The companies of the EnOcean Alliance will be presenting an impressive selection of wireless products at the Interclima+elec show, due to be staged from February 7 through 10, 2012 at Porte de Versailles in Paris.
The fast developing Alliance guarantees interoperability between products enabled by wireless and batteryless sensors and actuators developed by EnOcean. OEMs can simply integrate this wireless and self-powered — energy harvesting — technology in their end-products. Designers, builders, architects and the like can speedily install different kinds of equipment and facilities enabled by the wireless energy-autonomous modules, which require no maintenance or service and create very substantial energy savings. Together with a complete information and training program, an extended range of kits and development platforms, EnOcean's wireless technology has fast become a success on many fronts. The EnOcean Alliance already numbers 250 companies in 20 countries worldwide.
24 companies are exhibiting innovative solutions enabled by self-powered, wireless and batteryless EnOcean technology for heating, ventilation and air-conditioning applications. The EnOcean Alliance is sharing its booth L84 (pavilion 7.2) with the following partners: CAN2GO, Elsner Elektronik, EnOcean, GE Energy, Honeywell, Kieback&Peter, Lifedomus, NanoSense and Trio2sys.
Here are some of the new products to be seen at the joint booth:
NanoSense — A revolutionary thermostat valve to control heating radiators
A member of OSEO excellence (a reputed network of companies created to promote business growth), NanoSense is a company specialized in analyzing the air and radioactivity. NanoSense is presenting a prototype of a control valve designed and produced by the Canadian company Spartan. Named Thermopyla, it is entirely self-sufficient and collects its energy from a hydraulic network to power the thermostat valve and wireless sensor, making use of the Seebeck effect. The modularity of the energy generator and servomotor offers a large measure of flexibility in installation.
Says Emmanuel François of EnOcean, business manager for France and Western Europe: "This is a world first in the way of individually regulating hot water heating. The implications for the heating domain are extremely important. Spartan is the first company to launch this kind of solution enabled by EnOcean technology. Other designers are working on projects heading in this direction because it's the kind of product the market has very much been waiting for."
NanoSense is also showing an entirely new probe allowing control of air renewal in low-energy buildings. Named E4000, the probe measures CO2, VOCs (volatile organic compounds), humidity and temperature. It communicates with wide-area networks and with the EnOcean protocol. Measurement of CO2 makes it possible to detect the number of persons present in a room and regulate heating and ventilation accordingly. This is a simple realtime control method for the ventilation flaps in low-energy buildings. The E4000 also features probes to measure radon (issuing for the most part from ground-coupled heat exchangers), fine particles and ozone.
The NanoSense solution allows adaptation to new legal restrictions. A recent decree of December 2, 2011 defines levels for certain substances found in the air of public buildings. These values, of formaldehyde (a colorless gas primarily used in the manufacture of pastes, adhesives or resins) and benzene (a carcinogenic substance resulting from combustion phenomena), are to be very much reduced as of 2013.
CAN2GO — Wired and wireless solutions for active building services including HVAC, lighting and metering
CAN2GO is showing for the first time its second generation of wired and wireless automatic devices, including the UN2 universal controller, the VA2 variable air controller and the GW2 controller. Simple in use and very cost-attractive, these new solutions signify real advances in centralized building services management. Each CAN2GO unit supports several protocols, allowing wired control and networking (BACnet, IP/Ethernet, Modbus, CANbus) and/or wireless (EnOcean, ZigBee) as the builder and client wish. CAN2GO is also unveiling the latest version of its web interface for building services management, the CAN2GO Web BMS.
Elsner Elektronik — A weather station and an intelligent control system
Elsner Elektronik has been creating intelligent control systems for the automation of conservatories and buildings since 1990. The new WS1000 Color control unit, showing at Interclima, does more than regulate sunshine, ventilation and room temperature. It also handles emergency messages (e.g. fire alarm), lighting and surveillance cameras for instance. The P03 weather station sends information about wind speed, brightness, temperature and precipitation to a central system using the EnOcean protocol.
Lifedomus — Universal home automation
A young French company formed in 2009 by an enthusiastic team, Lifedomus is presenting the "box", which it launched at the end of November 2011. Lifedomus says this is the first household operating system that communicates with all surrounding apparatus, no matter what their brand and language. Users can control everyday household appliances, the lights or a home cinema, the swimming pool, roller shutters or watering the garden. Everything that can be controlled or remotely controlled can be centralized and controlled by Lifedomus. The control interfaces use the current design codes in their graphical display and multi-touch handling. So smartphone users can also keep in touch.
GE Energy — An intelligent system for building energy management
GE Energy Industrial Solutions is exhibiting HabiTEQ, a system to optimize energy consumption. HabiTEQ is a modular system. Living and working functions (lighting, heating, air-conditioning, security) are simply integrated in a single communication system. The central controller can be programmed by a computer to work automatically or in response to external stimuli, e.g. change the temperature of a room when the outside temperature rises or drops, at a certain hour of the day, or if people are present.
Trio2sys — Sensors for temperature and hygrometry
Based near Dijon, Trio2sys specializes in home automation applications for energy management. The company is primarily an OEM, supplying finished EnOcean products. Trio2sys is showing a whole number of new products at Interclima: window contacts, detectors for presence, light, temperature and hygrometry, a complete range of receivers and repeaters, ergonomic remote controls and wireless batteryless interrupters in numerous designs, colors and materials.
Kieback&Peter — Prime products for energy efficiency
Kieback&Peter is a major supplier of products and solutions for HVAC system management. The specialist in building services management is presenting its range of products for comfort/convenience and energy efficiency, notably the small MD15-FTL servomotor and the RBW322-FTL room control module. This monitors ambient temperature by an integrated probe. Room temperature is regulated by data sent to the servomotor. The solution won Kieback&Peter the energy efficiency prize awarded in September 2011 at the building efficiency show (GebäudeEffizienz) in Frankfurt, Germany.
PEHA Elektro — Intelligent building control
The Honeywell affiliate is showing Easyclick Comfort, a user-friendly remote control designed for Easyclick receivers and all other receivers integrating EnOcean technology. The remote control — to turn lights on and off, vary lighting, control roller shutters, sunblinds and numerous other fixtures and appliances with receivers enabled by EnOcean technology — offers builders and the like advanced parameterizing and programming functions.
Emmanuel François concludes: "New technologies are bringing different domains together, such as HVAC and electricity. And the EnOcean standard is showing the way to the smart building, the smart home and the smart grid."