How can we make buildings work better for you? This is a question Niko employees ask themselves every day. With the support of VLAIO, they explored the potential of smart detectors and AI systems to manage electrical appliances efficiently, without compromising on comfort.
Source: vlaio.be
Comfort, control and efficiency
Niko supplies more than five thousand products and solutions for switching material, detectors, home automation, door communication systems and lighting control.
"We believe that everyone is entitled to a modern and user-friendly electrical installation that offers comfort, control and efficiency," states Erik Van Mossevelde, director corporate technology.
Erik Van Mossevelde
Research project maps lifestyle patterns
For more than a hundred years, this family company has been responding to new trends and needs. This is always preceded by quite some research and development. Niko regularly joins forces with universities and research facilities at home and abroad.
This was also the case in the VLAIO research project wATCHdOg, a collaboration with KU Leuven and imec that ended in September 2022. It was Niko's largest research project to date.
Artificial intelligence
Erik: "wATCHdOg stands for 'bringing in Artificial intelligence to conText aware systems to enable the Cognitive HOme'. A mouthful, I know. (laughs) The bottom line is that we want to develop AI applications that make smart decisions based on contextual information.
That information is picked up via sensors, such as switches and motion detectors, but also by radar and acoustic sensors, for example. Based on all that data, you can tell whether someone is cooking, washing dishes or eating at the table, for instance."
Erik Van Mossevelde, Director corporate technology Niko
Preventing high consumption peaks
This information is useful to save costs for users. For example, the introduction of the capacity tariff makes it more important than ever for households with a digital meter to spread their consumption throughout the day. This is due to the fact that the capacity tariff is calculated based on the highest levels of consumption.
For those consumption peaks, your supplier will look at the quarter-hour with the highest consumption per month. Probably a quarter-hour in which both the dryer and the dishwasher and the oven were on.
Smart systems that manage your appliances to prevent high peaks already exist, such as Niko Home Control. If you switch on a particular appliance, Niko Home Control can momentarily stop charging another appliance or reduce your ventilation level to keep your consumption below a certain level. We call it ‘Peak shaving’.
VLAIO support gives strong boost
This type of AI system not only has the potential to reduce your energy consumption. It can also increase safety and comfort in a home and monitor air quality. However, it will take some more time before an solution like that will be available on the market.
Erik: "Some time ago, we started collecting data and setting up a data platform. We will use the collected data to validate the findings from the VLAIO research project." "VLAIO's support gives you the opportunity to look at certain research topics from a broader perspective." Erik Van Mossevelde, Director corporate technology at Niko. VLAIO's support gave wATCHdOg a strong boost. "We have applied for grants from VLAIO on several occasions and definitely recommend it to other companies. The procedures are really not complicated and it gives the opportunity to get a broader view on certain research topics.”
