Implementing the design of smart home and achieving energy conservation

The idea of smart home originated from the concept of home automation, and this goal was based on the availability of a smart home network for devices to communicate. Even though solutions for the home network have been discussed for years, and networking technologies over different media such as power line, phone line and Ethernet have been tested and found functional satisfaction, the applications of smart home were not found popular. This is because a gap remaining between users' habits and the services offered by the so called ‘smart appliances’, including information and communication devices and network-enabled white goods. In this article, a proposal to integrate different groups of smart appliances and deliver more value-added services will be introduced. More details about the development and implementation of the key technologies for the smart home network, smart appliances and value-added services will be described.