New-generation handymen get smart in the home

Different roles

Home automation technician Gng Soon Meng, 27, believes that handymen are no longer just plumbers, carpenters or electricians.

"They are technicians," said the 27-year-old, who has worked in this capacity for Home Action Party since 2018, shortly after graduating with a certificate in electronics engineering from the Institute of Technical Education, or ITE, in Singapore.

"Today's handymen are very different. We do a lot of technical support after the initial work of setting up the internet technology infrastructure for a smart home," he said.

ITE offers a range of part-time courses on home maintenance and automation. The courses include certificate of competency studies in basic plumbing and residential wiring, smart-home systems and do-it-yourself repairs for devices enabled by the internet of things.

Gng said as much as 80 percent of a residence can be automated using the latest smart-home technology. With a smart grid, repairs can also be carried out remotely, eliminating the need for on-site services.

"Repairs and maintenance make up about 30 percent of our work," he added.

He said that more young people are being attracted to high-tech work such as home automation, as all they need to get started are a smartphone and internet access.

Brothers Eski and Aaden Quek established Home Action Party in 2014, the year the authorities in Singapore launched the Smart Nation drive to transform and improve government, businesses and society with digital technology.

"We started in a 15-square-meter co-working office, which was just enough space for a television and to display products on a table," co-director Eski Quek said.

Two years later, the brothers moved to a proper showroom to display their home automation products.

By December, they had relocated to a 1,500-sq-ft showroom and office space designed to give customers an idea of how home automation works.

Aaden Quek, 30, said, "In the past few years, we have progressed from a home automation experience showroom to showing how we build up systems before we deliver them to homes and offices."

The company's charges for home automation start at S$5,000 for a three-room public housing apartment. It charges between S$150 and S$300 for after-sales support.

The brothers also have an internship program for ITE students, in which they share the latest technologies.

Eski Quek said: "It's always an eyeopening experience for them. In traditional home services, there is carpentry, electrical work, plumbing and air-conditioning, but we are the new normal－a new utility service that takes care of home technology."

Edmond Wong, 51, who works in the travel industry, recently hired the company to install a home automation network in his five-room apartment.

He said having the entire property wired as a smart home allows him to control all the lights in the rooms, as well as the electrical appliances, with just a few taps of an app on his phone.

"This saves energy and is also convenient," said Wong, who has spent about S$15,000 on home automation rewiring.

"There are also fewer on-site visits. When things don't work, such as the lighting, the handymen from the company simply rectify the problem remotely, as they are constantly in the loop through their network monitoring system."

ASIA NEWS NETWORK/THE STRAITS TIMES