Improved energy balance through building automation

KNX projects are persuasive all over the world with clear energy saving costs

The global energy requirement is increasing sharply. In comparison, climate warning and scarce resources sound a note of caution about the economical use of energy. A substantial share – up to 40 percent of the primary energy – is allotted to the building use. The energy efficiency of buildings is therefore becoming a global requirement. This is a future-oriented challenge and opportunity for building system technology with KNX which has proven functionality for energy saving during 20 years in the marketplace.

In addition to the optimisations made to the building structure and installation engineering using the control technology, the world standard can make a significant contribution to the reduction in the energy consumption. This is indicated by the completed projects: A new insurance building in Prague for example can show an energy balance which has been improved by 60 percent thanks to the networked automation of all the functions. After the trial run of a test installation in Portugal, a college counts on up to 30 percent lower energy costs after converting the electrical installation in all the school buildings to KNX. A logistics and administration centre in Belgium has improved its energy consumption by a factor of 0.75 during the course of four years through successive automation steps. The optimisation of the lighting control systems in a German corporate headquarters is persuasive with hard facts: savings of over € 100,000 in a year.

In the current issue of the KNX Journal 1/2011, international projects are presented in which KNX improves the energy efficiency by values far above the general theoretical savings potentials (see also http://www.knx.org/news-press/knx-journal).

Without automation, lighting, heating, air conditioning and ventilation systems are running continuously in most cases which leads to a high energy consumption. In the case of building technology which is fitted with KNX, distributed bus devices control the room heating, air conditioning, lighting systems and other energy consumers according to requirement. Timer programs ensure that lighting, heating and cooling provide a sense of well-being while the building is being used but that they are turned down or switched off outside those periods. Presence detectors enable a further boost for increased energy efficiency. The consumption can thus be further limited. The networking of all the functions also enables the integration of sun protection systems with daylight redirection, ventilation flaps for night cooling, locking of the window ventilation, solar heat gain etc., whereby further energy saving potentials can be exploited. Finally, energy loads can be monitored, analysed and further optimised via a central management system. The intelligent acquisition of recording data (Smart Metering) and the coupling with intelligent power supply systems (Smart Grid) is a pioneering approach for efficient energy applications. For the implementation of the building automation with KNX, there are more than 30,000 trained and experienced system integrators available all over the world.

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Building automation with the KNX world standard offers the best requirements for improving the energy efficiency of buildings. This is proven by practical experience with convincing results. When implementing the energy-saving functions, system integrators find the specific KNX components for their project from a choice of products offered by more than 230 manufacturers. This gives rise to management systems which are customised to the building type and use. These systems are used to control, regulate and monitor the energy flows during operation according to demand.

Energy savings with KNX
• up to 40 % with KNX blind control
• up to 50 % with KNX individual room control
• up to 60 % with KNX lighting control
• up to 60 % with KNX ventilation control

About KNX
KNX Association is the creator and owner of the KNX technology – the worldwide STANDARD for all applications in home and building control, ranging from lighting and shutter control to various security systems, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, monitoring, alarming, water control, energy management, smart metering as well as household appliances, audio/video and lots more. KNX is the worldwide standard for home and building control with a single, manufacturer independent design and commissioning tool (ETS), with a complete set of supported communication media (TP, PL, RF and IP) as well as a complete set of supported configuration modes (system and 3 easy mode). KNX is approved as a European (CENELEC EN 50090 and CEN EN 13321-1) and an International standard (ISO/IEC 14543-3). This standard is based upon more than 20 years of experience in the market. Over 230 member companies worldwide from different application domains have almost 7000 KNX certified product groups in their catalogues. The KNX Association has partnership agreements with more than 30,000 installer companies in more than 100 countries.

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