MAINTENANCE & REFURBISHMENT


You will oen hear terms like ‘guaranteed compability’ and a promise of ‘futureproofing’ used by the KNX community. That is because it is probably the only system that oers real assurances that an installaon that can be upgraded over me, without going back to the drawing board or commissioning messy installaon work


completely new way of working or type of business. New sustainability and energy efficiency targets may be imposed, to manage costs and/or to manifest corporate social responsibility. Homeowners will get older and their requirements for assisted living will change over time; or maybe new babies come along or older ones come home and they have to find new ways to live alongside adult boomerang kids? Meanwhile, new technologies will come on stream and building users’ aspirations will change.


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It’s relatively easy to write timescales and deliverables into a project; but less so to provide for ‘what if?’ scenarios 10 or 20 years down the line? How do we make sure that evolution of their building’s intelligence is even possible, let alone practical and affordable? What should we understand by future-proofing and what do we, as integrators, need to do to make it happen?


Meeting aspirations


The first challenge is to ensure that the installation can satisfy clients’ aspirations to use the latest technology as it becomes available. The requirements the specify at the outset will surely evolve when faced with the industry’s marketing and in the light of their own growing understanding of what is possible. Right now, it is voice activation that is in high demand. Adding it to an existing system has, perhaps,


mart technology cannot stand still: it needs to evolve throughout a building's lifetime if it is to continue adding value. Commercial tenants may want to set up for a


BSEE Why KNX is a real futureproof choice


devices, and there are over 400 of them, are attracted by the global marketplace the open communications protocol creates. In return, they must ensure that every KNX product they submit for certification is backwards compatible.


Simplicity and scalability


disproportionately high-perceived values to the customer, but the customer is king.


That said, a lot of what is aspired to is really only the front end, the user interface, via which the field level devices that actually do the work, actuators, motors, dimmers, switches, thermostats, etc, are commanded. They really should be fairly simple to upgrade. It is the underlying infrastructure that opens the door to future expansion and reconfiguration.


Harmonisation


For a system to be future-proof, it is surely a given that it is built on a ubiquitous and harmonised platform that assures there will be continuity of supply. The end user, and indeed integrators charged with maintaining the system, cannot be hostage to the commercial whims of one supplier. It follows that proprietary systems, even when they are thinly disguised as ‘standards’, are not future- proof. With KNX, there is an assurance that will not happen. Manufacturers of KNX compatible


Changes and upgrades to installations must be simple. We live in an age where customers expect ‘plug and play’, not ‘rip and replace’. The KNX approach of distributing intelligence and addressing field level devices via robust, inexpensive TP cable makes sense. With a KNX system where you can just drop down from the nearest node on a bus cable.


Intelligence is distributed on a KNX network. A KNX installation is further divided into lines and areas, each independent from any others and each with its own messaging capacity. It is clear that cable bandwidth is not an issue. While the distinctive green RF-shielded cable remains the backbone of most KNX systems there is, of course, secure IP connectivity and also Wi-Fi and Powerline options.


This all leads to the inevitable conclusion that KNX is the solution for future-proofing intelligent buildings control.


www.knxuk.org


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BUILDING SERVICES & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER DECEMBER 2019 17


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