Smart BTO housing in Punggol offers utilities tracking, gantry-free carpark

SINGAPORE - More than 1,400 households will be able to monitor electricity usage across appliances in smart-enabled flats in Punggol Northshore.

The 1,192 home owners, about 85 per cent of the total, who had collected the keys to their flats as at Dec 14, were the first in Singapore to live in such smart-enabled Housing Board flats, HDB said on Wednesday (Dec 30).

The 1,402 units are in 12 residential blocks spread across two Build-To-Order (BTO) projects, Northshore Residences I and II.

These flats are equipped with smart power sockets and high-tech distribution boards which enable the occupants to transform them into smart homes.

The smart distribution board allows users to monitor their energy consumption, which in turn enables them to save electricity and reduce their utility bills, said HDB.

The built-in features allow residents to easily adopt other smart home solutions and applications developed by commercial companies.

Beyond the flats, smart features have been incorporated in Punggol Northshore, one of seven waterfront housing districts in Punggol.

Residents living in Northshore Residences I and II will be the first to use a new-generation parking system, the latest addition to the suite of smart features in the district.

Parking @ HDB is a smart system with five new features, of which four will be trialled at one carpark with 1,000 parking spaces from Jan 4, 2021.

There will be no gantry barriers at the carpark entrance and exit as vehicle number plates are registered by cameras.

Visitors parking there will have the option of paying the charges via credit or debit card through the Parking @ HDB app. The correct fee will be automatically deducted when they exit the carpark, without the motorists having to manually activate the app or use a CashCard in the in-vehicle unit.

They will receive in-app notifications in real-time at the start and end of their parking sessions, as well as on their incurred charges. They will even be notified if they are parked in an unauthorised space.

A new overhead colour-coded LED light indicator system will signal space availability. Green indicates availability for short term parking, while amber means reserved for season parking. The light indicator will be switched off for occupied spaces.

Using collected data on car park usage, the smart parking system will allocate spaces between season parking and short-term parking to meet the varying demands of residents and visitors on a real-time basis. This feature will be rolled out at a later date.

HDB said it will extend the trial to other carparks in the Northshore district as more BTO projects are completed.

Within the district, sensors have been deployed to analyse the performance of key estate services, such as lighting, water pumps, lifts and waste collection, for predictive maintenance.

Sensor-controlled smart lighting in common areas with little to no human traffic detected can be dimmed automatically to 30 per cent, potentially saving up to 60 per cent on energy usage.

A smart irrigation system, which uses moisture sensors, considers factors such as rainfall and sunlight to optimise water schedules and usage.

This makes for a water-efficient and less labour-intensive approach to maintaining greenery within the estate.

HDB chief executive Cheong Koon Hean said the completion of the first smart precincts in Punggol Northshore is a "major milestone" in HDB's smart journey which started in 2014.

"The delivery of these smart homes also caps off year 2020, where HDB marks 60 years of transforming Singapore's public housing landscape, with significant shifts towards well-designed, smart, sustainable and community-centric towns in the last 10 years," she said, adding that HDB will continue to tap on smart solutions and bold ideas to create "the best possible homes" for Singaporeans.

Talent manager Alvin Lim, 36, who moved into his five-room flat in Northshore Residences 1 with his wife and two-year-old daughter earlier this month, said he intends to connect his smart TV and fridge to the built-in features for a start.

Mr Lim, who drives regularly, said the barrier-less carpark entrance and exit makes parking more efficient, saving him a few minutes every day.

"Usually you'll have to line up and queue to go into the carpark but here, you just drive straight through. It also saves the potential conflict of people blowing the car horn at you when the barrier doesn't open for whatever reason," he said.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.