建構未來的智能住宅

Building smart homes of the future

Source: By Kabir Chibber Technology of business reporter, BBC News  27 Jan 2011

Soon, induction heating coils may be built into counters and surfaces in many homes

不久，許多家庭在櫃檯和表面 可建造使用感應加熱線圈

You come home after a long, hard day at work.

Having grabbed a frozen meal on the way home, you set it down on the coffee table and turn the kettle on. Seems normal, right?

您經過一天漫長而艱難的工作回家。 在回家的路上拿了冷凍食品餐，你將它放置在茶几(咖啡桌)上，並將水壺打開煮開水。 似乎正常，對嗎？ 

Only that your frozen meal has smart packaging and the coffee table has induction coils built in. So that as soon as you set the meal down - anywhere on the table - it starts to defrost the meal and keep it at that temperature.

除非你的冷凍餐有智慧型包裝，且咖啡桌已經內置了熱感應線圈。那麼，當你將你的餐點放在 – 桌子表面上的任一地方 – 冷凍餐包就開始解凍了，並保持在那個溫度下。

 And because the kettle is also powered wirelessly, you can leave it anywhere in the house. The surface senses a kettle has been set down and starts to power it up.

而由於水壺也採用無線，你可以將它放在屋裡的任何地方。表平面檢測到水壺已經放置好並開啟電源。

The surface is using magnetic fields to heat directly into the metal inside the product, and only the coil, meaning that you will not burn your hand if you put it next to your thawing meal or boiling kettle.

That may seem far-fetched, but according to Dave Barman of the US firm Fulton Innovations - which makes this cordless induction-heating technology - we could be only three years away from this being a reality if manufacturers want it to happen. 

表面是利用磁場直接進入產品內部且只感應金屬線圈來加熱，如果你把它放在解凍餐或煮沸的茶壺也意味著這不會燃燒到你的手。

這似乎很牽強，但據美國富爾頓創新公司的戴夫巴曼- 這位發明這個無線感應加熱技術表示

-如果製造商希望它能發生我們只須三年就可實現它。

 For General Electric, the formula for using smart meters is very simple

"It's more efficient than gas and electric," he says. "When installed properly, there shouldn't be any cost difference between the traditional method and an induction zone."

對於美國通用電氣公司(奇異)，該公式使用智能電錶是非常簡單的“這比天然氣和電力更有效率，”他說。 “當正確安裝，使用傳統方法和感應區不應該有任何的成本差異。” 

Green buildings

綠色建築

The smart home of the future, featured in science fiction movies and cartoons like the Jetsons, is almost upon us.

While we are not quite at the state of transporters and instant food makers a la Star Trek, our homes are getting smarter and more sophisticated.

智能家居的未來，有特色的科幻電影和動畫片如摩登家庭，幾乎就像是在我們上方。
雖然我們不太像是運輸者狀態和A LA星際太空便利食品的生產商，我們的家園變得越來越聰明，也更複雜。

Real-time monitoring of every aspect of your house is here already, from plumbing to electrics, while companies like Google are trying to get the internet into your TV.

But it takes a lot of power to make this happen, and a much more sophisticated approach to home construction, presenting opportunities for a whole slew of companies out there.

在這裡你的房子能即時監測每一個環節。已經從配管到電器，而公司像谷歌正試圖透過互聯網發展至電視領域。
但是，它需要大量的電力來實現這一目標，更複雜的方法來建設家園，展現許多機會給那裡的公司。

In the UK, for example, low-energy "green" buildings are extremely uncommon, according to John Alker, head of policy at the UK Green Building Council, an industry body formed by the biggest homebuilders in the country.

But this is set to change.

The new government has stuck to targets mandating that all new residential homes must be carbon neutral by 2016, with commercial and public buildings to follow three years later.

在英國，例如，低能量的“綠色”建築非常少見，是根據英國綠色建築委員會-在該國最大的建築商所形成的工業主體的政策主席 約翰 Alker 表示。
但是，這將發生變化。
新政府堅持的目標是在2016年要求所有新建的住宅房屋必須是碳中和的，不論是商業和公共建築三年後都需按此規定。

Much of what the Council does now is retrofitting old homes to make them more energy efficient, like making them less leaky.

"A lot of it is not particularly exciting stuff," Mr Alker says. "But in the new-builds, that's where you see genuine innovation driven by the standards being set."

And it is creating a market for new companies to come in.

許多議會現在所做的是將老房子改造，使其更加節能，如使他們少漏。
“很多並不是特別令人興奮的東西，”Alker說。 “但在新的基礎，這就是你看到標準被設置後真正驅動的創新。” 

它也建立一個新的市場讓新公司進來

Fulton Innovations is developing ways of charging home electronics wirelessly.

A UK firm, Green Structures, is developing a passive heat recovery system using heat pipes and a thermal accumulator that stores the night's cool or hot air for daytime release, saving both the cost of air-conditioning and winter heating.

富爾頓創新是一家綠色結構的英國公司，發展許多方式讓管理居家家用無線電子產品，現正開發一種被動的熱回收系統採用熱導管和熱蓄能器存儲夜間的涼爽或白天釋放的熱空氣，同時節省空調的成本和冬天暖氣。

Another firm, Nano Solar, makes thin-film solar panels that Mr Alker says might one day provide "parity" with energy generated currently in power grids.

This technology can also provide savings to the public sector - albeit in macabre ways.

Mr Alker says that one council recently announced it was going to warm its swimming pool using wasted heat - from the local crematorium.

Fulton Innovations has already partnered with Panasonic and electric car maker Tesla Motors on bringing its wireless power technology into their products.

另一家公司，納米太陽能，製造薄膜太陽能電池板使得能如Alker先生說，也許有一天提供與目前的能源產生的”平價”電力極板網柵。
這項技術還可以提供節省公共部門 - 儘管是以可怕的方式。
Alker先生說，一個部會最近宣布它打算從當地火葬場收集使用廢熱來溫暖游泳池。
富爾頓創新已經與松下和電動汽車製造商特斯拉汽車公司合作將其在無線電源技術引入自己的產品。 

Smart grids
智能電網

But none of this matters if the power grid is not set up to be more efficient and deal with this technology.

GE, one of the world's biggest corporations, has partnered with energy utility AEP to test out the practicalities of so-called smart grids. The initial pilot began in 2009 in Indiana with 10,000 GE smart meters.

但如果電網沒有設置的更有效率和處理這種技術就沒有這樣的事件成立。
通用電氣公司，世界上最大的公司，已與能源公用事業 AEP來測試所謂實用性的智能電網。最初的試點開始於 2009年在印第安納州設置10000 GE智能電錶。

Now GE is part of AEP's gridSMART Demonstration Project, located in central Ohio, which began last year. The scheme has 110,000 customers in towns such as Columbus, Pataskala and Westerville.

"It is about providing customers with information and new ways to better manage their electricity costs," says Britton Cronin, a spokeswoman for GE Energy in Dallas, Texas.

現在 GE是部分AEP的gridSMART示範工程，位於俄亥俄州的中部，這從去年開始的。該計劃有 11萬名的客戶，如在哥倫布，Pataskala和Westerville等城鎮。

“這是為客戶提供有關信息和新的方法來更好地管理他們的電力成本，GE能源在得克薩斯州的達拉斯的一位女發言人布里頓克羅寧說。 

"AEP Ohio will be able to show how smart grid technologies provide customers with greater energy control, improve electricity delivery and cut energy consumption to delay the need to build more power plants."

For those customers in the scheme, the size of a small European town, AEP has introduced a variety of innovations to see how they respond.

“AEP俄亥俄州將能夠展示智能電網技術如何能為客戶提供更大的能量控制，提高電力傳輸和減少能源消耗，延緩需要建設更多的發電廠。”
對於這些客戶在該計劃中，規模小的歐洲鎮，AEP公司已經推出了多種創新，看看他們如何應對。 

For example, some of the homes are tested with plug-in electric vehicles, to see how often they are used and how the grid responds to the additional strain on its electricity.

And if it all fails for some reason, storage devices have stored some energy and can keep the lights on until the problem is solved.

例如，一些房屋被測試了插電式電動車，看看它們的使用頻率，以及網格如何回應其附加緊繫電力。
如果這一切出於某種原因沒有成功，存儲設備存儲一些能量，可以保持燈的明亮，直到問題得到解決。

GE's contribution is through smart meters, which are being rolled out in most parts of the US and Europe now by utilities, and which provide two-way information transfer between the power company and the person at home using their radiator.

GE的貢獻是通過智能電錶，是目前正在大部分地區，如美國和歐洲現在推出的事業，並提供雙向信息傳遞轉換電力公司和個人之間在家裡使用的散熱器。

"The grid is wasting energy at every point during every second of every day - lots of energy," Ms Britton says. "And that costs lots of money."

The cost of generating a kilowatt-hour of electricity is 70 to 170 times the cost of "saving" a kWh through efficiency, GE says.

他說：“電網每一天每一秒在每一點浪費能量- 大量的能量，”布里頓說。“這浪費很多錢。” 

產生千瓦小時的電力的成本是一千瓦時提高效率“節約” 的成本70至170倍，GE說。 

GE believes that smart grids will provide both savings for the US economy in terms of energy and money, but also a lucrative business area for itself going forward.

通用電氣認為，智能電網將同時提供美國經濟方面的儲蓄的精力和財力，而且為自己向利潤豐厚的業務領域前邁進。

"It is important to take steps today to lay the foundation for our growing energy appetite," she says.

Fulton Innovations is also trying to reuse wasted energy, by for example having the sensor on urinals powered by the energy of the flush, or a shower radio derive its charge from the shower itself.

“重要的是採取措施，今天為不斷增長的能源需求打好基礎，”她說。 
富爾頓創新還試圖重新使用浪費的能源，例如由小便器具有傳感器是因為搭載了用水沖洗的能量，或淋浴的無線電力是由淋浴本身獲得。 

But this only goes so far. The shower cannot power the washing machine or the heating system, as it would take too much power out of the system.

"If you try to push too much power from the plumbing, it goes back to the source," Mr Barman says.

"We're not trying to get free energy." That, at least, is a long way off yet.

但是，這只能到此為止。淋浴不能提供洗衣機或加熱系統的電力，因為它會耗費輸出的系統太多的功率。

“如果你試圖從配管推擠過大的電力，它可以追溯到源頭，”他巴曼說。

“我們不是想獲得免費的能源。”

也就是說，至少，是一個很長的路要走呢。

參考資料：

20110826 Aircafe Break