Who would use a remote home access system?|
This question requires a more detailed look at the definition of a RHAS. What exactly does the ability to care for and interact with the remote property mean for the homeowner?

• Monitoring: Full remote access to all available information related to the environmental parameter of interest. As an example, let us consider Temperature Access. The homeowner will, of course, be able to monitor the current indoor temperature, but also the current thermostat settings – such as target temperature and HVAC system state (Heat, A/C, Off), for a complete picture of the home’s temperature environment.

• Control: The ability to remotely alter the environmental parameter of interest to the same extent available on the premises. In the case of Temperature Access, for instance, homeowners have full remote access to the thermostat controls, allowing them to change the HVAC system state and/or target temperature at will.

• Alerts: The ability to become aware of problems related to the remote home’s environment. An integral component of any RHAS, alert functionality helps compensate for the homeowner absence from the premises. Most home appliance controllers (thermostats, garage door opener controls, etc.) rely on physical human presence for proper operation. Humans provide the essential intelligent feedback necessary to determine whether these devices perform as intended. For example, a thermostat may be set to heat the house to 70˚F, but if the HVAC system has a problem (pilot out, out of oil, malfunction, etc) it will be unable to accomplish this task. A human can quickly identify the issue: temperature feels too low for comfort; checking the thermostat reveals settings are correct and that the current temperature is indeed too low – so the heater should be running.

These functional components of a RHAS reveal its suitability for a varied set of applications, from emergency notification to energy conservation. Homeowners have the same access to environmental information and controls from afar as they are used to from the premises. Whether they get notified that their vacation cabin is in danger of freezing because the thermostat was not set to ‘Heat’ during the last visit, or simply wish to raise the indoor temperature from an “economy” setting to a comfortable level in their primary residence as they get ready to drive home from work, comprehensive remote access capabilities will vastly improve comfort, quality of life and peace of mind for all. As an intuitive and easy to use home automation appliance, a RHAS benefits all homeowners and property managers equally.

How is it different from home automation/remote monitoring systems?
The field of home automation used to include pretty much any functionality allowing the user to act upon and alter the state of an appliance from a distance. Examples range from early applications such as X-10 light dimmers, to whole-house, centralized control centers that cover applications in multiple areas of interest: entertainment, environment, security.

With computer technology and the Internet becoming widely available, the commonly accepted definition of a home automation system has shifted in recent years toward web-based, highly sophisticated computer technology common to whole-house implementations mentioned above. Such systems are complex, expensive, and require professional installation, configuration and maintenance. They are therefore limited to the techno-enthusiast niche of the affluent real estate market.

Remote monitoring systems are positioned on the opposite end of the home automation product offering spectrum. They focus narrowly on providing basic environmental information/alert capabilities and represent early, limited attempts to address a homeowner’s remote access needs. Although obviously much less expensive, when cost is measured against functionality the price-per-feature ratio is not much different from the alternative.

Both product categories are difficult to configure, use and maintain by general consumer standards, requiring specialized skills or professional support. Exposure to the real estate market as a whole is therefore severely limited. This is either due to infrastructure requirements and the vast number of configuration/use options available with whole-house systems, or minimalist user interfaces that drastically curtail a user’s access to available features and information in remote monitoring solutions.

A Remote Home Access System is characterized, and at the same time differentiated from the other types of home automation solutions, by the following:

i. Ease of Use: Consumer-oriented design places emphasis on technology that maximizes functionality while reducing (or even eliminating altogether) associated complexity to the user. A RHAS takes advantage of common and basic skills to offer a solution that is universally accessible. This characteristic makes no claim about the intrinsic complexity of the system itself, as often user-perceived “simplicity” is the result of highly advanced, powerful and intelligent platforms.

ii. Comprehensive Functionality: Each home environment parameter available remotely will comply with the RHAS definition of access. Thus, it will offer the complete set of related Monitoring, Control and Alert capabilities listed above. This characteristic makes no claim about how many or which parameters are made available for remote access, only that they are offered in full context, maximizing the homeowner’s effectiveness in interacting with the remote property.

What are the benefits of owning and using this type of product?
Second home owners list as the top of their investment-related concern the inability to properly care for their property when it remains vacant.

On the premises, homeowners have a variety of capabilities at their disposal to help them effectively discharge property management duties. Staying with climate management as an example, homeowners can monitor and alter the current temperature from each thermostat in the house; current thermostat settings are also always available for review. If the HVAC system stops working, users feel the house getting colder quite early in the process (within a few degrees of the set point) and can double-check this by comparing thermostat settings with current readings. If the difference is too large and the heat is not running, something is wrong and deserves further investigation.

The example above shows homeowners rely on three types of abilities and their interaction to manage their residences: Monitoring, Control and Alert. These apply to the management of other environmental parameters or major appliances as well (garage door control, water supply and distribution, etc), and are therefore universally necessary to care for the property effectively.

As the first Remote Home Access System on the market, housEvolve translates these abilities to any phone, in their entirety, so that the homeowner can retain the same management effectiveness in accessing and interacting with various environmental controls in the remote property. This places the homeowner in the unprecedented position of having instantaneous access to detailed information about current conditions and controls settings, as well as complete control capabilities over them.

So how does housEvolve benefit homeowners? Well, besides the obvious ability to become aware of conditions that can lead to big problems later on (like temperatures close to freezing, for instance, which can lead to cracked water pipes), just imagine what you could do if you had your home’s controls in your pocket at all times!

Forgot to turn down the heat this morning? No problem! Call the system and do it over the phone.

Want to have the house warm by the time you get home from work but hate programming your thermostat? Or, worse, you did go through the trouble of programming you thermostat but today you’re getting home a couple of hours earlier that expected? Call the system before you get in the car, raise the temperature to the desired levels, and make programming your thermostat obsolete!

Forgot to switch the HVAC system in your vacation cabin from A/C to Heat the last time you were there, and housEvolve just called to warn you of impending freezing conditions? Since you have the ability to monitor the current thermostat settings, not only are you aware of the problem but also know why it occurred. Since your thermostat’s controls are now completely accessible remotely, you can switch it from A/C to Heat mode, as well as set it to the desired winter economy temperature of your choice.

The same functionality can be expected for other elements of your home’s environment supervised by housEvolve. Did you close that garage door this morning on your way out? Ever had to turn around to go check? No longer. Call up the system, see if you did, and close it right from your phone if not. Need to let someone in the house while you’re away? Don’t hide the key under the mat – instead call housEvolve when your guests have arrived and open the garage door for them. The list goes on.

housEvolve completely transforms the idea of home ownership in ways that will make it indispensable in very short order. The list above is only a limited sample of every day situations when having access to your home remotely saves time, effort, money, energy and, perhaps just as important, worry.

What is the best way for a homeowner to stay connected with their property?
The Internet has become such an integral part of our lives that it is difficult to imagine not using it, or more, avoiding it altogether. Connecting a homeowner to their remote property can be done using the Internet or a phone line (some mobile home users rely on cellular access due to obvious restrictions in the availability of regular telephone service). So, which should it be? The debate goes on in the industry and the marketplace, with products offering one connection medium or the other, and sometimes both.

Internet backers point to the explosion of the smart home market to argue that more and more users have web access on the go, and investments being made in our nation’s communications infrastructure suggest this will be the access method of choice in the future. This modern digital infrastructure can move massive amounts of data very quickly and pave the way for the unification of phone, data and entertainment services.

Phone line backers point to the reliability of the telephone system and relatively inexpensive hardware required to establish a connection. High-speed Internet access is not yet available everywhere, while a phone-based system can be used anywhere.

Both sides of the debate have merit, and the decision depends on the requirements of each specific application. For Remote Home Access Systems, the choice is clear: should use a phone line interface for communication, for the following reasons:

• Access flexibility: Since a phone call can be established over the Internet but the reverse is not necessarily true because of equipment infrastructure and service ability constraints, the homeowner has far greater flexibility in reaching the remote home through a voice call.

• Connection flexibility: A phone-based system is generally compatible with VoIP services (Voice Over Internet Protocol, otherwise known as Internet Phone). housEvolve certainly is. This means a homeowner who has migrated all communications to the Internet can still use such a system, although at the reduced level of reliability and functionality imposed by such an interface (see below).

• Reliability: The phone network is by far the most reliable form of communications available today, and the only one guaranteed to work during power outages. This is particularly important for a RHAS because it is designed to report power outages and related environmental problems. housEvolve is designed with a rechargeable battery backup that allows it to operate for extended periods during power failures, but this would be useless if it cannot establish communication.

• Ease of use: A phone based system does not require the kind of high-tech maintenance demanded by Internet-based solutions (software upgrades to prevent attacks, website hosting, etc), making it accessible and easy to use by anyone who can make a phone call.

• Cost savings: Using and maintaining an Internet-based system requires technical skills that are not commonly encountered in the consumer market. This either limits such a solution to a very small section of the market, or requires the use of a third-party, in charge of maintenance and facilitating communication between home and owner. This involves a monthly fee that is applied for the life of the product. Phone based systems are accessed directly by the homeowner and do not incur this charge. Additionally, the price-per-feature of a phone-based system is generally lower than that of web-based solutions.

• Privacy and Ownership: Third-party monitored Internet-based systems also imply a loss of privacy, ownership and control over the remote property. Basically, the management company posts a website that acts as a virtual “control panel” for the remote homeowner, through which they access various system features. The key word here is “virtual”, because the homeowner is not acting directly on the RHAS. All communications to and from the RHAS are made to the management company. The website interface interprets homeowner instructions and then instructs the system accordingly. Essentially, the homeowner could just as easily pick up the phone, call the management company and ask them to raise their home’s target temperature, or open the garage door. All the environmental information available through the website also passes through this third party’s equipment. Since a phone-based system allows direct homeowner access, it protects privacy and offers far superior security by eliminating the all-powerful middle man.

It is noteworthy that the most important characteristic of a RHAS is reliability. Such a system needs to be dependable, especially in adverse conditions, which is problematic if the connection to the user does not live up to the same standards.

Why is a remote home access system a cost effective investment?
The material benefits of a RHAS are obvious, especially if the homeowner has already experienced first-hand the expense and ordeal of dealing with the consequences HVAC failures, extended power outages or damaged water pipes in a remote home, where such conditions can go unnoticed for extended periods of time. For a small percentage of the financial commitment required by even one such event, a RHAS gives homeowners the ability to deal quickly, effectively and repeatedly with conditions that can lead to damage.

housEvolve also makes energy conservation easy and convenient, offering a user-friendly alternative to currently available solutions. While programmable thermostats have the potential to offer similar savings, they are ill-suited for second home use, where the occupancy schedule is generally far too irregular. Arcane user interfaces leave energy saving features on many such devices often unutilized, even in primary residences, and the monetary rewards implied in their purchase price therefore never materializes. By removing the burden of schedule prediction from the user, housEvolve makes energy conservation an instantaneous decision, anytime and from anywhere.

Harder to quantify are the benefits housEvolve offers in terms of convenience and peace of mind. What is the value of saving an emergency trip to your vacation property in the middle of a busy work-week? Or that of knowing you turned down your thermostat when you last left the property instead of dreading your next energy bill? How about avoiding that U-turn on the way to work one morning just to make sure the garage door is closed, or even the comfort of being able to call up your home just to hear everything is OK?

While housEvolve is indeed a cost-effective investment, you just may find its true value in features that go beyond mere money savings.

What does it cost for an average system?
housEvolve was designed using a modular approach, which allows homeowners the ability to configure a solution customized to their own specific requirements and budgets. It also allows FREEVOLVE® to continue expanding its applications based on customer feedback.

The system is designed around a Main Control module, which connects to the phone line and is responsible for channeling communication between homeowner and any peripherals. Each peripheral adds specific functionality to the system. For example, for Remote Temperature Access, the minimum system configuration consists of a Main Controller and a Thermostat Module. Add a Garage Door Controller Module to gain remote access to a garage door, or a Water Presence Detector Module to monitor for and protect an area from the effects of water intrusion.

housEvolve supports more than one peripheral of the same type. This way, the homeowner is able to access a zoned HVAC system, for instance, just as easily as a one-thermostat setup. Or, add remote access to multiple garage doors.

The cost of a Main Controller Module (which, incidentally, can also be used by itself to provide temperature and power monitoring/alerts) is under $600, while that of a peripheral is under $300 (please see our distributors for exact pricing and/or any special offers). Therefore, Remote Temperature Access can be implemented for a one-time charge of under $900.

housEvolve’s modular construction also allows for incremental system upgrades, which means the system can always grow and adapt to your changing needs.

housEvolve is available through our retail network, from:

• Smarthome™, Inc
• Smarthome USA
• DIY Controls

 

Bios

Anderson Micu, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Anderson holds a M.Eng. and B.Eng. in Electrical Engineering from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York. He has over 13 years of extensive experience in the specification, design, prototyping and production of mixed-signal and embedded electronic systems. Prior to founding FREEVOLVE LLC, Anderson worked as lead and senior design engineer for companies from 50 to over 5,000 employees, consistently and successfully introducing new consumer products, technology and design concepts.

Kelly Zaneto, Vice-President of Marketing and Sales
Kelly brings over 13 years of extensive sales, marketing and customer service experience to FREEVOLVE LLC. Kelly's philosophy is honesty. She sells products she believes in, and for which she believes there is a practical use. Her accomplishments include a 30% increase in sales for a multi-million dollar company manufacturing electronic equipment where she worked as Sales and Marketing Director.