London, June 3, 2024 – Tuya Smart, a global cloud platform service provider, hosted a groundbreaking smart retrofit forum in London, drawing top companies from across the UK and Northern Europe. The forum focused on the potential of leveraging IoT in residential and commercial settings to drive net zero through the retrofit of existing properties.
The event began with a keynote from Dylan Sutton, Marketing Manager at Tuya Smart. Sutton highlighted Tuya’s diverse range of solutions that make energy-saving technology accessible for both smart home brands and commercial buildings. He showcased Xanlite’s recent deployment of smart home energy management solutions, in line with the French government’s initiatives, and the success of Tuya’s BEMS deployment with ESR in Singapore, demonstrating the significant impact of smart automation on building energy efficiency.
Sylwester Raczynski, Managing Director of iHelios, presented the latest innovations in integrated infrared heating and home energy management solutions. Partnering with Tuya, iHelios has developed accessible solutions to reduce emissions in homes and businesses across the UK. Raczynski shared a compelling case study where their integrated energy management solutions reduced energy bills from £75 to £15 by utilizing wireless IoT technology.
Mauriche Lynch, Head of System Flexibility at Northern Powergrid, provided insights into the utility's strategies for leveraging flexibility service providers. Lynch emphasized the importance of balancing electricity generation and consumption during peak periods to support grid stability. By 2030, Northern Powergrid anticipates connecting 1.8 million electric vehicles, 350,000 heat pumps, and 1 GW of domestic solar to the grid, highlighting the crucial role of IoT in enabling this transition.
Johnson Fernandes, CEO and Founder of Equiwatt, discussed the challenges energy suppliers face during peak usage periods in the UK. Fernandes demonstrated Equiwatt’s intelligent home energy management solution, which integrates smart devices to help consumers manage peak energy usage efficiently. He shared a success story with ScottishPower, where Equiwatt’s solution reduced peak energy usage by 50 MWh and saved over £90,000 for ScottishPower and its customers.
The forum's residential segment was followed by a roundtable discussion moderated by Neil Salt, Managing Director of Evolvr. The panel included Philipp Schuster, Managing Director at Energy Analytica; David Larn, Managing Director at Dimension Engineering; Johnathon Steel, Co-Founder at Yondrr Group; and Michael Crawford, Co-Founder at Trustek Group. The discussion, titled “Net Zero or Net Nonsense: Unmasking the Hype & Reality of IoT in Commercial Real Estate,” tackled critical questions such as the reliability of IoT in delivering net-zero goals and the motivations behind the net-zero IoT movement in real estate. Panelists shared their extensive experiences, addressing both the challenges and opportunities of retrofitting commercial properties with IoT.
