21 Oct 2011

Automation of the Loxone Office - The Beginning

by Philipp | 0 Comments | Category: Backstage

Anyone who has visited our company in Kollerschlag knows the very old building we call home. We have decided to give the electrics an overhaul, of course, with everything a true Loxone fan can wish for!

Initial Stocktake

The building in the heart of Kollerschlag (Upper Austria) was built in the 60s and since then only partly renovated. First it was the home of the municipal office and a doctor. Later a post office, a hairdressing salon and finally two apartments occupied it.

In 2009, when the building was already sitting empty, we took up residence and started Loxone. Since that day in 2009 we have been developing some of the most advanced home automation, but the building is still in its original state.

Lights & Sockets

Lighting and sockets are wire in a conventional manner. This means we have got ring mains and each lighting circuit is switched locally. There are no PIRs or lighting circuits on timers, not even in the hall and stairwell.

Heating

The rooms and especially the windows are only poorly insulated. high insulation or double glazing were simply not part of usual building procedures in the 1960s. All rooms are heated with radiators, which have manual radiator valves for controlling the flow, not even TRVs (thermostatic radiator valves). The heat itself is provided by a district heating plant.

Distribution Boards

We have got fuse boards like the one below in various locations throughout the building. Most of them are probably more suited as displays in a museum then being still in action :-) Oh well, electrical engineering of the past. The circuits are only partly labelled and often it is difficult to work out where the cables actually lead.

Building Access

Only a few lucky people (known as an early risers) possess the much sought after front-door key. If these few chosen ones all decide to have a lie-in on the same day, and this has happened on several occasions, then the rest stand in front of closed doors and have to wait.

On top of that almost every room in the building has its own door lock, which for insurance reasons has to be locked overnight, hence the morning usually does not start with a cup of coffee but a scenic tour of the building to unlock all rooms.

Goal and Implementation

We will deck out the whole building with Loxone! Lighting, heating and building access will in future be intelligently controlled by the Miniserver. This is not only to reduce our heating and electricity bill, but also to provide a more comfortable working environment.

The implementation is already in full swing and we will keep you posted over the coming weeks. So stay tuned and subscribe to blog.