Smart room climate control with Loxone

Arianna Panzanini
20th September 2018 in For Partners
The perfect room climate in a Real Smart Home means having each room at a suitably comfortable temperature based on the how and when you use it – plus, always having great air quality throughout. This can be challenging at the change of seasons, though.

When we’re transitioning from warmer to cooler months, it’s likely that some rooms in your home will need to be heated while others might not need to be – or some rooms might even need to be cooled.

As a Loxone Partner, you can offer an intelligent solution to automate the heating and cooling in a Real Smart Home, and we’ve put this blog together with a few tips on an effective way to do so. These tips go hand-in-hand with a very exciting update for smart room climate control in Version 10 of Config so be sure to get a copy of the Partner Preview to familiarise yourself with the new features.

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Harmoneous integration
of heating, cooling and ventilation

That’s right, we’re introducing new features and improvements in V10 to specifically address how Loxone manages the heating, cooling and ventilation requirements in a smart home. We’ve developed entirely new Function Blocks in the upcoming version of Config which will make the configuration of heating, cooling and ventilation systems a more intuitive, streamlined process.

Harmoneous integration
of heating, cooling and ventilation

That’s right, we’re introducing new features and improvements in V10 to specifically address how Loxone manages the heating, cooling and ventilation requirements in a smart home. We’ve developed entirely new Function Blocks in the upcoming version of Config which will make the configuration of heating, cooling and ventilation systems a more intuitive, streamlined process.

As a Loxone Partner, you can already test the new Function Blocks for yourself with a preview version of Config V10! The new era of smart room climate control is upon us, with the official release set for 25 September.
Partner Preview

Control multiple heating, cooling and ventilation systems

The new Function Blocks allow for a scalable installation of heating, cooling and ventilation systems. If there are several sources of cooling or heating – underfloor heating and an MVHR for heating, for example – ensuring these are all integrated with Loxone will offer more targetted control and greater energy-saving potential for your customer.

The capability introduced with V10 means your customer’s home will not only be able to switch automatically between heating and cooling (regardless of season) but it will also be able to determine which source to use for different scenarios. You will be able to set priority levels of sources and whether a source is more or less expensive to run – factors that will determine how your home makes use of the available sources.

Control
multiple
heating,
cooling and
ventilation
systems

The new Function Blocks allow for a scalable installation of heating, cooling and ventilation systems. If there are several sources of cooling or heating – underfloor heating and an MVHR for heating, for example – ensuring these are all integrated with Loxone will offer more targetted control and greater energy-saving potential for your customer.

The capability introduced with V10 means your customer’s home will not only be able to switch automatically between heating and cooling (regardless of season) but it will also be able to determine which source to use for different scenarios. You will be able to set priority levels of sources and whether a source is more or less expensive to run – factors that will determine how your home makes use of the available sources.

To achieve smart room climate control, it is important that you discuss and agree on the necessary interfaces required with the heating and/or ventilation engineer that will be working on the project. This ensures you’re best placed to deliver an exceptional solution which requires little to no intervention by your customer and is energy efficient.

Intelligent modular control of room climate:

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 4


Heating:
The first stage of controlling zoned heating is to regulate the actuators to meet the required heating demand in that room. The type of heat source is not determined at this stage. If the outside temperature is higher than the inside temperature, then the ventilation system can be called upon to help raise the temperature.

Cooling:
Likewise, the first stage for cooling is to determine the extent of the cooling demand. This can be used to directly control a local cooling device or be passed on to a central cooling source. Additionally, the ventilation system can support the cooling requirements for a room. So if the outside temperature is cooler than the inside temperature, the ventilation unit may be more efficient to use rather than an aircon unit.
The Climate Controller can be thought of as a heating/cooling source that can fulfil the demand of the selected rooms. It determines the overall heating and cooling requirements for a selection of rooms. The outcome of whether heating or cooling is needed is based on the combined demand of these rooms; prioritising rooms where motion has been detected. Even if an installation does not have any cooling, the Climate Controller is still used to determine the overall demand and decide whether the heating source should be on or off.
It is important that as the smart home installer, you liaise with the heating engineer that a suitable interface is required to achieve an intelligent level of functionality. We offer a variety of Extensions to cater for different installations.
In order to increase the energy saving, it’s advisable to adjust the flow temperature of the heating dependant on demand. This is possible using the Intelligent Temperature Controller Function Block.
Depending on requirements, the Function Block determines the flow and buffer setpoint temperature, factoring in room size.
You should work with the Heating Engineer here. Determine that the installation would allow for the required flow rate to be communicated to the heat source and have it adjust accordingly. There are various Extensions available to support different hardware.
The Mixing Valve Controller receives the target flow temperature from the appropriate Intelligent Temperature Controller and is provided with a reading of the actual flow temperature of a heating circuit. Using its internal control algorithm is uses this information to adjust a Mixing Valve appropriately.

Improved quality of life
while remaining energy-efficient

Through the intelligent interaction of Function Blocks, such as the Intelligent Temperature Controller and the all-new Intelligent Room Controller and Climate Controller – you’ll be able to configure an intuitive integration of heating, cooling and ventilation hardware. This ultimately means you’ll be able to introduce unprecedented smart room climate control in your customers’ homes that will work in the most energy-efficient way.

This new era of smart room climate control is available in Version 10 of our smart home suite of software. The improvements and new features in Config to realise this level of functionality will see you, our Partner, being able to configure a more powerful system in less time. As a Loxone Partner, you can already give these new features a test by downloading the V10 Partner Preview of Config!

Improved quality of life while remaining energy-efficient

Through the intelligent interaction of Function Blocks, such as the Intelligent Temperature Controller and the all-new Intelligent Room Controller and Climate Controller – you’ll be able to configure an intuitive integration of heating, cooling and ventilation hardware. This ultimately means you’ll be able to introduce unprecedented smart room climate control in your customers’ homes that will work in the most energy-efficient way.

This new era of smart room climate control is available in Version 10 of our smart home suite of software. The improvements and new features in Config to realise this level of functionality will see you, our Partner, being able to configure a more powerful system in less time. As a Loxone Partner, you can already give these new features a test by downloading the V10 Partner Preview of Config!

Download Partner Preview