Homes need to be built for consumers, not EPC ratings, says Etopia Group

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Etopia Group’s founder and chief exec, Joseph Daniels, has been on a mission since 2016 to pioneer high performing, sustainable homes that use integrated technology to connect the homeowner to their property.

In its latest venture, Etopia has teamed up with technology brand Samsung Electronics to provide homes, from Corby to the Middle East, built around connectivity and smart technology, to “give consumers the control to define how their energy is used”.

Etopia’s range of sustainable energy-saving products run on a suite of IoT – an interconnected web of products that record and react to sensor data – enhancing user lifestyles. The new collaboration with Samsung allows Etopia’s products to seamlessly opt into Samsung’s SmartThings app for greater connectivity between lifestyle devices.

Samsung’s Murtaza Bukhari, general manager of strategic partnerships in Europe and the UK, notes that the company produced a “one-stop shop of integrated technology for the construction sector”, and has entered into partnerships with the likes of Future Generation, Quintain, Moda Living and Etopia.

“Consumers want interconnectedness”, Bukhari continues. “All our products have an element of connectivity in them, and property developers want connectivity built into what they’re providing residents.”

From preheating your oven on your way home and knowing how energy can be saved, to preventative maintenance, IoT has huge cost-saving implications.

“While the real estate industry – the most valuable industry in the world – is too concerned with filling in EPC sheets,” Daniels quips, “we use sensors, data and IoT to gather real results and not have someone with a clipboard pretending to know how much energy your building uses.”

Daniels blames the UK’s “archaic processes and grandfather rights which reign supreme” for this. Conversely, in new frontiers like the Middle East, people are far more receptive to new ideas and technologies as cities are designed with future-proofed infrastructures.

Etopia has just signed a landmark deal with Homes England, and Daniels is quick to note that the penny is beginning to drop among housing regulators on MMC and net zero, but “where Etopia and Samsung are setting benchmarks, we really should be the standard.”

Both Etopia and Samsung believe that data and IoT will be at the forefront of behavioural change in the sector, and Daniels says, “people seeing the pounds and the pence, from their heating to their electronics, will become standard - that standard needs to be net zero and above.”

You can listen to this podcast via Apple Podcasts or Spotify or SoundCloud or listen to it through the player above.