Building, Home and Industry automation

Building automation is the automatic control and regulation of different functions within a building such as heating, air conditioning, ventilation, lighting or alarm management. It helps managing a building and contributes to the efficient use of the ressources deployed in the operation of a building.
Building automation is based on the interaction of different units such as sensors, controllers and actuators and their networking. These units communicate via a bus system such as the open-standard bus system KNX (European Installation Bus).

Home automation (or smart home) is the residential version of buidling automation. Besides the common control function it includes domestic activities such as home entertainment systems. Especially for elderly or disabled persons it can essentially contribute to increasing quality of life.  

Energy Saving Through Building Automation

The debate about climate change and the increasingly scarce resources resulted in an augmenting demand for energy-efficient operation of buildings. In its Green Paper on Energy Efficiency the EU Commission asserts that the energy consumption in the European Union increases each year by 1-2 percent.
Buildings - whether residential or public - account for 40% of total energy consumption and thus represent a tremendous energy saving potential. According to studies conducted by the KNX Association, the intelligent control of building system technology with KNX can reduce energy consumption by up to 50% and thus significantly decrease operating costs.
Lower energy consumption leads to reduced carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Thus, using building automation systems does not only benefit private consumers or managers to lower their energy bills, but also contributes to preserving the climate.

How Does Building Automation Save Energy?

Switching the lights off and dimming in order to save energy sounds so simple. However, in more extensive buildings with large numbers of people coming and going, this simple task is not so easy to achieve. With building automation, the switching of lights can be adapted to the actual lighting requirement with the help of a timer program. Moreover, automation systems can be used for monitoring the energy performance and efficiency of the appliances inside the building.

Examples of Use 

Lighting: Lighting installations are operated more efficiently using sensors and timer programs. The adjustment of the light intensity depends on the brightness inside and outside of the building and on the occupancy. Lighting scenes can be saved and produced by simply pushing a button.     

Sun shading: In modern buildings with glass façades, fully-automated sun protection systems are indispensable in order to guarantee the well-being of the people in the building. The process of controlling the sunlight entering a building is called sun shading. In warm climates with a high cooling load, for instance, employing sun shading devices can save energy costs. In cooler countries with a high heating load, the entering sun may contribute to lowering heating costs.

Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC): HVAC systems include temperature and humidity control. In automation building systems, the heating or air conditioning can be regulated based on the occupancy via a timer program with a temperature profile or even via the presence signal. The heating and cooling energy are generated according to the demand and with a high level of efficiency.  

The interaction of all functions in a building results in a high optimisation potential. All functions are linked in an energy and building management system. They can be monitored centrally via a visualisation system. Moreover, the energy consumption data can be collected and visualised, forming the basis for further optimisation of energy consumption.