When ‘smart’ technology isn’t the smart choice
The Insight
Smart homes, smart buildings, and smart cities are broad terms given to equipment and technologies that allow for automation to building and infrastructure.
Ongoing advancements in electrical and electronic technologies has allowed for ‘smarter’ ways for equipment and products solutions to benefit the market. This includes becoming more autonomous, intuitive, efficient and inherently safer.
Engineers and relevant trades are continuously progressing their knowledge of these advancements and integrating them into projects. This is particularly useful in locations where comprehensive support and equipment hardware and software integration are available.
In regional and remote locations, the implementation of these ‘smarter’ solutions can often backfire.
The Impact
For the most part, the development of cost-effective instrumentation, connective technologies and their integration create environments with higher levels of efficiency, safety and comfort.
However, operation and maintenance of buildings and infrastructure in regional and remote environments may find the integration of these ‘smarter’ solutions less helpful than their counterparts. In these environments, the buildings and infrastructure need to function in harsher climates with less access to maintenance and limited resources.
The implementation of ‘smart’ solutions in these locations need to consider the reliability and fault-tolerance of electronics, as well as connectivity, local availability of equipment and specialised support and services. Failure in equipment can lead to exorbitant costs in fault-finding, travel and replacement.
Often, faults are ignored and equipment is abandoned.
The KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) design principle is so important for these regions. It removes the unnecessary elements of luxury and subsequent complexities and prioritises the necessities of functionality.
Understanding the limitations of different environments is essential for long-term cost-effective and efficient operation – especially when adapting solutions that are intended to be ‘smart’.