Glittering KNX Awards Ceremony 2012 attended by winners, nominees and more than 1,500 guests from 76 countries
The 14 KNX Awards were handed out on 17 April in Frankfurt (Germany) at the world’s largest trade fair for intelligent buildings – light+building 2012. The KNX Awards are given to internationally outstanding home and building control projects based on the KNX standard. The grand awards ceremony was part of the world’s largest KNX event – the KNX TOP Event 2012 – attended by more than 1,500 guests from 76 different countries. To take into account the huge diversity of the various projects from around the world, three additional categories were created for this year’s awards: for the first time, separate KNX International Awards were presented for each of three different geographical areas – Europe, Asia, and Africa, America and Australia. In addition, in six categories, two companies were awarded first place, in recognition of the extraordinary originality of the projects entered in these categories. This year’s ceremony once again broke all previous records: twice as many KNX projects were entered as just two years ago, and this time from 43 different countries.
The KNX Award, which was created in 1996, is a reflection of the growth of KNX around the world. Initially just a very few projects from Germany and Switzerland were entered, whereas in recent years more and more projects have been submitted from across the globe. At the ninth ceremony on 17 April 2012, at Light+Building in Frankfurt, a total of 14 international KNX projects received awards in 8 different categories, in recognition of their exceptional originality, sustainability, and future orientation. Selecting the winners was no easy task for the jury: more than twice as many entries were received this year as just two years ago, with entries coming from 43 different countries. More than 1,500 guests from 76 countries attended the award ceremony, which formed part of the KNX Top Event at the Light+Building trade fair. The awards were presented by Iris Jeglitza-Moshage (Member of Management Board, Messe Frankfurt), Anke Hüneburg (Head of Energy Division, ZVEI), Janne Skogberg (AIE President), Joost Demarest (Director of KNX Association), Simon Bartley (WorldSkills President), Hans-Georg Krabbe (President of KNX Germany), Karl-Heinz Bertram (Vice President, ZVEH), Benjamin Houghton and Kieran Doherty (both WorldSkills 2011 gold medal winners).
The award-winning projects entered from Asia, the USA and Europe testifies the diversity of ingenious solutions being developed using KNX. 1,000 euros were awarded in each category to the KNX Awards 2012 winners. Each winner in each of the categories additionally received the KNX trophy. Awards were presented for the following fourteen projects, in eight different categories: Energy Efficiency Award
In this category, the jury selected the KNX installation at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport, China as a winning project. The size of the airport – 300,000 m• and 40 million passengers annually – gives a good idea of just how big this project was. It was realised by the company Shanghai Longchuang Control Automation System Co., Ltd., who impressed the jury with their demand-oriented – and hence highly energy-efficient – lighting control system for the airport’s 6,000 lighting circuits. The focus was on ensuring optimal lighting conditions at all times of day, which the KNX building control components do by controlling the lights according to the amount of available daylight, flight schedules, and other key lighting-relevant criteria. International Award Africa, America, Australia
System integrator mySmart CTI from North Ryde, Australia demonstrated with its KNX project at the Surf Coast Shire Civic Building – a leisure complex in Torquay on Australia’s south coast – that KNX is the ideal technology to easily meet the criteria of the Green Building Council. As well as controlling the lights and so keeping energy use in the building to a minimum, KNX is also responsible for monitoring HVAC, gathering energy data from the building’s photovoltaic system and wind power plant, controlling hydraulic systems and linking audio/video with lighting to create user-definable lifestyle scenes. In this way KNX is the basis for a comprehensive building management system with a focus on energy efficiency and conservation of water. International Award Asia
The jury named two winners in this category also:
The KNX installation at Princess Noura University for Women in Saudi Arabia stood out because of its unusually large scope and sophisticated control features. The project was implemented at the university’s new 40,000-student campus, and controls and dims the lights in lecture halls, classrooms, offices, corridors and bathrooms, in some cases on the basis of presence detectors. Highlights from Jeddah-based system integrator Modern Times Technical Systems include smart controls for classrooms that can be divided up into smaller rooms, and fully automatic shading systems for the large glazed window areas to protect against solar radiation and efficient climate control.
The KNX installation at Asia Square in Singapore also received an award. Asia Square, built in 2011, is an award-winning, eco-friendly twin-tower development consisting of offices, a luxury hotel, retail space and a central open leisure area. Its outstanding energy efficiency is not in the least thanks to KNX, which is responsible for controlling and monitoring lighting in the building. The KNX system includes presence detectors for demand-oriented lighting, and actuators with electric current detection for monitoring power consumption. The lighting management system is courtesy of system integrator Youmetronics Pte Ltd, and includes facilities for time-controlled lighting, system monitoring, energy consumption optimisation and efficient system maintenance. International Award Europe
Two prizes were awarded in this category too: Prousaloglou Pantelis Konstatinos & SIA O.E., Rhodes, Greece, realised a very large KNX installation at La Marquise, a hotel complex consisting of luxury rooms, suites and bungalows spread over an area of 12 hectares. This project clearly demonstrates the sheer versatility of KNX, which is used here to integrate the lighting, solar shading, air conditioning, audio/video and alarm systems, and to monitor the equipment, for maximum efficiency, safety, security, comfort and convenience. One particularly sophisticated feature of the project is a key card control system for room scenes, alarm management, and the information system for hotel staff.
The training centre – also the new headquarters – of the foundation Fundación Metal Asturias in Gijón, Spain is another award-winning project that clearly demonstrates the diversity of the KNX bus system. The 340 KNX components, of which the system is made up, make the building a superb example of efficiency, safety, security, comfort and convenience. KNX is responsible for the lighting control, alarm system and access control, technical monitoring, smart metering, and the integration of audio/video components. It also regulates and controls room temperature, fan coils and floor heating, and regulates the supply temperature of the HVAC system. National Award
Two companies share this award:
Bauer Elektroanlagen GmbH from Halle, Germany devised a building control system for the new headquarters of the insurance company HDI-Gerling in Hanover in 2011. This building complex consists of offices, a conference centre and an atrium. KNX controls the lighting, in some cases according to the amount of daylight available and on the basis of presence detectors; can activate predefined scenes in conference rooms; control venetian blinds depending on the time of day, sunlight intensity and outside weather conditions; control room temperature; and also performs smart metering and technical monitoring functions. The efficiency of these KNX applications helped to achieve the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) Gold certificate for the building’s energy management system.
Anton Hieber GmbH & Co Elektroanlagen KG from Schwabmünchen, Germany, also won the National Award, for a project that showed how KNX can be used for energy management in an industrial context: production at the new plant of Ritter GmbH generates considerable waste heat, so the KNX system here controls the ventilation in such a way as to allow this heat to escape the building in the summer, but remain in the building in the winter to supplement the heating. It also controls the lighting throughout the factory’s 24-hour production schedule, according to demand and the amount of daylight available. The large amount of saved energy helps to pay back the system in less than two years. Special features include 3D visualisation, integration of emergency lighting, and monitoring of technical functions. Publicity Award
The Publicity Award goes to KNX projects that communicate the benefits of the KNX world standard to the general public. The jury also rewarded two projects in this category:
During a visit by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to the Moscow State University of Civil Engineering, the KNX National Group Russia demonstrated to him the latest trends in building control, based on the KNX standard. Mr Putin and his companions expressed great interest in the technology. For their demonstration, the KNX National Group Russia set up training stations explaining the capabilities of KNX.
Three applicants jointly received the award for their “Launching KNX in a new country” project, aimed at introducing KNX in Finland: Tampereen Ammattikorkeakoulu, Sähkö- ja teleurakoitsijaliitto, and STUL ry/KNX Finland ry. In their project they described how they had promoted KNX in Finland with the help of seminars, training sessions, stands at trade fairs, and conferences. Special Award
The Special Award, for which this year there were likewise two winners, attracted wide interest.
The first of these was the system integrator eibmarkt.com GmbH from Plauen, who is the first company ever to have installed KNX in a sports yacht. In the KONNEXA 42 motor yacht, KNX not only controls lighting moods, room temperature and audio-visual equipment on board, but also performs monitoring functions, manages energy and electrical loads, simulates presence, and much more. One particularly sophisticated feature was highlighted at the ceremony: the installation includes interfaces with the NMEA on-board marine electronics system and the CAN bus machinery protocol, thus allowing visualisation of all relevant ship data.
The second Special Award went to the enormously complex KNX installation at the Gran Melià Resort and Luxury Villas Daios Cove on the Greek island of Crete. Here the centralised building control system includes more than 300 lines and 6,728 KNX devices spread over 32 different zones and linked together via IPC servers. System integrator Automationssystems Triantafillidis, located 900 km north of the site, in Thessaloniki, can perform remote maintenance at any time of day or night. KNX controls a total of around 20,000 lights, all of the venetian blinds and the HVAC system for the resort’s hotels, rooms, suites, villas and gardens, and performs technical monitoring of the installation. Young Award
Young people are also becoming increasingly interested in building control, particularly in relation to energy conservation and climate protection. The jury believe that efforts in this direction deserve to be rewarded, and for this reason, this year they once again selected two winners for the KNX Young Award. One of the winning projects was a study by the technical college HTL St. Pölten, which presents some highly practical data on the effects of automating school buildings to increase their energy efficiency. The study is based on observations made in a classroom fitted with KNX, and demonstrates the potential savings that can be achieved at various different levels of automation. Technische Universität Darmstadt was the other prize winner in this category. It received the award for a training installation that is a simulation of a complete KNX installation in a house, and which motivates students to come up with practical ideas for new KNX functions, for example the interplay between a photovoltaic system, current energy consumption, and a priority control system. KNX links together electrical loads such as household appliances and a KNX charging station for electric vehicles, the latter having been developed in-house at the university.
