Mitsui Home Co. unveiled a "smart house" Monday equipped with temperature sensors and other high-tech gear that can help reduce electricity consumption by some 50 percent.
The model home features sensors on the walls of each room that gauge temperature, humidity and internal sunlight. The home energy management system receives the data and automatically starts and stops air conditioners, as well as opens and closes windows, the company said.
"Our HEMS (home energy management system) has brains," Yoshihei Sakabe, general manager at Mitsui Home's Technology Research and Development Institute, told reporters in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture.