The One Common Enabler of All the New CES Gadgetry: Reliable Power and Surge Protection

This year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas will play heavily to consumer gadgets that can be used from home. Today’s homeowners want a smart home that creates an ambiance, one that changes and adjusts for different moments of the day. If watching a movie in the living room at night, for instance, the temperatures should rise slightly. TV viewing usually involves no physical activity. Therefore, room occupants are more susceptible to the cold. On the lighting side, occupants can prompt the technology to provide softer lighting in order to set the mood for the viewing experience of a new movie on a high definition television screen. But all of this happens only if the occupants want it to happen.

Home dwellers want no hassles, and they welcome any aspect of their home life that provides Certainty in a Connected World. What they seek is what the new generation of smart homes and apartments now has to offer: a way to attain a new level of lifestyle comfort and safety. This is the concept of intelligent living. The appliances that provide the comfort of day- to-day home living whether that be temperature control, lighting and / or security need to be reliable, sustainable, efficient and connected. True smart homes have been a long time coming. The collective forces of the marketplace and the home automation industry are only now beginning to align. Automated technologies that enable smart homes will be in the forefront at the Consumer Technology Association’s Las Vegas CES conference, one of the world’s largest consumer-oriented tech conventions.

The Home of the Future Has Arrived

IHS Markit projects that the global market for smart home devices, estimated to be worth $6.8 billion in 2016, will expand to $101 billion in 2021, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 72%.^[1] Traditional obstacles of high upfront cost, lack of industry standards, interoperability of disparate systems, and poor manageability have, until now, slowed the momentum in smart home investments. But these obstacles are quickly melting away. New technologies designed to operate within a network of open protocols have enabled smart home gadgets to unify and to begin working together. And this has practical advantages for consumers across the board.

Smart home security devices, for instance can enhance the feeling of comfort and safety by providing both visual and aural cues to homeowners that fellow family members and household possessions are safe. This can mean safe from intruders, safe from hackers who violate privacy, and safer in dealing with potential catastrophes such as electric shock, fires and natural disasters.

Regardless of the sophistication of the new gadgets, whether they be voice controlled smarts that control televisions, coffee makers and vacuum cleaners or internet-connected home accessories like smart light bulbs, thermostats and security cameras, the componentry and artificial intelligence inside more often than not will rely on a steady and clean supply of power.

Home Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) have evolved as important enablers of smart home appliances. These devices (for example the new APC Back-UPS Pro) are equipped with sine wave battery backup output that offers premium protection from lightning surges, power sags, swells and blackouts, and that safeguard your investment in high-end PCs, Smart TVs, network routers, gaming systems and home data storage. The battery provides runtime, when the electrical supply to your house is cut off.

Other home UPSs (for example, the APC BACK-UPS 850VA UPS or BACK-UPS 600VA UPS) can be configured to provide either surge only, or surge and backup battery protection for only the devices that need it, extending battery backup time. These home UPSs can provide backup power for computers and routers so network connection to IoT devices can be maintained. In addition, if your power is out and your cell phone battery is dead, you have the option of charging the phone with the UPS.

With power protection comes Certainty in a Connected World and the increased peace of mind knowing that these smart home devices will be reliable and functional. To learn more about how power protection and multi-use surge protection devices can help safeguard the new generation of smart electronics, download our new Smart Home Solutions Guide.

1. IHS Markit, “Global Smart Home Analysis Interactive Chart” 2017 ↑