By Zev Herman, president of Superior Lighting.
People are incorporating incredible conveniences into their homes using smart technology. Picture a snowy winter day. What if all you had to do is touch a button on an app and your house would be warmed up as soon as you walked in the door? What if you could get an alert on your phone when your security system was tripped and 911 was called? What if you had a voice-activated computer that could place your favorite pizza order or buy something from Amazon?
All these conveniences and more are available through smart home technology. However, many of them have yet to be applied to office spaces. As someone who is passionate about green energy and Earth-friendly technology, I see massive potential for designing efficient “smart offices” using smart home technology. I believe smart offices can save on heating and light bills, make your storage process safer and more secure and improve your workflow.
How Smart Home Technology Can Reduce Your Heating Bills
One of the popular uses of smart home technology is pre-heating your house before your arrival. Obviously, you could do this with your office building. A properly heated office prevents burst pipes that can damage your infrastructure and injure people who are in the vicinity. I imagine a smart home so sophisticated that it has a weather app integrated to send you alerts about coming temperature drops that mean you should close the windows, or opportunities to save on an AC bill by opening them.
Better Storage Facilities Through Smart Technology
A smart home computer in a storage facility would be the perfect place to develop a mathematical function that lets the smart home pinpoint the setting where the temperature is most efficient. You don’t spend a penny more than you need to on heat, and you still protect your products from damage. Maybe this could come with a feature where you enter the type of goods you are storing. There are going to be many inventive people who deliver Earth-friendly efficient solutions like these using smart home technology.
More Efficient Office Lighting Through Smart Technology
Any of the possibilities I wrote about involving heat also apply to lighting. Smart offices could integrate a function like that f.lux app for computers, which adjusts lighting levels to eye comfort. In my business, I've seen how smart light technology can boost the effects of natural light in the office while also minimizing electricity use.
How Voice-Activated Computers Could Become Secretaries
I hate all the clicks it takes me to set up a conference call. I don’t like waiting. And I have too many bookmarks already. I’d love to be able to tell my smart office to set up a video chat with a partner, client or remote employee or order pizza for everyone. That would save me time that I could spend on more important things.
Ultimately, many of the administrative functions that take up too much time in an office could be streamlined with smart technology. There are degrees of efficiency when it comes to resource use that we have yet to explore and smart homes could have ready access to the calculations necessary to discover them.
Zev Herman, President of Superior Lighting, is focused on growing wholesale light bulb and lighting business. Specializes in energy-efficient lighting design and retrofits.