Today, Laurent Fantino's point of view, our Marketing and Sales Director.
How has the IoT evolved over the first quarter of the 21st century, and what are the major advances to remember?
The IoT is 25 years old, or at least the term is just 25 years old, having first been used by Kevin Ashton in 1999. There have been several turning points, such as the widespread use of local radio protocols. Above all, it was the smartphone that revolutionised the penetration of IoT into the home by providing a simple remote interface for accessing functions on objects. When you make things simple for people, they can use them. But connectivity is not an end in itself.
What changes have players in the social housing sector experienced in recent years?
Landlords’ mission is first and foremost a social one, and their needs evolve with their environment. Soaring energy costs have had a direct impact on tenants’ purchasing power, and many landlords have taken action to help their tenants control their spending. The other change is normative, with requirements for decarbonisation. The needs related to this point converge directly with the savings on charges.
How do OGGA’s solutions make a concrete contribution to the energy transition and decarbonisation? What new solutions are planned for 2025?
OGGA provides direct solutions to both decarbonisation requirements and tenants’ needs for savings. Eco-Touch can reduce heating consumption by 20% in a single dwelling, meeting both needs. Eco-Heating makes it possible to ensure the proper operation of community heating systems. The key to our solutions is to provide answers that make life easier.
The good thing is that with over 14,000 kits installed, Eco-Touch can now be judged on its results, not on mere promises.
What developments can we expect for the Eco-Touch solution in the coming years?
We are continuing to add functions to the core of our product, which can still be developed further. We’re working hard on DHW tank control, and we’ve developed “senior” home automation functions. Our solutions are designed to evolve over time without needing to be replaced, simply added to. That’s one of the strengths of well-designed IoTs, the possibility of firmware updates that offer long-term scalability.
Are regulations such as the thermostat decree an opportunity for companies in the sector, or are they more of a hindrance?
Decree 2023-444 is a good thing… in a house. It makes perfect sense to control the temperature room by room. In a flat, the benefits remain to be seen. We need to avoid over-technology, adding electronic equipment in each room to automate different control in a 64 m² flat squeezed between 2 floors…. I’m still waiting for someone to demonstrate the economic benefits in a flat.
The problem with regulations is that they are often not accompanied, or are poorly accompanied, by economic support. The phenomena of aid fraud and eco-dealers have taken on major proportions, and this is both a waste of money and bad press for solutions that work. The year 2024 showed this clearly, with the back-and-forth on the ‘thermostat boost’ and the emergence of many questions on these subjects.
What is the most significant project of 2024 for OGGA?
2024 was marked by our ability to ramp up the deployment of the Eco-Heating solution. We have more than doubled the number of boiler rooms installed in 1 year. This completes the work that has made Eco-Platform a cutting-edge business tool for supervising boiler rooms.
What is the current state of the energy management market, and what trends are we seeing?
Now that the programmable thermostat market is taking off, but not everyone is yet equipped, we’re already moving on to the next phase, which is to connect everything. We have a plethora of solutions, often too complex for users who have other concerns than setting programmes on interfaces. We’re even going so far as to dress up certain mechanisms that don’t generate savings for users directly, such as deletion. We want to move forward quickly, but sometimes we forget to keep users at the centre.
See you soon for another point of view!
