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The Scottish Environmental Technology Network

KNX Technology

KNX (pronounced "Konnex") is the name given to a building management system/protocol/standard. It is an international building standard (ISO/IEC14543-3) as well as being a european standard as the origin of the standard lies in Europe (CENELEC EN50090 and CEN EN 13321-1 and 13321-2) which means that you will be installing a system that has been designed for Europe in Europe rather than being "adapted". KNX also holds Chinese & American standards as well Chinese Standard (GB/Z 20965), ANSI/ASHRAE Standard (ANSI/ASHRAE) 135 respectively so its a great all rounder.

The huge advantage with KNX is that it allows you to have ALL your building systems integrated into one system. The big three being heating, lighting and security - combine the control for these previously independently cabled and controlled systems and you essentially have an intelligent building. By combining these systems the building can now sense whether a room or area is in use, if the room, isn't in use then the system has the ability to reduce the heating output to the area, turn off the lights. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realise that the potential savings from this approach are huge - up to 50% of your heat energy and 30% of your light energy - which is critical in this day and age.

The standard has been created by an international association ("The Konnex Association" funnily enough!) of companies, academic institutions and individuals who have merged pre-existing European and international building management standards (EIB - European Installation Bus, Home Net, Dah dah) to produce a single universal standard. The beauty of this approach means that the standard is backwards compatible with these existing standards as well as having the ability to communicate and work with other existing building management systems be they proprietorial or generic - this is particualrly advantageous if an extension is being added to a building and the owners wish to make best use of new technology in the new extension without compromising their existing installation.

KNX is a generic technology which means that there you are not tied to just one manufacturer of equipment, infact to date there are over 150 companies producing equipment that meets the standard these include European multinationals like Siemens, ABB, Jung, Hagar, Gira, Merten and Theben to name a few as well as a large number of innovative small companies accross the world.

The beauty of KNX technology lies in it's inherant simplicity, ease of installation on site and its future flexibility. It requires no special training to install the hardware on site, it is infinitely scalable so it will install in any property from a one bedroomed appartment to an Airport Terminal. It reduces the number of cable systems that are required to be pulled therby reducing installation costs, an intelligent approach to the design and initial cable install allows for any future changes to be readily accomodated and removes the need for intrusive and costly cable reworking.