Estonia, Real Estate, Technology, USA

Ron Zimmer.

"It is easier to install technical solutions in one large building than in several small ones," he said.

According to Zimmer, people need to be educated on the topic since they often fail to understand how to distribute the expenses of an intelligent building over the entire life cycle of the building.

"Developers and contractors mainly think about the ways of selling a building for 110 million that cost them 100 million to build," he said, giving an example. "They normally don't think about the fact that if they would build the house correctly, they might be able to sell it for 115 million instead. For instance, they could ask the tenants for more rent – it would be nice to consume 40 percent less energy than your neighbour, wouldn't it?"

The Continental Automated Buildings Association represents approximately 400 companies from all over the world. On the initiative of the association, studies are carried out and events introducing technology are organised in the field of intelligent buildings.

Ilmar Pralla, Director of the Innovation Division of Enterprise Estonia, explained that Enterprise Estonia decided to support the participation of internationally acknowledged experts at the conference in order to bring the know-how of the field directly to the local promoters of smart house solutions.

With funding from the European Social Fund, the Rakvere Smart House Competence Centre organised the international automated building conference, entitled Smart House Conference, which focused on innovative solutions in building automation and on increasing the environmental friendliness and energy efficiency of such solutions.