Oxxio adds Apple Homekit support to its own energy management app

Energy supplier Oxxio will soon provide its Oxxio App with support for Apple’s Homekit API. In the future, this will allow a customer to operate equipment that is compatible with Homekit, such as lamps and kitchen appliances, via the Oxxio app and read out the power consumption.

According to Oxxio, its Homekit-enabled app will be available for iOS devices shortly. Currently, the Oxxio App still offers limited insight into energy consumption, but with the support for Apple’s new home automation API, which is included in the recently released iOS 8, the customer should be able to get much more detailed information. Suitable devices such as lamps, refrigerators and thermostats must also be able to be operated.

A condition for using Homekit is that equipment in a home is compatible with the standard. At the moment this is hardly the case, but Oxxio states that many electronics manufacturers will quickly add support for the standard to their equipment.

The energy supplier states that developments such as Homekit can not only provide the customer with ease of use, but also give an energy supplier more options to advise them. For example, measurements with Homekit-compatible equipment could show that a refrigerator consumes much more power than an average customer. The customer can then be advised to purchase a more energy-efficient refrigerator.