Smart Homes: The future of Nigerian housing
With an increase in demand for productivity, there seems to be growing demand among Nigerians for smarter tools; smarter phones, smarter cars... how about smart homes? Most Nigerian home owners pay more attention to beautifying the home and giving it that luxurious finish; how about adding a bit of brains to the beauty/luxury of the home? How about a home that manages itself to an extent? While we have seen the evolution of building management system (BMS) in developed countries, most of the buildings across d country are still lagging behind. While it’s still challenging to have fully automated buildings given our dear country is still some mile off, I think most Nigerian homes should be able to manage certain services with little or no human interference.

What is BMS and how does it work?
BMS utilizes a network of control to automate various building services; the system ensures the operational performance of the facility as well as the comfort and safety of building occupants.
Typically, such control systems are installed in new buildings or as part of a renovation where they replace an outdated system. I personally like to think of it as properly marrying electrical/automation with construction. An integrated system of controllers, sensors, valves etc. could be used to manage certain functions in an average Nigerian home including but not limited to:
Mechanical systems
Lighting systems
Cctv/surveillance systems
Plumbing systems
Fire alarm/detection systems
Basically building automation is whatever the home owner wants it to be. Home owners could pick one area, others two, depending on how smart they want the building to operate.

Pros and Cons
The optimum performance, efficiency as well as ease of control derived from this system is second to none. Example: given the power challenge in our country, some homes adopt every single power generation technique available; phcn, solar panels, inverter and generator. Switching between systems becomes a task on its own, but with an integrated control system its operation becomes seamless. How about power generators knowing exactly what time to come on also the time to go off without human interference, or security/perimeter lights turning on at dusk and turning off at dawn... Just to mention a few, the list is limitless.
Maintenance can be carried out effectively as every device/load is taken into consideration during design.
Most Nigerians stay away for fear of cost, but like the saying goes nothing good comes cheap. Besides every controller is designed and engineered locally, they can be tailor made to suit every home as well as every specific client/need. In other words automation could be done in line with specific budgets.
As with every automated system there is always a risk of malfunction, but every system designed/constructed includes a manual over-ride.

This article will become really long if I decide to go into every single detail, but for more information please feel free to reach us via email: kezelng@gmail.com
Please I would like the input of everyone in the house especially those who have prior experience with automated systems, also those who may have faced challenge in incorporating automation in buildings. I have been a silent reader/learner on this forum, I welcome every comment, even crticism as it ensures better productivity.
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