iNELS Home. Czech quality at an Asian price

The Czech-based company ELKO EP, which is one of the three largest European manufacturers of relays and intelligent wiring systems, is launching the iNELS Home range. It offers top quality, a five-year warranty, a Made in Europe manufacturing guarantee and warranty and after-sales service at price levels that until recently belonged exclusively to Asian importers. How is this possible?

The iNELS brand has been on the market for more than fifteen years and in that time has built up a reputation as a top European solution that always has the necessary certifications, is laboratory tested, uses quality components and has long warranties – and therefore logically “holds its price”.

This position is underlined by the cooperation with Matter, the international standard for smart homes, which is the only Central European manufacturer in the relay sector. For some customers, quality, European manufacturing and standards were seen as the key reason for their choice. But those who were driven solely by price then chose other products.

This is about to change with the arrival of iNELS Home. A smart solution that continues to meet professional standards, lab testing, but has simplified some features compared to the standard iNELS Wireless range. Just enough to be able to compete on price as well.

A house can be smart for less than 500 euro
The whole segment is currently experiencing good times. The demand for sales of smart home components or entire intelligent systems is constantly growing.

This is evidenced, among other things, by figures from our largest e-commerce players. “Today, tens of thousands of smart relays under the switch are sold in the Czech Republic alone. It shows that there is plenty of room on the market for those who want sophisticated turnkey solutions, but also those who want to make parts of their house or apartment smarter with their own help. We now want to meet both groups,” explains Alex Elgart, who is in charge of product development.

To make this possible, the number of units that iNELS Home allows to be paired with each other and connected within one ecosystem has been reduced. “On the other hand, much of the competition builds communication on protocols where you have to pay licensing fees, which is then reflected in the price of the solution. We have managed to create an affordable yet professional automation system. We have integrated the gateway that is needed to control the system from the application into a relay under the switch, saving the customer a large investment in this type of device. At the same time, we did not bet on unstable wi-fi connection, which is what the cheapest models often use and often collapse in practice. But on a professional radio frequency that can lighten the load on the local network and make the system stable and functional,” adds Alex Elgart.

The result is a system that in the case of a smaller apartment can cost around 10 or 15 thousand crowns, so it can be purchased by virtually anyone who is building or renovating.