NuTone joins in the smart-home bandwagon
Article
NuTone Announces Smart Home Line | SmallNetBuilder
From the horse’s mouth
NuTone
My Comments
NuTone is an American brand that has been associated with integrated home systems like central vacuums or intercoms for a long time. Most of you may know this name for their Food Center integrated appliance system which has a motor base integrated in to the kitchen bench where you attached a special food-processor bowl or blender jug in to a panel for them to work.
But they are cutting in to the smart-home scene by supplying a collection of smart-home sensors that work to the Z-Wave standard. They claim that this device can work with most Z-Wave home automation hubs like the Securifi Almond+ router. These include light and appliance control modules either as an integrated or plug-in variant along with a garage-door opener module and the devices were developed along with Nortek.
One of the devices that they have offered is a “smart fixture control” which is simply a Z-Wave relay box that can control other devices by virtue of a relay. This can appeal to anyone who wants to integrate this kind of control in to different devices which just respond to a switch being opened or closed.
What I have seen of NuTone’s effort is to release a range of Z-Wave smart-home modules is that they put their faith in the concept of the devices being compatible with standards-based Z-Wave home-automation systems on an application level. Here, they weren’t supplying a “home automation” hub or home-network gateway for these devices and expecting their customers to bond them with whatever Z-Wave-compliant home automation hub they were using. It is something that will be considered important as
This attitude appeals to people who are starting out with a so-called “starter kit” comprising of one or two plug-in light or appliance modules and a home-automation hub, then want to extend the control ability to more appliances. As well, a person who uses a network-enabled Z-Wave home automation hub that answers the “Internet Of Things / Internet Of Everything” call doesn’t need to displace this device just because they are enrolling a few new devices in to the system for network-wide and Internet-based control.
I would see this opening up wider paths for home automation becoming increasingly mainstream as people become aware of the “Internet Of Everything”.