Hello everyone and good afternoon.
I am here in Hong Kong presenting to you
in this new normal and, if I may say, the accelerated digital world.
And as we are talking about homes
I am in my home here in Hong Kong and there’s no better place to be for this talk with you.
I must also tell you that it’s possible that I introduce you to my family
on the screen here – as this has been happening in quite few meetings lately!
Smart homes have been around for quite a while
and we have been using Digital technology in our homes
to automate mostly lighting or heating, security or access control,
and it is mostly very gadget centric.
But our lives have changed in the past years and in the more recent past.
We see that the demand for energy in homes has grown significantly.
I can share my own example with you that in the past 3 months,
my electricity bills have actually doubled!
This is because me and my family,
we are spending a lot more time at home than we used to be doing.
I am sure it is not only me but a lot of us are impacted.
Therefore the need to start to make homes not only smart but also sustainable
and the urgency of the same has just increased with the current crisis.
At Schneider Electric with its solutions, we are going to lead in this transformation.
Sustainability today is a key global priority.
We all recognize that the climate change trend cannot continue its current trajectory.
We need to respect the global commitment to limit temperature rise
by 1.5 degrees for the century.
Now, this is only doable if we all achieve net zero emissions globally by 2050.
In this context, did you know
that homes will be the single largest consumer of electricity
and the single largest contributor of carbon dioxide emissions
up to 30%?
So we have a very big part to play in the homes sector
in order to reach those targets.
Let me explain to you
how this is changing and why homes must evolve...
We today see 4 major challenges
that the homes are going to face.
The first one is to prepare homes to become more sustainable
to reduce their impact on the climate.
We just talked about that.
The second is around Resilience,
which  is a challenge around 2 components.
First is safety.
We tend to often forget
that electrical faults can still happen today.
And, they happen more often than we think.
Electrical fires alone
have been costing home owners 3,6 billion euros
every year, and that’s just in Europe and the US.
Most of this damage could be avoided.
The second part is linked to sustainability:
which is the extreme effects of weather patterns:
like the bushfires, the wildfires
and the storms in the US that we are seeing,
are increasing both in frequency and intensity …
these effects are causing periodical power interruptions
and the continuity of power supply becomes crucial.
Which is part of the Resilience challenge
that the homes are facing.
The third challenge is a direct consequence
of the increase in electricity consumption
that we are going to see in our houses.
As we use more gadgets and appliances
we are going to increase the electricity consumption in the home
and the electricity bill is likely to go up.
Take heating and cooking for example,
both of them are becoming more and more electric.
In UK as an example,
there is a commitment to switch
from fuel to electrical heating by 2050
as part of its net zero targets.
Every time we switch heating and cooking
from gas to electricity, we are increasing electricity consumption
by about 20 to 30%.
And as we are switching more to the electric car,
which is becoming more and more popular,
you will see the increase in your electricity consumption by up to 40%.
Significantly, electricity consumption is going to go up in homes
and is expected to double by 2050.
Thankfully, there are huge opportunities for efficiency
in the way we consume electricity.
Moving to the fourth challenge.
As we are spending more time in homes,
we are not just living here.
We are playing here, we are studying here,
we are working here.
All this means that we will need
more and more personalized modular spaces in our homes.
Today, thanks digitization,
we can deliver that need for personalization,
and empower consumers to be in control of their homes.
At Schneider, we fully recognize these 4 challenges.
And, we are excited to be sharing with you
our solutions and innovations that address these challenges.
Electricity is the lifeline of your home.
It connects everything together.
Electric powers digital and digital enables more electric.
This helps us control and monitor every device,
whether it is connected or non connected.
Digital makes that happen.
This interplay between electric and digital
is our solution and this solution,
This, is Wiser.
We are leaders in the electric world,
and 2 out of 5 homes are already equipped with our products.
Thanks to our Wiser solution,
we are now linking together the electric world and the digital world.
We are able to link the supply side of energy
- which is changing to multiple sources
whether it’s your grid or your own solar generation - on one side
and the consumption of energy inside your home
which is going beyond your heating, lighting to your electric vehicles
and we are able to put all of that in one system.
It is through this solution,
which goes from supply all the way to devices,
that we are able to address the 4 challenges
of the homes of the future that we talked about.
This… is Wiser.
I am excited to share with you now
some of the latest innovations that we have within our Wiser offer.
And the best place for that is the kitchen,
where I will tell you more.
We are here in the kitchen,
and I am going to share with you
how - with Wiser - we are addressing the four challenges
that we see coming.
First, Wiser makes your home resilient.
It adds a layer of extra active safety to bring peace of mind
and ensures power is available and is reliable for you,
for the different things that you use in your home.
In the same way that you use today a connected watch,
that keeps an eye on your heart rate, and other health indicators,
think of Wiser as the Fitbit for the home
It’s an open platform that monitors the health of your home
(like the grounding system, like the arc faults events)
and it alerts you before any of these unforeseen events happen,
so that you can call your local electrician before any harm is done.
In Resilience, continuity of service is very another important and the second aspect.
What if your TV suddenly cut
while you were watching the Bayern Munich and Paris Saint Germain
in the final of Champion’s Cup a couple of weeks ago?
When you are in France, that’s something that could happen
when you exceed your approved consumption at home.
It could trip every time you are close to the limit of your consumption.
Now, it is possible through this device
Acti9 Active which lets you know when your limit is approaching,
so that you can continue watching your soccer game
and of course support your favorite team!
Perfect example of how electric and digital are coming together.
The second aspect is Wiser is making your home personal.
It adapts to your needs, comfort and habits,
so it can support you at every moment of your life:
whether you are at home, watching a movie, working, sleeping,
or even when you are away on holiday.
Let’s take the example,
where homes are regularly suffering from power interruptions
which is quite common these days.
Wiser ensures your home is well organized,
because it will tell you for example that it’s time to charge your battery
as well as how long the storage will last,
depending on the devices you are using in your home.
So that you know exactly how many hours do you have left
and what can you change to improve the reliability.
Second example,
when you leave your home, Wiser sets your home in the away mode,
so that you don’t have to worry about, for example, your heating.
It can automatically set to reduce your consumption.
You don’t have to worry about the lighting,
they will all be turned off,
including the ones in the kids’ rooms
which I think most of the time they forget!
You don’t have to worry about the shutters and blinds either
- they will be closed as soon as you leave.
Now you have a secure home,
and a home that is actually wasting zero energy while you’re away.
And also, when you’re enjoying yourself on holiday,
if you wish to simulate your presence in the home
so that you feel your home is more secure,
Wiser lets you do that.
The third element is: Wiser is also making your home more efficient.
In an all-electric home, Wiser could help you save up to 50% on energy,
which one of our studies in UK has shown,
without you compromising on your comfort.
Wiser is integrating the supply in energy together with your demand,
so that you can choose the cheapest tariff at a given moment,
and this becomes especially handy when dealing with
some of the electric guzzlers like we have here
but also like your electric vehicles and pool pumps, etc.
I would like to present to you a next innovation
which is an efficient temperature control system.
What is unique about this is that you are able to control
the temperature in room-by-room
If you are not in a particular room, and the heating of that room is reduced,
you could walk into an unoccupied room and the heating is restored.
This is different from the other devices
that keep the entire home at the same temperature.
This allows you to use your heating system much more efficiently
and also saving a lot of energy in the process.
Let’s take another example. It is a windy autumn day
and your kids have gone out to play in the garden
and they have left the window open.
The usual behavior of a thermostat
would be to boost the heating in order
to keep the temperature at the same level.
But the wind is going to win this battle every time,
while you waste that energy trying to heat the room.
With Wiser, you will soon be able
with a very simple open window detector,
you can detect when the window is open
and it will pause the heating
and wait for the window to be closed again by sending a notification to the user.
All of this makes efficiency a very important pillar for Wiser.
Finally, Wiser makes your smart home sustainable.
I am very delighted to show you today our PowerTag sensor,
which is the smallest wireless energy sensor in the world.
It’s a plug and play solution that is perfect
both for renovations and for new builds.
It’s fully compatible with Wiser
and this tiny gadget allows you to monitor,
to control your energy in your home,
and coming from any energy source.
It is integrated inside your electrical panel,
and you can monitor your energy consumption in real time,
It will help you Predict your energy production from Solar panel,
and also help to monitor it.
What’s more, it will tell you how you can increase
the mix of renewable in the total consumption,
so that you can maximize the use of the solar panels
you have installed in your home.
And, in the near future, Wiser will give you also
your carbon footprint, both in terms of electric consumption,
and in terms of carbon dioxide emissions that you are contributing towards.
So now you know Wiser better.
And you know and you understand how with Wiser,
Schneider is able to answer the 4 major challenges of homes
which are Sustainability, Resilience, Efficiency and Personalization.
Each of us
can be a very strong contributor in our goal and journey to achieving
our net zero targets making sure that we limit it to 1,5 degrees.
We have the capacity to contribute to make the world a more sustainable place
and it starts right here, in our homes!
With Wiser we have the power to transform our homes
from smart to sustainable.
Let’s go in this journey and making it happen.
Thank you for your time. Have a great rest of the event.
