Automation systems are used in most buildings nowadays. In the past they were mainly used in industry to control and monitor critical systems. During the past few decades the automation systems have become more common and are used today from big industrial solutions to homes of private customers. With the growing need for ecologic and cost-efficient management systems, home and building automation systems are becoming a standard way of controlling lighting, ventilation, heating etc.

Automation of houses and other buildings vary between countries even though some products are more widely used. There is a need to map the state-of-the-art of those available in the market, and to explore what type of research results has been published in the recent years to get an implication what type of products will be coming into the market in near future.

Other automation sectors – especially the industry automation – is highly developed. Thus benchmarking between building and industrial automation is needed regarding both the existing systems and standardization even though there are specialized buses for building sector.

There is also a need to explore current state of building technology. Are there possibilities to develop cooperation between automation providers and building technology manufacturers. Is building technology progress for single family houses on the same level than automation system progress.