IoT Smart Home

Comfortable, safe, and energy-efficient: Smart home and building solutions for a better future

Smart home and building technologies can unlock a future of unprecedented convenience, sustainability, and energy efficiency, where our living and working spaces are tailored to our individual needs and preferences.

Internet of Things
Home and living
Article

Jul 07, 2025

Welcome to the future of living

Where technology meets comfort

Imagine coming home from work to a warm and cozy living room, where the lights have already adjusted to your favorite brightness, and your favorite music is playing softly in the background. And there's already a hot meal on the stove because you've turned on the smart cooking pot with your smartphone while you were on the way home.

With the rise of smart home and building technologies and the Internet of Things (IoT) connecting more and more devices, our living and working spaces are becoming more personalized, intuitive, and comfortable. These smart devices run on Wi-Fi and perform tasks to make our life easier, and also help save time, effort, and money. The best smart home products seem to anticipate our needs, reacting to our lifestyle to produce preferred settings and features before one has to ask for them. In this article, we'll explore the exciting world of smart technologies and how they are transforming our homes and buildings.

Smart technologies for more personalized, intuitive living experiences

We live in an increasingly connected world, shaped by the IoT as it continues to network more and more "things". Smart homes and buildings are a case in point. A 'smart home' or ‘smart building’ is equipped with networked devices. ‘Smartness’ in this context is an umbrella term for various automation processes for networking technical devices. The aim is to fulfill the desire for greater comfort, more entertainment, and maximum safety, and to prevent energy and costs being wasted.

Almost any electrically controlled product, from air conditioners and lamps to heating or electrical appliances, can be retrofitted with smart technology if required. These ‘smart’ devices can then be controlled via a smartphone, computer, or a smart speaker. Or they even act autonomously in response to the surrounding triggers.

Experience innovative smart home and building technologies enabled by semiconductors

Man in front of a window
Smart sensors in window openers can measure the air quality and ventilate automatically for consistently good air quality.
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The green power of smart homes and buildings

One of the main appeals of home/building automation technologies lies in their ability to increase energy efficiency and thus contribute to global decarbonization efforts. Especially as the pace of urbanization picks up, smart technology in homes and buildings is a valuable lever in the race to decarbonize.

According to projections by the United Nations, more than seven out of ten people will live in cities by the year 2050. This will push the development of megacities with high-rise buildings, large apartment blocks, and massive office/public buildings. Digitalization will play a defining role in all of these buildings. According to the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association, there will be around 154 million active IoT connections in smart buildings by 2025. And that’s just Europe!

"Greener living" includes to make homes more energy and cost efficient. Ongoing advances in IoT are helping to make a home more eco-friendly, firstly by making IoT devices themselves more efficient and consuming less. On the other hand, IoT applications can help to reduce energy consumption in the home – automatically or by supporting the occupants. And all this while increasing comfort. Reducing carbon dioxide emissions and the energy consumption is a duty for all of us – companies, operators of large office buildings, but also for us citizens. It is important to minimize and control consumption in every home and building. Infineon offers a wide range of products that enable simple, reliable and cost-effective implementation of smart homes, like:

  • Smart thermostats with networked sensors for more precise heating and cooling control.
  • Smart window opening systems that automatically ventilate rooms based on data from air quality sensors.
  • Smart lighting controls based on the presence of people.
  • Weather monitoring systems that coordinate electric vehicle charging times to minimize energy consumption at peak times and charge vehicles when, for example, green solar power is available from the solar system on the roof.

Unleashing the power of IoT - with tiny but powerful microelectronics

Microelectronics and the future of smart living and working

As we've seen, smart home and building technologies have the potential to revolutionize the way we live and work. From increasing comfort and convenience to reducing energy consumption and costs, the benefits of these technologies are undeniable. And microelectronics are at the heart of these smart home and building technologies, enabling the seamless communication and automation that we've come to expect. By unleashing the power of IoT and harnessing the potential of microelectronics, we can create a future where technology and sustainability go hand in hand. As our cities continue to grow and urbanization accelerates, it's crucial that we adopt technologies that can help us reduce our carbon footprint. Smart homes and buildings are a vital part of this equation, and it's up to us to harness their power to create a better, more sustainable tomorrow.