French designer extraordinaire Philippe Starck seems to have caught the home tech bug, as evidenced by his latest contribution to Netatmo’s smart thermostat system. In 2013, Starck worked with the French company, which specializes in connected electronic devices, on its design of a minimal thermostat. Now, they’ve teamed up again on voice-activated smart radiator valves that work in conjunction with the thermostat.
The sleek, cylindrical valves, which attach to 90% of standard European hot water radiators, nod to the thermostat’s clean aesthetic and feature a translucent plexiglass cover and E-ink screen. The heating system works with Apple’s smart home app HomeKit and can also be controlled using Siri, the virtual assistant, letting users adjust the temperature of an entire house or a single room with a simple click on or a voice summons to an iPhone.
Netatmo’s smart thermostat system can analyze a home’s environment by detecting the number of people in a room, whether other electrical appliances are being used, or even when a window is open and adjusting the energy output accordingly.
Starck previously designed a prototype of an energy-efficient prefabricated home called PATH. Could well-designed home tech products—those created by actual designers—encourage skeptical dwellers to jump on the smart home bandwagon?
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