SMART HOME

Smart Home
What is a Smart Home?
How does it work?
Does it just control the lighting?
What does home automation mean then?
What Smart Home system do you recommend?


What is a Smart Home?
Smart Home technology intelligently gives you ultimate control over your home by automating the lighting system, dimming, blinds, electrical appliances, audio and security systems. The light ‘switches' in a smart home don't simply just turn on/off one set of lights, instead they are programmed to issue a number of commands to your Smart Home network. For instance walking into your lounge a single button push sets a sophisticated lighting scene, turns on the fan and the air-conditioning and starts playing your favourite music.



How does it work?
In an old-fashioned house, lights and other devices are operated via mechanical means, the switch or knob opens or closes an electrical connection or varies the resistance of that connection.
In the smart home the switch takes on a different function. Rather than regulating the flow of electricity, the switch sends a signal to a communication network, called a bus system, informing the smart home network that the button has been pressed. In the Mechanical & Engineering (M&E) room the smart home system then controls the various electric circuits and systems, issuing commands to the various electrical systems to tell them what they need to do in response to the button press.
This makes it possible for one touch control of the home, a single press doesn't just open or close an electrical connection, but tells the Smart Home system to issue a number of commands to lights, electrical devices, fans, air-conditioning etc… The beauty of this is that one button press can control anything hooked into the Smart Home network

Does it just control the lighting?
It can do, sometimes homeowners just want the ease of use of using one touch to turn off all the lights in their home, or be able to walk into a room and choose a ‘Scene'. Typically these scenes give a look to the room through dimming, turning on and off the various lighting circuits within the room. So instead of standing by the traditional light switches and dimmers, trying to work out which switch controls what lights, or trying to get the rotary dimmer just right, you simply walk into the room touch the scene button and its perfectly lit to your mood.




What does Home automation mean ?
Home automation is whereby other appliances or systems are integrated into the Smart Home in addition to lighting control. Typical examples are fans, air-conditioners, sprinklers and fountains, combined with presence detectors that detect the amount of light in the room and the presence of people, your residential integrator can automate these functions. For example you may specify that certain lights don't turn on during daylight hours whilst the room has natural daylight, that fans automatically turn on when the room is entered and that the sprinkler system comes on every day at 7.00am for one hour.



What Smart Home system do you recommend?
One of the most important factors when building a Smart Home is knowing that support is always on hand and that the system will not be obsolete in a couple of years time. With KNX this is guaranteed, KNX is the only Smart Home system that complies with the European and International standards for Home Automation. KNX is an open standard, other systems are proprietary – locking you into a single manufacturer and product line for the life of your Smart Home. We recommend using KNX by Gira, its proven reliability and full backwards and forwards compatibility promise a future proof home that will remain forever up to date.