Self-powered wireless technology adds flexibility to internal building layouts
Building automation—Professional tips for architects
Architects must meet ever growing demands. Flexibility and automation are important requirements for all builders, whether the building is for commercial or residential purposes. Because construction requires looking ahead, it is important to consider the major future trends as early as the planning stage. Fortunately, we now have intelligent and flexible solutions that can be combined with current and future products of an entire ecosystem based on industry-wide standards.
Flexibility
When it comes to flexibility, wireless systems are far superior to wired solutions. If liberated from the confines of cables, smoke detectors, sensors for presence, temperature, air quality and lights or switches can be placed wherever they are really needed. This approach simultaneously provides the flexibility of adding new products and more sensors to the system without having to open up the walls. Ideally, it is sufficient to incorporate electrical and other cables into the ceilings or the floor. Most of the walls in the construction area can thus be removed or relocated when the use of space changes.
The important thing is that the system components used should meet a common industry standard. Technologies such as the Internet of Things and the smart home continue to develop rapidly, which means that architects should look for ways to easily add the new solutions to the existing environments.
The rooms are only as flexible as the particular solution allows. The more inflexible the specifications, the less leeway there is for optimizing the modifications. However, this is the basis for measures aimed at improving room quality and thereby also increasing employee satisfaction.
Energy efficiency guidelines and automation
Regardless of whether the project involves new construction or repairs to an existing structure, energy efficiency takes priority. Clear legal requirements exist, which were most recently made stricter in January 2016. However, builders have a greater interest of their own in minimizing running costs in an energy market with fluctuating prices. Although insulation certainly accounts for the lion’s share of energy efficiency, smart home electronics can also make a contribution.
Controlling heat and ventilation with correctly positioned sensors, in particular, can noticeably lower running costs without sacrificing a comfortable living environment. Temperature sensors both indoors and outdoors, for example, can continuously transmit the latest data. The central heating controller can then selectively heat or cool individual areas. For example, if the system determines that no one is in the home or office, the heat is turned down and the lights dimmed.
A central control system also ensures future viability. If the requirements change, the new parameters can frequently be passed onto the system and ideally meet the new specifications without requiring any reconstruction.
Easy to implement
The days when smart home products were on a level with do-it-yourself (DIY) home improvement are fortunately long gone. Nearly every major manufacturer today offers new products that feature both a variety of functions and an attractive design. The DIY look of the first-generation products has completely disappeared.
At the same time, more and more suppliers rely on open standards, such as the EnOcean wireless standard, instead of proprietary systems. The great advantage is that builders and architects can assemble the right products for their needs from a wide range of products and manufacturers, and these systems can work together continuously.
Thanks to radio-based sensors and switches, the need to coordinate different disciplines and intervene in existing building structures is minimized. Cable ducts do not need to be installed in walls, nor do power lines have to be laid in unsuitable locations. This minimizes costs and increases acceptance among builders or the future owners.
Maintenance and sustainability
Radio-based solutions are available in a wide range of designs. However, most of the products rely on batteries in order to produce the power needed for sensors and switches. This has a negative effect on maintenance costs and on the environment. The alkaline batteries used in most consumer products provide a theoretical operating time of several years. In practice, their life is far shorter, since batteries in a commercial building are all replaced as soon as the first sensor fails, since not the batteries but the labor costs for replacing them are a cost driver. The facility manager is therefore dispatched only once or twice to replace the batteries—in all products at the same time for reasons of efficiency. As a result, any batteries that are still half charged are also disposed of, which is not much of a contribution to sustainability. If there is a large number of wireless sensors, the procedure can quickly tie up several man hours per year. In fact, in its study titled “The True Cost of Batteries,” the manufacturer EnOcean discovered that an average of 30 batteries must be replaced each day in a large complex of approximately 10,000 wireless units—which takes up an incredible amount of time.
Moreover, batteries are toxic and cannot be introduced into the normal waste cycle. Rechargeable batteries are not a real alternative, since they are also too toxic to be placed in the household trash. Although they can be easily disposed of in special collecting points, the effort required for disposal must also be included in the calculations.
The solution is to use smart products that can produce the necessary power autonomously. The EnOcean technology establishes the foundation to do this. Sensors are able to collect and store even the tiniest amounts of energy from their surroundings. For example, pressing a switch activates an electromagnetic energy converter that uses any movement in its vicinity to provide energy. The signal can turn household appliances or a light on and off or even control light scenes. Wherever there is light—even at low intensities of 200 lux or less—small solar cells can use this energy source for a variety of sensors, including temperature, CO2 and presence sensors as well as solar-based window contacts and moisture sensors. Batteryless sensors can be operated even when there is no light. A temperature difference of as little as 2 degrees Celsius supplies enough energy to operate an energy-harvesting radiator valve. This is made possible by a combination of a DC/DC converter and a Peltier element.
Summary and outlook
Modern building automation offers a great many major advantages. Since the intelligence resides not only in the individual components but also in a central system, the number of visible products can be minimized—basically, all they do is collect data and send it to a central management system or carry out instructions. Not only does this save energy, it also reduces complexity and thus susceptibility to errors. New functions can be distributed from the central system through software updates and do not have to be loaded manually at every end point. Wireless systems that have their own energy supply can also be positioned flexibly without having to open up walls, for example.
However, builders and architects should rely on systems that support open standards and offer a flexible ecosystem. This is the only way to guarantee that new and better products can be retrofitted after years of use or existing functions upgraded. Anyone who settles for a supposedly lower-cost supplier will be left holding the bag over the long term, for example when the supplier abandons a product line or leaves the business altogether. www.enocean.com