Interview with Jaume Pàmies, head of communication of Domoticus

Turn on any light your home; raising and lowering awnings and shutters, or implement and regulate the heating and air conditioning... and everything from your own mobile phone. You can also speak through the Concierge video of his building and see what happens in any room with cameras installed both inside and outside your home. It is not science fiction or a pilot program of Nasa. Home Automation, the House of the future in the present, a reality for everyone, that today brings us Jaume Pàmies, head of communication of Domoticus, a Girona company specialized in the field.

Home Automation is the set of solutions, which, through the use of techniques and technologies available (electricity, electronics, computer science, telecommunications…), achieves better utilization, management and control of all aspects relating to housing. In other words, home automation allows control of the multiple automation, equipment and existing appliances today and, in addition, through a combination of various elements, achieve high levels of comfort, quality of life, safety, energy saving, communications, leisure, etc.

We live in a society 'electrodependiente', so that the sectors to which we are potentially all those who use electricity. Perhaps the more susceptible you need home automation or real estate are those who in addition to measures of control in their day to day, large doses of comfort, service, care, security and, of course, control of energy expenditure.

Detached houses, but also communities of neighbors, Department stores, shops, hotel chains and modest hotels, factories, restaurants, residences for elderly people, boats and a long etcetera.

Energy saving is not achieved with a single action. He is achieved with the implementation of a number of conditions where it is needed. A good insulation is essential, but also how to use the materials and most appropriate accessories for each case. The contribution of home automation has matured because the construction sector has also done so.

Little point in a complex domotic system to help streamline expenditure on heating of housing if this had not built with a few good insulation materials. Home Automation is therefore almost indispensable to achieve the maximum energy savings. This does not mean that without Automation not can save energy, what it means is that home automation can make the most of the possibilities of each case. Controlling the energy expenditure is a step that we noticed in the first place in the Pocket, but so this can have effects in the environment we must all take responsibility: the energy producer, Manager, the legislator, the user...

The advantages of having a domotic system are endless. Each sector has its own needs and absolutely all have their smart response. In short, it provides a greater degree of comfort and well-being, provides security in all its aspects (intrusion and technical incidents), helps to improve the control of housing, industries or business, and above all, it is essential to achieve the highest level of energy savings.

As noted earlier, we live in a society 'electrodependiente', with a few levels of well-being that we do not want to resign and increasingly high life expectancy and greater purchasing power. This translates into some specific needs. On the other hand, we are obliged to reduce the energy consumption and pollution. These two realities will shape the future. For us it is optimize to maximize energy resources at the same time giving the maximum in comfort, control, security, entertainment... Our future as a society will be more or less domotic insofar as we understand this. We must forget domotics as a futuristic House, housing of high standing, or 'buildings that walk alone'. A domotic building is a building more secure, more manageable, more economical to maintain and that makes life easier and more comfortable to users.

What we are detecting a few months is that many companies working in the sector of renewable energy sources are being in contact with us looking for systems of control for their projects.

Home Automation has a huge tour in many sectors and now, in the context we live in, even more. I do not think that we can say where it is more applicable, but what do I think we can say is that the new climate scenario gives us a new need that needs to go hand in hand with home automation to achieve the highest levels of efficiency. We understand that everything that has to do with energy saving is the future and therefore the domotics sector is opened a new door. Another sector with great future may be of older people, as I said before, more older persons are becoming increasingly better and living grow their needs for assistance, safety, comfort, etc.. Actually all sectors have needs that can be resolved domóticamente and they are all potential sectors of the future.

Fortunately, much. In buildings already made, and that now it is hard to sell, you can install a simple elements domotic that athletes that construction. With a minimal investment, this building (housing, offices, industry...) acquires an added value that makes it stand out from your competition. It is estimated that an investment of less than 2% in home automation housing her revalued by 10%. At the moment we are working on a promotion of houses to precisely give this value to 10 already built flats.

We talked to people who want to listen to us. The truth, at the time we have been in the market, we have contacted with builders, decorators, engineers, architects, farmers, individuals, large hotel, shops, sailors, electricians, teachers, disabled, etc. We are trying to address our services to the sectors that we believe that they can have a greater demand for home automation, but fortunately we see that bids us coming from sectors that we would have never imagined. What, on the other hand, confirms what said you before that all sectors have their response automation needs.

The Integrator is the new figure that appears in the field of domotics, and is one of the key figures. While other actors have an important role in terms of prescribing, contact with the client and the dissemination of products and services, the Integrator is the specialist, who performs the design, programming and implementation of the system andto the end and after, responsible for the proper functioning of the installation. "They confirm j. M. Huidobro Moya and r. j. Millán Weaver, in his book 'Manual of home automation', published this year, the Integrator is who is responsible for contact with all service providers to integrate their offer and make it available to the user transparently without the latter having to worry about the technology"also associated with conventional new technologies and enters in relation to all stakeholders of the construction. Until recently the Integrator service could offer it engineering, a company specializing in telecommunications and to a dealer of domotic equipment. Today the Integrator as exclusively dedicated to the design of automation facilities is gaining ground. It is a sign that it demonstrates the maturity of this market.

Say that one of these differences is our desire to service the customer would be diluted among the number of companies employing that same statement in vain.

Although we believe (and prove) that this is one of the keys to our business model also have other points which distinguish us from the competition. One of them is that we can work with any protocol, any manufacturer, and any system. In this way we are able to offer the maximum in terms of the options available on the market. Finally, and not least, our 'know how' in home automation has led to solutions where others have failed either to propose more cost-effective solutions to those raised by our competitors. With this we do not mean that our company's philosophy is the price if not that we think that sometimes we can provide solutions using wits rather than budget and that thanks him customer.

Today from mobile or computer, everything you have domotizado in our home, business or factory can be controlled.

The list of possibilities is enormous. Our regular phone we could turn on any light in the House, raising and lowering awnings, curtains and blinds; also we could implement control heating and air conditioning, respond and talk through the video goalkeeper, see what's happening in any stay through cameras installed both inside and outside the home. Through the mobile phone system can alert us if there is any technical problem (leakage of water, gas, smoke, some light on, etc.) either if it has detected any intrusion into the building. In short, the phone can see everything we want to see, and it can also help us to act at a distance.