“The last thing any one wants to do is runpower and signal cables to the bottom of their garden”

So much IoT and other data gathering kit is powered by batteries these days, particularly the sensors. It makes sense too, with a weather station being the perfect example. It’s fine for an indoor unit with a display to be plugged into a power supply, but temperature, wind and humidity sensors must be sited outdoors, and the last thing anyone wants to do is run power and signal cables to the bottom of their garden. Wireless comms and battery power are perfect for this.

Indoors, too, it makes sense for IoT kit to use batteries. I have a sensor on my patio doors and if the door is open for more than a minute then my system automatically turns the heating down in that room; I don’t want to pay to heat the garden! Again, I wouldn’t want to run wires to the various sensors on my doors and windows, so wireless and battery power makes sense.

Speaking of heating, I use Resideo’s Evohome system, so have a remote controllable thermostatic radio valve (TRV) on every radiator, allowing me to schedule different temperatures in every room of the house. These TRVs are wireless and each contains a couple of batteries – just imagine having to run a cable to every radiator. Evohome uses a proprietary communication protocol called Ramses II. It’s quite mature, having been used for many years by Honeywell before it spun off Resideo