The Project
A luxurious 5-bedroom family home built in the countryside of Stirlingshire, Scotland. The owners were and continue to be existing customers of Function Control and they were keen to make sure that, as they were building their forever home, the smart home system was designed and installed as part of the building from the outset.
Lighting, heating, blinds, MVHR, motorised windows, multi room music, TV and media are all looked after seamlessly using KNX infrastructure and integrations.
How does this Project demonstrate the diversity/flexibility of KNX?
KNX demonstrates diversity and flexibility in this project by integrating all of the building functions using KNX standard and integrating with Control4 for audio and media control, creating a single system which is easy to use and can be adapted and expanded in future.
KNX TP wiring acts as the control infrastructure throughout the house, providing a robust and reliable control system for the fundamental building functions. This simplified the wiring in comparison to a conventional electrical installation and will provide great versatility for expansion or adaptation of the system in future. KNX switches and sensors can be swapped or added to the KNX TP line at any part of the building.
GIRA pushbutton sensor switches are used throughout for lighting and blind control. Lighting scenes can be set using the GIRA X1 app and these settings are stored in the dimmer modules for recall from the switches.
Underfloor heating throughout the property is regulated by pulling measured room temperatures from the GIRA pushbutton sensor switches and feeding this data back to Theben HMT heating actuators. Setpoints and operating modes for each room can be set and monitored using the GIRA X1 app which means there is no need for additional wiring and wall clutter as would normally be required for individual heating thermostats in each room.
How does KNX add value and ease of use for building owners/occupiers?
The KNX system provides an unrivalled level of control to the owners while making life easier by automating common tasks and responding directly to the way the house is being used.
Individual room timers were configured to allow the owners to fine-tune the heating behaviour for each room of the house. Motion detector triggered lighting triggers different lighting scenes dependent on time of day or night. Bathroom lighting automatically comes on at very low level during night time hours.
Instead of having motion detectors for all external lighting which, in such a rural location can be triggered by wildlife, the KNX system uses an Astro Timer to bring on some external lights in sync with dusk times throughout the year.
The simulated occupancy function records lighting and blind activity while the house is in use and will automatically ‘replay’ the behaviour to boost security.
How has this project resolved an identified need for the building user and/or developer ?
KNX proved the most all-encompassing solution for this project, providing all the options the client was looking for with a single control standard.
The owners asked that they could have control of their smart home system to make changes to the settings themselves without having to call in the integrator for every change.
The KNX system allowed us to configure a robust system using ETS programming software and then still provide access to a high level of user managed settings via the GIRA X1 app.
Award Winners will be announced at the KNX UK Annual Conference – SAMA Bankside 27th September – join us to speak to the experts, see product displays and demonstrations – details and booking here.
