Senior Product Marketing Manager, Silicon Labs: How Matter 1.3 is shaping the future

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Recently, Sami Kaislasuo, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Silicon Labs, wrote about how Matter 1.3 is shaping the future. He discussed how IoT integration can help us move towards a more sustainable future by reducing energy consumption in a variety of industries, from smart buildings to industrial IoT and even smart home energy management.

The impact of buildings on energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions

Buildings are a large part of U.S. energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. According to NREL, they account for 70% of U.S. electricity consumption, 40% of total energy consumption, and 30% of greenhouse gas emissions – a huge environmental footprint! These statistics are worrying, especially as our world commits to a transition to a net-zero future. Our desire for increasingly sophisticated and convenient devices drives a constant demand for more energy, leading to higher bills, but technology provides solutions to manage this consumption without sacrificing modern lifestyles.

Through the integration of the Internet of Things, energy consumption can be reduced in a variety of industries, from smart buildings to industrial IoT and even smart home energy management, helping us move towards a more sustainable future.

Harness the power of the Internet of Things for smarter energy use

As we strive for a more sustainable future, it's important to turn our attention to energy management as an effective way to reduce overconsumption. This includes continuously monitoring and optimizing energy use patterns, identifying areas where energy savings can be made, and integrating renewable energy sources such as solar into the energy mix. All of these tasks can be very labor-intensive and time-consuming if done manually, but IoT can simplify and optimize these tasks. Thanks to the new Matter 1.3 update, energy management, especially in homes and buildings, now operates in accordance with the Matter standard and is easier to manage.

Matter 1.3 opens up more devices for energy management

Today, most consumers struggle to understand their energy usage but are still increasingly concerned about the impact on the environment. Matter's latest 1.3 update will allow users to automate their energy management and be transparent when it comes to energy insights. With Matter 1.3, all devices connected to the cloud can report actual and estimated measurements in real time, including instantaneous power, voltage, current, and more, as well as their energy consumption or generation over time. Users can even remotely control the rate, schedule, and power of electric vehicle (EV) charging. This will allow both homeowners and building managers to save on the manual process of continuously monitoring energy and water systems.

Smart Cities: How the Internet of Things is Transforming Urban Energy Systems

As a major component of a city, buildings have a significant impact on the energy consumption of the entire community. Integrating IoT into the urban landscape is essential to address this collective use and contribute to global energy reduction. Retail buildings and office spaces often rely on one or more wired building automation systems (BAS) to control core building functions, primarily in heating, air conditioning, and ventilation.

The integration of IoT can create smart building management systems that facilitate on-demand, local device control to improve energy efficiency. Building facility managers can use smart submeters to track usage (e.g., lighting, HVAC, pumps), building structure (e.g., floors, wings, zones, parking lots), or any other useful criteria to provide segmented measurement data to better define operational plans and promote sustainability.

These always-on monitoring systems enable managers to address energy misuse immediately, reducing costs and improving overall sustainability. Using IoT devices, facility managers can gain detailed insights into active energy consumption across various building operations. These smart sensors can help determine the load characteristics of buildings and equipment that causes higher energy consumption during peak demand periods. When high power consumption intersects with peak hours, IoT technology enables buildings with on-site renewable energy reserves or distributed energy resources (DERs) to operate "off-grid."

Industrial Internet of Things: Optimize output and reduce waste

Due to the high energy demand, industrial workplaces can benefit greatly from advanced energy management. Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) systems enable automated control and rapid response to fluctuating energy demand and prices, resulting in increased efficiency and cost savings.

For example, with IIoT, airflow regulation in the workplace has become easier. With the Internet of Things, on-demand ventilation can be implemented in workplaces such as mines or factories. Smart sensors can determine the best place to filter air and the required airflow rate. Conventional systems ventilate the entire mine, including areas that are not operational, but demand-based ventilation systems can direct air only where and when it is needed. This optimization can significantly reduce the electricity consumption of mining companies.

Home energy management

As with building management, submeter metering can be effectively applied to individual households. Home owners can receive real-time updates on energy usage, including peak hours, and ultimately save money by limiting usage. Smart home devices can automate lighting, water supply, and heating and cooling systems. For example, sensors can detect when lights need to be turned off, or easily adjust the indoor temperature based on weather patterns and user preferences.

Charging an EV at night at home often causes strain on the grid, leading to a spike in costs in some areas. However, under Matter 1.3, with IoT-driven energy management, systems will be able to account for cost surges to detect the best time to charge electric vehicles and other battery-powered devices, creating a more sustainable and cost-effective way to manage energy in homes.

As governments push to improve energy efficiency, device manufacturers are required to adopt data-sharing standards that allow devices such as washing machines and thermostats to communicate with each other and the grid, ultimately saving energy. This is in line with the broader goals of the industry, even if home energy management is more interoperable, seamless, and user-friendly.

Voltalis is a European energy management company that installs smart home energy management devices for heating and cooling equipment, enabling them to reduce consumption briefly when needed. Voltalis also works with the energy market to respond to policies and regulations in a timely manner to achieve grid stability and demand response.

Deliver consumption levels to homeowners with real-time data, reducing overall consumption and promoting sustainability. This facilitates the optimization of EV charging loads – EVs can withstand going uncharged for a period of time or charging at a limited current, but the network is unable to support them and can crash if the load is much higher than the production volume in a given time. Bidirectional control of consumption and production is essential for optimizing the power grid, which is made possible with energy management systems such as Voltalis.

In addition, energy-efficient appliances such as washers, tumble dryers, washer-dryers, and dishwashers, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems can optimize their energy efficiency through use cases such as incentive-based power management, limiting consumption by providing financial incentives to conserve energy. Smart systems are able to track these consumption levels in real-time, providing instant information for smart grid management and homeowners.

The Way Forward: Energy Management for a Sustainable Future

An automated energy management system enables users to regulate, reduce, and gain valuable insights about their energy consumption. This means lowering energy bills while promoting a more sustainable future. As energy management becomes more accessible and IoT connectivity expands, these solutions are being used in a variety of industries, beyond buildings and homes.

In the future, we can expect energy management to continue to be seamlessly integrated into civil engineering, playing a key role in planning sustainable urban environments. Silicon Labs is eager to keep up with progress and is helping customers, developers, and manufacturers build safe, reliable, connected devices that support sustainability goals.