The integration of Z-Wave technology in the ThereGate platform will provide future users with numerous control options in houses and apartments, such as monitoring and regulating the temperature, managing all home lighting systems and controlling security systems as well as motion sensors. ThereGate users, regardless of their location, will be able to control all their Z-Wave compatible devices via a central interface or even via remote control, web browser and smart phones. This technology gives consumers access to nearly 350 devices from more than 170 well known manufacturers.

To see Z-Wave alliance’s press release about the matter, click here

Kaj Rönnlund, CEO of There Corporation, sees the combination of the mobile and platform technology know-how of the Nokia Smart Home team and the experience of energy grid and metering of the Comsel team as a unique and strong basis to start developing new generation energy solutions. “We are gate openers for our customers enhancing the value of their client offerings.”

There corporation is financed by the current management team and the Power Fund II by VNT Management, which manages two funds, Power Fund I and Power Fund II, with a focus on clean technology. Assets under management of these funds are €80 million. “There Corporation’s groundbreaking solution and extensive knowledge background in the smart grid market, which is estimated to be worth over €40 billion by 2020,makes it an interesting company to invest in.“ says Veijo Karppinen, chairman of VNT. The total funding of There corporation is €4,5 million.

There corporation provides the platform combining Smart Metering, Smart Home and Smart Grid solutions. This allows our partners to offer sustainable future proof solutions and services to their clients. The company focuses to start with on next generation smart metering to improve energy efficiency. The solution will also provide better service and control for end users. Many other ThereGate compatible appliances and applications will be provided by other companies. The first solution projects in this field have already been started and some of the end user solutions and services are expected to hit piloting phase in early 2010.

Since Nokia’s current business focus areas do not address the energy and safety markets, Nokia decided to discontinue its own smart home activities and license the technology to There Corporation, a company independent from Nokia. There Corporation will further develop product and services in the smart home area, while Nokia remains the owner of the smart home technology. This is the next step towards further developing the open ecosystem.

There Corporation is looking forward to working together with the existing partners to build the next generation of smart home products and services. The aim is to build ground-breaking solutions with a network of partners around the technology neutral Home Control Center (HCC) platform. The goal is to launch the first solutions to the markets in early 2010 together with the first partners.

You get more information at the web pages of the new company at www.therecorporation.com. You are also more than welcome to discuss with us: main contact is Kari Rantanen (tel. +358 400 299399), and from Nokia side Antti-Jussi Suominen (tel. +358 400 815717).

From now on please use info@therecorporation.com for any inquiries.

The main audience of the seminar, HVAC installers received the concept with high interest. Clear feedback, however, was that such a system with new technology must be extremely easy to install. Hence, Nokia and Danfoss are working hard together to make sure that the solution is not only easy to install but also especially simple and practical to use.

Another message raised from the conversations with the industry leaders and analysts was that heating systems are going through major changes. Global warming and many different regulations derived from it put pressure to the future of heating systems. They must be more efficient. One part of the equation is to increase the involvement and understanding of homeowners regarding their own heating system. After all, a major part of total consumption of energy goes to either heating or cooling.

The first step is to present consumers with information about which rooms are heated and give him/her a chance to easily adjust temperatures from one point remotely or locally. Later, they would be shown how it is possible to connect the heating system with external information such as weather forecasts, outside temperature or electricity consumption data. Motivation, for example, to lower temperature by 1 degree (as many experts suggest) grows if you can verify the results by yourself in your own real time energy consumption.

The agenda of the developer days included testing the software development kit and actual assignments to build applications in the development environment. The main features of the box were introduced as well as the methods and tools of the Nokia Home Control Center Logic. In addition to the development training, the event also gave a good chance for the developers from different companies to discuss their plans and potential cooperation in this area.

The developer days were the second of a kind for Nokia Home Control Center but more training sessions and similar developer days for a larger audience will be held later during the year.

The initial feedback regarding design and functionality was strongly positive despite the fact that many features are still under development.

Nokia has recently published a whitepaper that covers the current trends in home automation markets and Nokia’s plans to bring the home management under the control of a mobile device. The whitepaper includes information about the latest market studies, technologies in the market and a proposal on how to make the solutions more mainstream.

Nokia has already begun cooperating with some major players in heating, electricity and security industries. This, however, is just the tip of the iceberg and the ecosystem is expanding rapidly. The whitepaper also sheds light on how the different industries are linked to Nokia’s plan of making mobile devices the ultimate control point for many new devices and applications. Also case study examples are included.

The whitepaper provides technical information about the hardware and software used in the Nokia Home Control Center. This includes hardware specifications, a list of supported protocols and addresses security issues. Also the software platform’s core - Home Automation Service (HAS) framework is explained with an example of developing an application with the framework.  

In order to protect the integrity of home automation systems, Nokia will provide software certification and updating. The back-end server architecture, with its remote access and software update functionalities, is explained with an example of the steps necessary to introduce a new device to a home control system.

Finally, as Nokia welcomes all interested parties to discuss collaboration possibilities, information about our partner program is also provided along with contact information.

The white paper can be found from this web site after registeration.

RWE and Nokia are collaborating to introduce innovative products for greater heat efficiency in the home. In future, people will no longer adjust their radiators using the usual knob, but instead via a central control display, PC or even by mobile phone when away from home.

The technical basis for this innovation is the new Nokia Home Control Center. Nokia will deliver the technological expertise, RWE the energy competence. The two companies together help customers save on energy.

In so-called “smart homes”, the comfort level is enhanced while energy costs are reduced. The collaboration is being launched in Germany, with plans to extend offerings to the United Kingdom as well.

“We are pleased to be able to work with Nokia, one of the world’s leading technology partners, on our Smart Home product”, says Carolin Reichert, Director of New Business at RWE. “Our goal is to provide innovative and affordable energy efficiency solutions for every home – which are also convenient and easy to use.”

The basic package, with remote-controlled radiator thermostats and a central communication unit, will come onto the market in late 2009. RWE will in addition offer a product package that includes smart power outlets. With their help, customers can switch on and off electrical devices of any kind – from aquarium lights to electric blinds – even when they are thousands of kilometres away from home.

In a subsequent step, the new applications are to be connected with smart power meters.

Nokia’s Home Control Center also grants third-party suppliers access so they can offer their own products and services for smarter living. The open system allows for the ongoing augmentation of innovative home solutions. Customers will be able to control all these services using their mobile phone or the internet.

Nokia, together with its partners, conducted a web survey in Sweden to quantify the smart home market potential. The survey measured the interest for three different solution packages: security, energy saving and smart appliances. Security and energy saving proved to be the most popular, and in the end energy saving won with 55 % of the votes. However, when compared to the willingness to pay, security applications were slightly ahead of energy saving.

The packages for the different solutions were pre-defined and consisted of basic, self-installable smart home components that could be controlled via mobile device. Overall, the interest in smart home solutions followed quite well the 33% - 33% - 33% theorem. This means that one third of the population is very interested in smart solutions for their homes, another third is somewhat interested and the rest don’t want to see any more technology at their homes. The web and mobile phone were clearly the preferred solutions for controlling smart home systems when compared to wall panels and remote controllers.

Nokia has been working together with several companies to develop new home control solutions that can be accessed via mobile phone. At the eHome exhibition in Berlin the partner program was opened to other interested parties.

In his key note speech, Toni Sormunen from Nokia emphasized that collaboration is needed to save customers from the mixture of multiple control nodes and user interfaces. He also highlighted the benefits of fully mobile devices in adjusting the heating of houses, for example.

It is clear that environmental concerns will drive the development of better home control forward. According to a number of sources, we know that just by giving the consumer information on their energy usage, they will be able to decrease their consumption by up to 15 %. 

Nokia approach to strong collaboration with different vendors to create easy-to-use home solutions was warmly welcomed by many visitors at the exhibition. Not only will customers benefit from the initiative, but it also provides new business opportunities for many large and small companies that are developing new solutions for home management.