EnOcean Alliance at European Utility Week 2013: Energy Harvesting Wireless Bridge from Smart Home to Smart Grids
Batteryless wireless solutions for an intelligent connected house combining comfort, security and energy management
San Ramon, 18 September 2013 – The Smart Home will pave the way to the Smart Grid: Three members of the EnOcean Alliance show how this works, even for retrofit projects, at European Utility Week 2013 (RAI Convention Centre, Amsterdam, 15-17 October). At the joint booth E53 in hall 5, PEHA by Honeywell, permundo and EKE-Automation will present smart home systems which integrate energy harvesting wireless solutions. The devices work without batteries by using energy from motion, light and temperature differences. This allows smart home solutions which are maintenance-free and very easy to install, also in existing homes. At the event, visitors can experience the latest developments which combine intelligent energy control with comfort and security functionalities including the option of cloud-based services.
The intelligent connected house is mandatory for smart energy control and increased user acceptance of the smart grid by offering additional benefits to transparent energy costs. To keep smart home implementation hurdles to a minimum, there is a requirement for technologies, such as energy harvesting wireless solutions, which are as simple as possible to install, especially for retrofit projects, to operate maintenance-free and to allow a flexible later expansion at any time in accordance with changing needs.
Instead of batteries, EnOcean energy harvesting wireless solutions use miniaturised energy converters to generate power for wirelessly communicating devices. The ever-present energy sources of motion, light and temperature differences provide sufficient power to transmit and receive radio signals between wireless switches, sensors, actuators and controllers, sustaining vital communications within an energy management system. The EnOcean radio is internationally standardised as ISO/IEC 14543-3-10. All vendors integrating the EnOcean technology in their products are members of the EnOcean Alliance. This initiative ensures the interoperability of the devices from different vendors by defining standardised application profiles. Today, the Alliance counts more than 300 members offering over 1,000 interoperable products.
At European Utility Week 2013, the following EnOcean Alliance partners are exhibiting:
PEHA by Honeywell will present its new bidirectional flush-mounted receiver Easyclick, which integrates the latest energy harvesting wireless technology from EnOcean. Users can now directly visualise the status response for all automation functions in operation on the Easyclick comfort handheld transmitter. Besides the visual display of light and dimmer on/off, the brightness of the receiver dimming from 0 to 100% and the shutter actuators’ upper and lower position can be displayed. Visualisation of window open/close/tilt positions is also possible. In addition, specific Easyclick receivers with integrated current measurement functions can capture energy values of the connected loads, which can also be displayed via the Easyclick comfort handheld transmitter. As already known from previous receivers, with the new bidirectional devices, users can individually select a variety of functions and parameters for each transmitter. In addition to the standard functions such as on/off, the devices offer features such as lighting scenes or the integration of occupancy sensors.
permundo, a supplier of advanced SmartControl components, offers technology that directly controls and monitors lighting and electrical appliances in a home or office environment. At the booth, the company will present the permundo SmartPlugs and SmartMiniPlugs, which can be fitted in standard electrical wall mounts. The plugs detect which type of electrical load is connected to them and choose the optimal control mode. They act as a universal dimmer for incandescent lamps, dimmable CFLs and LEDs or as a switch when a vacuum cleaner, coffee machine, printer or any other non-dimmable appliance is plugged in. The devices measure power, energy consumption, load type and load status. The control modules can function stand-alone or can be integrated in an intelligent wireless (EnOcean) network. permundo’s show highlight is the SmartPlug, a highly-integrated universal actuator and monitoring device, suited for wireless monitoring and control. It is capable of switching large loads (up to 16A) or dimming and switching many different types of lamps.
EKE-Automation, a new member of the EnOcean Alliance, will introduce an EnOcean extension to its Smarthome by EKE product family. This integrated home automation system is designed for residential buildings in particular, ranging from individual houses to blocks or flats. It utilises both wired and wireless (EnOcean) communication technology and offers functions for HVAC control, room temperature monitoring and adjustment, home security, energy and water metering as well as lighting management. Room temperature is monitored using standard EnOcean temperature sensors and adjusted using valve actuators. The EKE Smarthome gateway controls temperatures based on preset date and time programs as well as house profiles. The system adjusts the air handling units based on humidity and CO2 measurements.
In addition to providing certified burglar alarm functionality, safety and security is further enhanced with automatic shut-off of water valves and electricity feeders in case of water leaks or fires. Burglar, fire or leakage alarms can be sent through to specific recipients automatically through the EKE Cloud Service, where also energy and water consumptions are monitored for possible efficiency measures.
About EnOcean Alliance
Leading companies worldwide from the building sector collected to form the EnOcean Alliance and establish innovative automation solutions for sustainable building projects – and so to make buildings more energy-efficient, more flexible and lower in cost. The core technology of the Alliance is energy harvesting wireless technology for flexibly positioned and service-free sensor solutions. The EnOcean Alliance aims to internationalise the energy harvesting wireless technology, and is dedicated to creating interoperability between the products of OEM partners. Basis for this is the international standard ISO/IEC 14543-3-10, which is optimised for wireless solutions with ultra-low power consumption and energy harvesting. More than 300 companies currently belong to the EnOcean Alliance. The headquarters of the non-profit organisation is located in San Ramon, California.
Press contacts:
Angelika Dester
EnOcean Alliance
T: +49 89 6734689 57
E: angelika.dester@enocean-alliance.org
Beky Cann
Neesham Public Relations
T: +44 (0) 1296 628180
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