Trade Talk: Upgrades in Existing Buildings and those Difficult-to-get-to Places
By Simon Buddle, Future Ready Homes. Well it’s back to reality for most of us I’m sure. After a few weeks R&R we’re heading back to work en masse. The joy of getting 5 miles across London in 20 minutes will be lost once more under the near-crippling weight of traffic the UK capital has […]
Tips: Justifying KNX in the Smaller Home
By Mark Warburton, Ivory Egg. Most readers of this website will be very confident in discussing the merits of using a KNX control system as opposed to a conventional wired system, particularly when it comes to large residential buildings. With KNX covering so many aspects of building control, there is normally a solution you can […]
Overview: Holistic Planning and Environmental Mitigation
By Paul Foulkes, EchoHouse Energy. Now that we are back from the summer break and perhaps starting on a new business cycle, let’s remind ourselves, before we proceed further, why KNX is the ideal choice for holistic planning and environmental mitigation. KNX can have an effect upon many aspects of a building, from lighting and […]
Interview: Julian Barkes on Reaching out to Electrical Contractors, Brexit and More
Julian Barkes is the Purchasing Director for Bemco, a third-generation family-run electrical wholesaling business that started in 1893 in Newcastle, UK. Bemco was originally set up to provide cable and lighting for the mining, railway and steel works industries in the North East of England, and it also imported batteries from the USA. It still […]
Trade Talk: Creating a Scene with DALI – a Plea to KNX Manufacturers
By Simon Buddle, Future Ready Homes. Did you see the strawberry full moon on the summer solstice? A full moon on the solstice only comes around once or twice in a life time – the last time it happened was in 1967. The summer solstice marks the beginning of summer, but in the northern hemisphere, […]
Tips: Handover and Supporting a Project
By Mark Warburton, Ivory Egg. We are nearing the end of this series looking at the different stages of a project. It is now time to discuss the last stage – finishing the project. This is one of the most critical stages of the entire project and if completed correctly, can ensure the success of […]
KNX, Big Data and IoT – Linking IoT and big data to the built environment
By Paul Foulkes, EchoHouse. Almost everyone is talking about the Internet of Things (IoT) and data, particularly ‘big data’. I am no expert in this area, but what is evident is that the data people want to see originates in the built environment and has to be extracted. But data alone is useless. Data collection, […]
Product Design: How KNX Systems can Benefit from MCUs with FRAM Technology
By Damian Szmulewicz, Texas Instruments, and Oscar M. Guillen, Technical University of Munich. There has been a tremendous increase in the adoption of building automation systems over the last two decades, in part due to the development of smart microcontroller (MCU)-driven products. With critical functions such as access control, video surveillance, intrusion and fire detection, […]
How to Solve it: KNX Presence Detectors Affected by Adverse Environmental Factors
By Mahir Mensuri Karataş, Turkish Petroleum. The Problem In a KNX lighting automation system, a common problem is when lights turn on automatically due to undesirable environmental factors that adversely affect the presence detectors. One of the most important tasks of presence detectors is to switch lights on after perceiving active objects in the detection […]
Trade Talk: Why Developers Need an Integration Specialist
By Simon Buddle, Future Ready Homes. I’ve been asked many times over the years, ‘How do you sell integrated systems?’ and I’ve always answered, ‘I have no idea – I’m an engineer, not a salesman’. I tend to work from the technical angle and build a solution for the client’s needs, in the same way […]