Monolyth is an internet connected device
for your window / wall AC unit, optimizing air temperature & quality
for your comfort & energy savings.
The
smart solution for urban apartments with window and wall AC units
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The Monolyth makes your AC unit smart by learning your daily schedule and
temperature preferences. The result is a lower energy bill and perfectly
monitored temperature at all times. The super simple Monolyth app lets you
control your AC from anywhere in the world giving you complete control.
The Monolyth
Control your AC from anywhere. Really. Anywhere.
Monolyth is controlled via WiFi on the iOS and Android application. So to
adjust or control your air conditioning you just need an internet connection
and your phone or tablet. Monolyth controls your air conditioning unit by using
IR emitters.
The app, offers you ultimate control over air
conditioning temperatures no matter where you are, letting you change settings,
scheduling, check weather and setup push notifications.
Control multiple air conditioning units at your home or office
You can use your Monolyth for your home, office or any other additional
properties and control as many AC units per property as you want.
Monolyth will learn and adapt to your everyday schedule!
We know that most window and wall air conditioning units offer basic
programmability to set the desired schedule and room temperature. But the
Monolyth will learn and adapt to your everyday schedule through multiple
sensors that gather data from the surrounding environment. It will track what
time you usually wake up, what time you leave the house and when you go to bed.
Once Monolyth learns your schedule, it will automatically adjust the
temperature. We realize no schedule is set in stone, which is why you can
easily reprogram the Monolyth if you’ll be out of the house for extended
periods of time for holidays or business. The longer the device is in use, the
smarter it becomes.
Energy Savings - Save up to 40%!
Monolyth is designed to help you reduce energy costs. Here’s how:
Geofencing
Adjusting when you leave the house
There’s no need to have your AC on full power while you’re at work. But even
if you forget to turn it off, the Monolyth device will sense you’re away and
automatically power off. With Monolyth, you can reduce costs effortlessly
because your AC will adapt to your lifestyle.
Coming home
If
you break your routine, the Monolyth will create your preferable environment
prior to your arrival home.
Adjusting to the weather forecast
By monitoring indoor and outdoor temperatures, humidity levels and air
quality, your air conditioning is automatically adjusted for optimized comfort
and lower energy bills. If temperatures are abnormally low, the Monolyth can
detect this and stay at a more pleasant level.
Adjusting when you’re away for extended periods of time
This feature is especially handy if you’re leaving town for a business trip
or holiday. While you’re away you can turn the AC off and turn it on prior your
arrival. It’s as simple as commanding your AC to turn on when you’re at baggage
claim so your house is perfectly cool when you arrive home.
Easy scheduling
You can also set or quickly adjust daily or weekly scheduling for heating or
cooling, temperature levels, fan speed etc., so if your routine changes you
have the freedom to adjust your Monolyth. Users have the option to set up to 6
time periods per day. This allows the Monolyth to learn additional commands as
you continue to use it.
Monolyth is packed with multiple sensors!
The device contains multiple environmental sensors that gather data from the
surrounding environment. This allows the Monolyth to adjust temperature for
your comfort and to save you energy. Here are the different sensors inside.
Presence sensors
Monolyth will optimize temperature levels based on your presence and
movement. The presence sensors are what allow the Monolyth to know whether
you’re awake or asleep.
Temperature sensor
Optimize temperature levels in your home or office.
Humidity sensor
Packing a humidity sensor, Monolyth will provide tips via push
notification on how to optimize humidity levels in your home.
Barometric Air Pressure sensor
With the barometric air pressure sensor you have the ability to see the
exact weather forecast in your local environment.
Air Quality & VOCs
According
to US Environmental Protection Agency volatile
organic compounds (VOCs) are chemicals in your home which may have short and
long term health effects. Sources for VOCs are household products such as;
paints, cleaning supplies and disinfectants, wood preservatives, air
fresheners, dry-cleaned clothing, carpets, wood stoves etc. Concentrations of
many VOCs are consistently higher indoors (up to ten times higher) than
outdoors. Health effect could be anything from eye, nose, and throat irritation
to headaches, loss of coordination, nausea or even damage to liver, kidney, and
central nervous system.
One
of the steps to reduce exposure to VOCs is to make sure you provide plenty of
fresh air in your home. The next most important thing would be the maintenance
of your AC filter. AC units don’t just cool your home, but also filter
your air. However the air quality in your room is only as good as the
filter in your AC unit.
Monolyth
monitors your air quality with VOCs sensors and will inform you when VOCs
exceed acceptable levels. You can also set it up to send you a notification
when the windows need to be opened or when the AC filter should be replaced.
For
more information on VOCs please follow this link.
Monitor and understand your living environment
Monolyth enables
historical tracking of indoor & outdoor temperature, humidity, air pressure, noise
and air quality / VOCs (Volatile organic compounds) levels.
Installation / Plug & Play
Monolyth works right out of the box and is compatible with 200 leading AC
brands. When setting up your Monolyth device, it should be placed in the
line-of-sight with your AC unit. This enables a clear connection via the
infrared sensor. The application wizard then leads the way for an easy setup.
Follow the link for a list of supported AC units. The
list will be constantly updated with new models, so you can keep using your
Monolyth with new AC units. If your AC unit is not on the list, you can still
manually configure Monolyth through a simple set-up wizard using your mobile
phone and AC remote control.
Monolyth is pet friendly
You can keep your pets comfortable when you’re away with the ‘’never below’’
or ‘’never above’’ settings. The temperature is guaranteed to stay within a
specific limit ensuring your animals are safe and sound.
OPEN API & SDK
We would like to encourage our users to use our open REST API and customize their
own solutions and integrate Monolyth into 3rd party systems. We will provide
Android and iOS SDKs so you can create your own mobile applications.
Activity is accessed through a smart application or a web browser where
users can set preferences and control alerts. Users can also:
• Connect other devices and systems to the Monolyth • Set up custom
scenarios, rules, tips & more • Monolyth reads the environment and provides
suggestions and reminders such as: are you going to be out of the house on a
Friday night? Are you planning a trip this Weekend? • Connect all events and
environment changes from Monolyth to all other devices and systems supported by
IFTTT/Zapier. Supported Monolyth events: indoor and outdoor temperature,
humidity, presence, air quality, air pressure, noise level. • Control your
Monolyth (turn ON/OFF, set target temperature) device through IFTTT/Zapier
systems.
We are
closely following the possibilities to integrate the Monolyth with HomeKit.
We'll keep you posted on the progress.
We are also planning to inregrate the Monolyth with the
SmartThings platform.
Real-time push notifications
To make the device even smarter we added a push notification system for
alerts, tips and reminders for your things such as:
- Air
quality notification
- Below
and above warning temperature
- Air
conditioning filter replacement reminders
- Open
window reminder
- Movement
detection when in Holiday mode and more
Cloud Backup / data
Using a cloud-based system, it is monitoring outdoor temperature, humidity
levels and air quality so your air conditioning is automatically adjusted for
optimized COMFORT and energy savings. Monolyth is always connected to the cloud
in order to provide:
·
An up-to-date list of control codes for air
conditioning units
·
Control of the Monolyth through any device:
smart phone or tablet, MAC and PC.
·
Weather forecast for the location
(Temperature,Humidity, Atmospheric pressure, Wind speed, Rainfall, UV index)
·
Notifications and tips about the environment to
the user
·
If the internet connection is lost there is no
need to worry since all commands still work locally.
Rewards
Tech Specs
Sensors: Temperature, Humidity, Air Quality (CO2 + VOC), Air Pressure, Infrared
Presence, Noise, Ambient Light, Infrared Receiver
Communication: Wi-Fi 802.11b/g 2.4 GHz
Processor: ST ARM Cortex M3, 32-bit, 72 MHz, 256 kB Flash + 16 MB External Flash, 64 kB
SRAM
Power Consumption: < 100 mAh @ 5V
Size: 150 x 70 x 50 mm
User Interaction: Innovative Touch Gesture Detection, Multi-color LED
Hardware Development
We are team of dedicated makers, engineers and researchers and we are on a
mission to build the first connected device to make your AC unit smart. We
don’t compromise. We have choose the best sensors available on the market to
sense air quality in your living and working environment. We are using multiple
sensors to measure temperature, humidity, air quality, luminosity, noise and
even atmospheric pressure. Monolyth can measure all the parameters that matters
for your living environment and can also predict weather forecast for your local micro climate.
Then we control. Yes we control your AC unit based on those accurate
measurements. We can control almost any AC unit using array of infrared
emitters built into the Monolyth that can replicate your infrared remote
control. We can also detect your presence based on the state-of-the art
location detection technology, specially developed for Monolyth. Based on the
presence detection, data from the cloud and advanced algorithms, Monolyth can
set optimal parameters for your comfort and energy efficiency.
Monolyth is connected to the internet via your Wi-Fi network. Connection to
the internet allows you to monitor and control your environment from anywhere
in the world.
The first prototype was built using Arduino development platform, IR
receiver and IR emitter. The IR receiver was used to capture IR packets sent
from remote control. Packets were later successfully re-transmitted using IR
emitter. Second prototype was developed using ARM Cortex M0 platform. Due to
additional new sensors (from Freescale, NXP, STM, Murata, etc.) and the
complexity of algorithms used for measurement and presence detection, we had to
use more powerful core, the ARM Cortex M3 platform. In the latest prototype we
also added Wi-Fi module TI CC3000 to the board and enabled Monolyth to become
the internet connected device.
Our team has years of experience developing electronics, so we have designed
latest prototype with component availability and manufacturing process in mind.
Production Timeline
Monolyth Team
Our vision to make people’s everyday lives more convenient and energy
efficient, starting with air conditioning.
Founded by experts and researchers in professional smart home automation,
we’re determined to create smart home solutions that are energy efficient, easy
to use and available to everyone. We share years of experience on building
products for industry and market.
Under the brand name ENTIAliving, we have designed a cloud-based home
automation system primarily intended for integration into residential buildings
(apartments, houses). For more information please visit: EntiaLiving.
Members of our team were also involved in the successful Kickstarter
campaign Lumu.
Mark Umberger, CEO
Mark did extensive research on Cloud based Home Automation Systems for his
PhD. Mark’s vision and vast knowledge in home automation market will contribute
to a successful product delivery.
Miha Pavlič, Project Manager / Marketing
Miha is a project manager for the Monolyth air conditioning device.With a
passion for technology and new product development, he is responsible for
Monolyth’s marketing strategy and implementation. Miha believes Monolyth can
continue to evolve. Feel free to send him your ideas or suggestions for the
Monolyth device.
Luka Mali, Hardware Development
Luka is experienced product development engineer, maker, Internet of Things researcher
and prototyping enthusiast. He leads Monolyth’s engineering team and is
responsible for product development and manufacturing.
Miha Jelenc, Software Development
Miha is a software specialist with a decade of experience in software
development, embedded systems and system architecture. Miha is responsible for
architecture design and software development.
Jaro Jelovac, Design
Jaro
Jelovac is an all-around designer working mostly in graphic and industrial
design. His creativity and extensive industry experience have shaped the
Monolyth brand name, logo, visuals and product design. Jaro is part of the
Hainz-Jelovac design and architecture studio, doing work for major brands such
as Elan ski and snowboards, Fischer ski, Riko houses and many more.
Satja Lumbar, Algorithms Software Development
Satja is experienced researcher working on various algorithms forautomation
and robotics for a decade. For his PhD he developed state-of-the-art algorithm
for autonomous aircrafts. Satja is responsible for developing Monolyth’s smart
learning and presence detection algorithms.
Peter Trinkaus, Firmware Development
Peter is hardware developer with a extensive knowledge about analog and
digital electronics. Peter is responsible for Monolyth’s hardware development
and conformation testing.
Grega Mulej, Manufacturing
Over the past years, Grega Mulej has co-founded and managed several
successful start-up companies. Grega will be responsible for product
manufacturing and distribution, ensuring the product will meet its deadline.
Luka Kaše, Video Camera ;Mateja Tomažinčič, Video Postproduction ;
Peter Žerovnik, Video Sound
Everyone else that offered their help and support:
Nick Furness, Tom Furness, Bronwyn Sweeney, Rok Kunej
Risks & challenges
Hardware development risks:
Our hardware developers have years of experience developing electronics and products. We’ve already built working prototypes with component availability, price and manufacturing in mind. However, electronic component availability is always a risk. With the alternative components in BOM during the development phase we’ll minimize this risk. We also develop and test hardware in-house, so any changes in design can be made without additional delay.
Software development risks:
Complete software development is done by our team. We have experience in developing software for embedded systems, web and scalable server applications and also iOS and Android applications. We’re already covering infrared communication codes for over 200 leading brands, but we’re also aware that obtaining additional codes will take a lot of resources.
Manufacturing risks:
We have spent a considerable amount of time working with our suppliers to come up with the best solutions for our product. Anything from the type of plastic materials for casing to gloss varnish finishing have been already defined. PCBs will be produced and assembled at the certified supplier. Every board will be optically and electrically checked.
Supply risks:
We have done all the preliminary sourcing and have already made agreements with several manufacturing companies that will provide plastic shells and distributors to source electronics.