Smart holiday – EnOcean technology optimizes holiday park
Issue 02-2016:
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Word has gotten around that smart homes not only improve security and comfort, but can also lower energy costs. The following project shows that this technology can be successfully applied to existing vacation spots as well.
A holiday park consisting of several halftimber houses with 40 apartments, built in the 1980s, was about to undergo extensive renovations in winterberg, North-Rhine Westphalia. The old, uneconomical night storage heating system needed to be replaced. Situated in the Hochsauerland district, Winterberg is not a secure snow region. when snow falls, crowds of avid skiers spontaneously arrive from the neighboring Netherlands to spend a few days on the slopes. This is a diffi cult situation for night storage systems, since the night storage furnace has to be turned on the night before in order to heat the apartment to a comfortable temperature, i.e. without the owner knowing whether the space is actually going to be rented. In carrying out the renovations, the only choice was an electrical heating system, since a hot water heater would have significantly increased the cost of the project. GdS Energie GmbH, which owns the property, quickly decided to go with a fastacting infrared heater from Vitramo. The operator wanted to be able to turn this heater on and off from the online reservation system. At the same time, the guests should have the option of setting a comfortable temperature on their own.
The holiday park was able to lower its energy costs by successfully upgrading its heating system.
Intelligent building management
The contractor, NTT GmbH from Wünnenberg-Haaren, chose sensors and actuators from Thermokon, based on EnOcean energy-harvesting wireless technology, and the myHomeControl control software offered by the Swiss manufacturer BootUp. A temperature sensor with an integrated setpoint generator was installed in every room. This sensor allows guests to adjust the target temperature set by the system by +/- 3°C. In addition, the rooms are equipped with window sensors that enable the electrical heating system to be turned off automatically when the window is open. The sensors are taught in directly on the actuators, which switch the infrared heaters, as well as in the BootUp central system. This ensures that the heaters in each room continue to operate if the central computer fails. The function of the myHomeControl central system is to receive data from the online reservation system and to switch the heating actuators for the booked rooms so that the holiday apartment is heated to a comfortable temperature when the guests arrive. After the guests check out, myHomeControl lowers the heat in the relevant holiday apartments to the standby temperature.
From the ice-cold ski slopes and cross-country trails to the warm and cozy parlor. Smart technology for comfort and energy efficiency.
Flexible & scalable
A monitor for visualizing and operating the individual room control system is placed at the reception. The server running the myHomeControl software receives the data from the booking portal via an API interface. The software makes it possible to evaluate problematic situations such as “room temperature too hot or too cold” or “window opened” in an unoccupied room. When choosing the software, the owner went with myHomeControl not least because of its flexibility and scalability. This software is independent of hardware manufacturers and supports all EnOcean products as well as other standards, such as Modbus for photovoltaics, battery storage and heat pumps, the CAN bus and CAN-Open, 1Wire, IP, XML and SOAP. Other systems, such as KNX and Allnet, are in preparation. All planned upgrades can thus be both implemented and maintained under a single programming and user interface.
The reception is always “in the picture,” thanks to EnOcean and myHomeControl.
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