch smart green community.