Electronic sensors are the eyes and ears of intelligent buildings. They can be used to implement classic building automation systems to control lighting, shading and room climate. But there’s way more than that. With digitization being a crucial and evident part in our lives, the Internet of Things (IoT) is rapidly taking over. Wireless sensors play a key role in this because they collect the raw data that form the basis for the analysis and visualization of a smart building. This includes environmental parameters such as temperature, humidity or light, but also information on whether doors and windows are open or closed, as well as data on space utilization.
The combination of cloud-based IoT platforms and self-powered, maintenance-free sensors that can be flexibly placed anywhere in a building provide real-time insights into the state and technical condition of a building. This enables more efficient or even completely new services by networking with other disciplines like Smart Spaces, alarm systems and multimedia. Each of these disciplines is becoming increasingly intelligent and thus offers a completely new dimension of digitalised services and business models.
Until now, the crux of IoT projects in the building sector has often been how the sensors deliver the collected data to the cloud safely and cost-effectively. We have solved this challenge together with our IT partners.
EnOcean sensors collect the needed data, which are then being forwarded to the cloud via Wi-Fi access points that have an EnOcean USB stick integrated. Using your existing IT infrastrucutre not only saves installation costs but also delivers highest security standards.
Our energy harvesting sensors meet all requirements of the IoT: They are wireless which makes installation super easy, they are self-powered so they operate maintenance-free with zero operation costs, and they can be accessed via Internet Protocol (IP). And they are based on the patented energy harvesting technology. The sensors collect their energy from small solar cells, button pressure or temperature differences. For your IoT project this means that you can reposition the sensors flexibly again and again, because no wiring or battery replacement is necessary. Products include occupancy, acceleration and motion-sensors, window and magnetic-contacts, temperature and humidity-sensors and a multisensor.
The new EnOcean IoT Connector is designed to deliver all necessary information for IoT applications provided by wireless sensors which are based on the EnOcean protocol. The deployment of the IoT Connector requires no additional hardware costs when an already existing infrastructure is used, for example Wi-Fi Access Points from our partners. All that is needed to send EnOcean IoT data is an EnOcean USB stick plugged into a Wi-Fi access point from our partners.
In the EnOcean customer magazine Perpetuum our partners write about their latest projects. The case studies and articles show the potential of our solutions in the categories IoT, building automation and smart home.
