Richard Vencu

I am close to finish the house construction. I went to a KNX basic course and got KNX certification last month. I think going to KNX world was a good decision because:

• it is an open standard (apparently the only one to be European – CELENEC, international
  - ISO and recently adopted as national standard by China). It means the technology
  will survive no matter what happens with any manufacturer
• it is based on technology with some experience. Maybe it is 8 or so years old but
  the principles are there for around 30 years…
• it offers a range of products and applications to satisfy even the most pretending
  end users
• it is possible to link it with other systems such as EnOcean or DALI

On the dark side, I need to mention that most of it is used inside Germany where the
most product range can be found and also sold. As a consequence the English documentation
is less developed than German one. Another problem is that even if the devices follow
similar principles they embody a vast range of functionality that require profound
study of each one. This means the end user will need a specialist to receive advice
from or be prepared to pay the similar price in order to discover the best solution
alone.

My KNX system will cover a vast area of systems such as:

• heating/cooling management that involves automation of valves, A/C units and solar
  blinds. A weather station and various in house sensors are to be used as well
• lighting, with dimmers, stairs lights, presence detectors
• security, by using same sensors as security sensors or action devices when the security
  system is armed
• communication, shortly said, the ability to receive messages from the house and control
  it remotely (SMS, web, phone extensions)
• door entry system, it is not pure KNX but can be easily integrated. For both pedestrians
  and auto
• automatic gardening: measure the precipitation level and add necessary water by pumps…

The beauty is that in time more can be done with same or little additional devices.

Some of the manufacturers involved in my system: Gira, Siemens, Zennio, Theben, Agfeo, ABB, Hager

As a matter of last minute solution, check this link for multiroom audio. It is not
KNX (yet) but I think it can be easily integrated via Gira HomeServer if the manufacturer
will agree to offer an API toolkit: Sonos

After my 1 month vacation I believe I will be able to finish everything in another
month. I already cabled and programmed the upper floor in several days. The basic
things will be done very quickly. More time will require imagining and developing
the smart functions.

I registered to a 5 days seminar in UK in order to learn KNX/EIB. It was the single
seminar that gave me confidence upon my web research. The company name is Ivory Egg
and they also operate a website with other KNX/EIB products: http://www.knxshop.co.uk

I will attend in July and hope will return home with KNX certification.

Back to the home automation project. The construction project itself is in delay due to lack of qualified workers in Romania. Therefore prices went up if you want to keep good quality. Otherwise you need to relay on personal connections and good friends to get things done well.

I was dropping the home automation project after I failed to find a reliable component
supplier. However at some point it happened to find such a supplier so I am back with
this project. The supplier is named Gewiss and comes from Italy. I found a full product
range (namely Chorus) based on KNX/EIB bus as described into an earlier post. No more
technicalities now but it has all I dreamed: the bus management tools, navigator panels,
internet and GSM interfaces, receivers and actuators, burglar system, video entryphone,
etc. It even has some less complicated devices such as wireless triggers and actuators
that listen directly for the wireless command.

Now I found that in Romania there is no company today to offer services around this
system therefore I am up to start learning this area and plan and install by myself
all the system. If it will be a succes, I plan to include this activity as a part
of my future business.