Milieu Labs®
Milieu Climate®
2021
Research, Concept, UX, UI, Development, Production + Packaging
Milieu Climate®
Smart Thermostat — Design your environment.
Milieu Climate® allows you to design your environment by controlling the room temperature and monitoring air quality, humidity, pressure, sound, lighting and motion/occupancy. With its built-in sensors and practical portability, you can maximise your comfort and your energy savings all in one step. The Milieu Climate® has been designed to work with most HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems (including gas, electric, and oil) available in Australia. With a 24VAC system, you can install the Milieu Climate® yourself or use an Adapter Kit if your HVAC system uses proprietary controls. The Milieu Climate® smart thermostat gives you the ability to design your environment, reduce your overall energy consumption + save on bills.
Redefining the connected home.
Two key insights have driven the development of the Milieu Climate® system.
In the market, most existing thermostats enable the ability to monitor and control one factor in the home/office environment — Temperature. Despite a number of smart thermostats entering the market, a large number are limited in their ability to pair up with more intelligent HVAC systems, cannot talk to the modern inverter reverse cycle heater/coolers, are mostly limited to very basic functionalities (such as On/Off), and have been primarily developed for American market standard systems.
INSIGHT 01.
Our indoor living environment is made up of more factors than just the temperature. Rapid development in IoT and sensor technologies has made the ability to monitor more aspects of our home/office environments possible.
INSIGHT 02.
A clear need for a smart thermostat that would work by default with standard 24HVAC systems enabling real intelligent monitoring + control, and could integrate with practically any major HVAC system in the global market (via adapter kits).
The Milieu Climate® system would need to integrate an array of sensors that would enable true monitoring of the indoor environment: temperature, air quality, humidity, pressure, sound, light, motion + occupancy. The device needed to be truly 'Smart' and enable true HVAC system control through the user's smartphone (Android + iOS).
Design your environment.
Experience complete comfort in your home with the Milieu Climate smart thermostat.
Milieu Climate® gives you the ability to design your environment, reduce your overall energy consumption + save on bills. The rounded rectangular form of the device has been derived from the intentional distillation of the interface into 2 core interaction points (display + control). The Hub can be handheld, carried to any room, or wall mounted (magnetic adaptor, or permanently mounted). The Hub can be oriented in portrait or landscape, with the circular display adjusting accordingly. The Hub is laid out in such a way that it feels perfectly balanced — pure geometry. Visually, Milieu is intuitive, a single radial display balanced with a tactile machined rotational aluminium dial serving as the primary interaction point. Milieu Climate® talks via Wi-Fi to the Smart Base giving you enhanced control over HVAC systems. The Milieu App allows you to control the Milieu Climate® smart thermostat and design your environment any time, anywhere.
Local and global compatibility.
Simply connects + controls most commercially available 24HVAC systems.
The Milieu Climate® system works safely with 24VAC (non-communicating) heating and cooling systems including gas, electric, oil systems, add-on cooling systems and heat pumps (forced air) with/without auxiliary and emergency heating. Utilising an Adaptor Kit, Milieu Climate® works with communicating systems (please see Adaptor Kit options to check if existing HVAC system is supported). Once installed the Milieu system is strikingly intuitive. Simply power up, follow the step-by-step instructions on the Hub to complete set-up. Monitor and control every aspect via the Hub interface, or alternatively, download the Milieu Climate® app, connect to the system, and take control of your home/office HVAC setup more efficiently and effectively from anywhere.
CE Mark Certified: Confirms with leading European health, safety + environmental protection standards. Certified to all relevant Australian standards + regulations.
Monitor and control your environment.
Our indoor living environment is made up of more factors than just the temperature.
![Milieu Climate GUI - Sensors](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5779b324f5e231f12b51fd52/t/60aaf6a2064ee75be0183566/1621816995238/Tronac_Sensors_Interface_2.gif)
● PRESSURE ● SOUND ● LIGHT ● MOTION
The Milieu Climate® smart thermostat gives you the ability to design your environment, reduce your overall energy consumption + save on bills. The Milieu Climate® system has been developed using a unique combination of high-tech sensors, premium materials and minimal finishes, combining to form an intuitive physical design language representative of the ‘smarts’ hidden inside. Monitor the environment of any room + control the temperature remotely using voice assistant or the Milieu Climate® app.
Elegant. Minimal. Intuitive.
Perceiving, feeling + interacting: A sensory user experience across all touch-points builds a brand.
Milieu Climate was conceived from the very beginning as a complete product experience. Every design detail has been purposefully examined + refined, from the smart thermostat device through to instructional/installation manuals, and retail packaging. All visually distinctive, highly desirable, and intuitive. Influenced by the psychological concept of gestalt, Milieu Labs and D+I placed a mindful approach at the centre of the product experience. The packaging solution developed unifies + amplifies the Milieu Climate design language into a 'whole' sensory experience that is greater than the sum of its parts. Throughout the packaging development a number of innovative solutions were piloted to find a perfectly balanced feature set that enhanced usability, operability, manufacturability, and ultimately delivered a strong + memorable positive user experience. A complete product experience that builds connections with customers and helps to elevates the brand towards market-leader status: Milieu Climate offers a delightful unboxing experience representative of the high-perceived value next-generation smart consumer electronics device packaged inside.
ZoneMate® by Milieu Labs®
Automatically control multiple HVAC zones — Enabled by AI and machine learning to make systems smarter with time
ZoneMate is an AI-powered HVAC zoning system for residential and commercial spaces that enhances the power of the Milieu Smart Thermostat system. ZoneMate simultaneously manages 8-16 zones to provide personalised comfort, eliminate hot and cold spots, and to reduce energy costs by enhancing HVAC system efficiencies. ZoneMate seamlessly integrates with existing HVAC systems, and leverages AI and machine learning algorithms to optimise personalised comfort and energy use efficiencies. ZoneMate enhances the Milieu Labs system, working with the Milieu Smart Thermostat and Milieu Labs App, and leverages Thread radio technology for future-proof IoT device compatibility.