Controls & smart buildings
Wired or wireless: what’s
best for a networked building?
Intelligent working environments with needs-based regulation of temperature, air quality and lighting can have a positive effect on the comfort and well- being of employees, increasing their motivation and productivity. That’s according to Graham Martin, chairman & chief executive, EnOcean Alliance and Marketa Sidlikova
W
hat large companies do in their smart spaces is now becoming increasingly easier to do on a small scale. The leverage here is the use of existing smart building functionalities. The hardware alone however
does not make a building intelligent. It depends on the type of networking: wired or wireless? A new study by the Technical University of Applied Sciences Rosenheim compares the common standards KNX and EnOcean in different scenarios and the results applied to intelligent commercial spaces. Employees who feel good, work better, are healthier and more productive.
Larger companies in particular have understood this important connection. They rely on intelligent office space – so-called smart spaces – and sensor-based infrastructure management. These collect sensor-generated building condition data and use it for adjustments or analysis. This allows important factors influencing employee productivity and office hygiene – temperature, air quality, lighting conditions and cleanliness – to be monitored and controlled according to the number of people in the building and the ambient conditions. Smart spaces form an interface between people and their work environment. They complement the physical workspace with a virtual component – with positive
16 March 2022
effects on the well-being and productivity of the employees. What is increasingly being implemented on a large scale can also be implemented on a small scale. For the first steps towards intelligent buildings, SMEs can use smart building functionalities that are easy to install or retrofit and thus upgrade commercial spaces, offices or practices.
Different standards
Digital networking is the prerequisite for intelligent buildings as it is what enables the individual products to communicate smoothly. This can be done in two different ways, with or without wireless technology. In addition to proprietary solutions from individual manufacturers, there are also open standards for both variants: KNX (wired) and EnOcean (wireless) are each representative in their segment. KNX (Konnex) is a widely used wired bus system for building automation. As a further development of the EIB (European Installation Bus), KNX is an open, manufacturer-independent standard that is supported by a large number of manufacturers. As a standardized standard, KNX leaves a lot of scope for design and is considered to be particularly secure. EnOcean was defined in March 2012 by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) as a global wireless standard (ISO / IEC 14543-3-10) for decentralised building automation. In the meantime, more than a million buildings have such radio networks. The EnOcean ecosystem of self-powered wireless sensor solutions currently consists of 5,000 product variants based on 1,500 basic products. The products can be combined with one another using standardised interoperable sensor profiles.
Wired or wireless in the intelligent building?
The study by Julia Winkler (B.Eng.) and Prof. Dr Michael Kroedel compares intelligent areas of different sizes based on KNX or EnOcean technology in two equipment variants with regard to costs, sustainability, health and well-being. In both cases, a conventional building without intelligent networking serves as a reference guide.
In detail the study evaluates:
• A one-room area with 42.3 m2 and a total of 33 or 42 products (basic or full equipment) • A medium area with 83.5 m2 and a total of 70 or 89 products • A large area of 215.2 m2 and a total of 162 or 186 products
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