Advice for Architects, Designers and Building Planners: Are Passivhaus and KNX Cut from the Same Cloth?
By Paul Foulkes, EchoHouse. The Passivhaus movement has grown from a desire to lower energy consumption and create better buildings. Passivhaus buildings are designed to provide a high level of comfort while using very little energy for heating and cooling. They are built according to principles developed by the Passivhaus Institute in Germany, and can […]
Show Report: KNX Messages and Developments from Light+Buiding 2016
By George Lazos, Quantum KNX++ Training Centre. This year Light+Building (Frankfurt, 13-18 March) managed to score a new record of 2,589 exhibitors from 55 countries and a total of 216,000 trade visitors from 160 countries, all looking for innovative products, solutions and new business opportunities. Visiting the fair, especially for L+B newbies, is a life-changing […]
Trade Talk: The Smart Home Jigsaw
By Simon Buddle, Future Ready Homes. We live in a time when the terms ‘smart home’ and ‘connected home’ are freely dropped into conversation. Indeed the word ‘smart’ seems to be ubiquitous in current marketing parlance; I had a bottle of ‘smart’ water just the other day. Really? I mean, come on! Anyway, before we […]
Tips: How to Choose the Right Products and Documentation
By Mark Warburton, Ivory Egg. Following my previous articles about how to sell and specify KNX, the next stage is to finalise the choice of products and issue supporting documents. You may be keen to get on with the installation, but getting these next few points below completed first, will pay dividends at the end […]
Advice for Architects, Designers and Building Planners: Integrating Community Energy – Part 3
By Paul Foulkes, EchoHouse. In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, we looked directly at community energy and how, with KNX, the required infrastructure can be supplied. In this final part, we will go beyond community energy, and look at why KNX can address the need for an integrated infrastructure. I was at […]
Advice for Architects, Designers and Building Planners: Integrating Community Energy – Part 2
By Paul Foulkes, EchoHouse. Our use of energy is a major issue for the world. As Leonardo DiCaprio put it in his recent Oscar acceptance speech, “Climate change is real, it is happening now, it is the most urgent threat facing our species, and we need to work collectively and stop procrastinating.” As architects, designers […]
Tips: How to Specify KNX
By Mark Warburton, Ivory Egg. Following on from last month’s article on ‘How to sell KNX‘, hopefully you have now won the job! So now we need to design a KNX solution. KNX System Design KNX provides flexibility, resilience and upgradability at its core, so it makes sense to approach system design with the same […]
Trade Talk: Whoever Has the Gold Makes the Rules – an upmarket lighting experience
By Simon Buddle, Future Ready Homes. I’ve been on this one particular project for 18 months now. It has meandered its way slowly downstream, stopping for a break at non-payment signs and Russian Orthodox holidays. It has been something of a slow burn. The client would come, almost daily, to validate the striations in the […]
Trade Talk: Compensating for Cold Snaps with Weather Sensors and PID Controllers
By Simon Buddle, Future Ready Homes. We are well known for moaning about the weather in UK. In the summer it’s too hot, and in the autumn it’s too wet or windy. When the winter is warm, phrases such as, ‘It’s global warming causing it, you know’ are glibly thrown into any street corner chat. […]
Tips: How to Sell KNX
By Mark Warburton, Ivory Egg. Continuing from last month’s article about making KNX more accessible, let’s have a look at one approach to selling. Firstly, let’s have a look at the background. Not the background of KNX, but the background of those who are responsible for selling and promoting KNX. It is important to consider […]