Implementation of wireless power transfer in the home automation market

Abstract

This report proposes that the emerging technology of RF energy harvesting is at the right technology readiness level that it can be embedded in low-powered climate sensors for the smart home market. The smart home market is a sub market of the Internet of Things, and the prediction for this market is that in 2022, an average home will have 500 connected devices. The market is stagnating although the awareness of a smart home is getting more traction with the general public. The market is facing a two-faced problem, there is a slim to none interoperability between companies and every company or consortium of companies is pushing their own platform of products and/ or standards, while especially for communication standards; it is key that there will be a universal standard for all layers of communication between devices. The other side of the problem is the power supply of sensors, and that is what the outcome of this report is solving. The outcome of the research of this report is that RF energy harvesting is ready to be embedded in these low-powered sensors that will increase exponentially in numbers in homes. This first wave of sensors that will be in your homes will all power itself with a battery but with the amount of sensors increasing, changing batteries will be an annoying activity and costly for the party that has to constantly change batteries. This problem can be solved by harvesting power out of radio waves that are already all around us in the form of Wi-Fi, 3G, 4G and television signals. The implications are enormous, the lifetime of a sensor can be extended significantly at this level of the technology. But the technical research in this report indicates that when it matures, a sensor could be continuously trickle charged with the electrical charge that radio waves have. What this means is that, if programmed efficiently for longevity, a sensor’s battery can live longer than the product life of a sensor, and thus having a unlimited operational lifetime. This report shows the business case of the on-going partnership between “smart thermostat developer”, one of the biggest smart thermostat providers in Europe, and Nowi, the startup whom will be the first company to commercialise this technology in the smart home market. The co-founder of Nowi, and author of this report, has build a working, proof-of-principle prototype that validates the readiness level of this technology in a low-powered sensor. This solves the power supply of sensors, but this report proposes another product to improve the interoperability between products in a home: The smart switch. This Nowi family of products will help enable the smart home and will facilitate companies to atone to the needs of the next wave of home buyers and first adopters of the smart home: generation Y, the millennials. When this product will be developed until commercialisation, not only will it have an impact on the smart home, but on the entire third wave of the internet, the internet of things. In the near future, technology will become ubiquitous and sensors will play a crucial role in the succession of this data- driven megatrend.